Trip to explore Nashville areas

[Johnhw2]

Originally Posted by shinestx

Nashville is in Middle Tennessee, where the hills are "rolling"
Knoxville is in East Tennessee, where they are steeper and more abundant

I'd say Williamson is somewhere between Wilson and Rutherford Counties (less hilly) and Davidson and Sumner (more hilly). One of the reasons the southern part of the metro was better suited to horse farms was because it's less hilly. You see some fairly sizable ridges around Brentwood and west of Franklin. And there are quite tall hills all the way down into Alabama.

Overall, Knoxville is much more hilly than Nashville, and that's because it lies in the Appalachian foothills. Even its downtown is hilly, whereas Nashville's is moderately hilly (not as steep). The capitol was built on its hill because it was unusually high and compact for the Nashville region. Nashville sits in a "basin" meaning there are ridges to the north and west and south, where you were today. Western Wiliamson, eastern Dickson and all of Cheatham (north of Davidson) counties are quite hilly. Naturally, the population of the Nashville region has grown where the land is less hilly. You saw some large estates in those those more "rolling" areas around Franklin because those were horse and tobacco farms. Along with some other large livestock. You get up to Sumner County, where there was a horse farming tradition over 100 years ago, and the farms tend to be smaller, not as grandiose. Their tradition is in tobacco farming. Although there are some very impressive old estate farms still extant.

Knoxville was really never a farming hub, as much as a center of commerce. It was an early state capital, and it's an older city than Nashville. It still has lots of remnants of its industrial heritage. To me Knoxville is an acquired taste, as it doesn't "wow" you at first, but it has a lot of charm. It's noticeably smaller than Nashville, but has some of the prettiest suburban neighborhoods in the whole state/region. I think that owes largely to its location at the doorstep to the Smokies.

For its size Knoxville offers a lot. Much of that is because it's the home of the main campus of the UT system. And it's "the hub" for that part of the state. You will enjoy the drive from Nashville to Knoxville if the weather is nice. You'll go through Cookeville, which is a nice small city (home of Tennessee Tech) and the Cumberland Plateau. Good luck!

Thanks for the great depiction of this area. I was up in the air about going to see Knoxville while exploring. I will go over there to see the area thanks for your guidance on the two areas. I have lived more in areas that are fast growing and like the new and constantly changing nature with growth. I know Knoxville is not growing as fast as Nashville. I heard someone describe it as gritty, which pushed me to consider this area and it exceeds my expectations in both historic as well as appealing new facilities along side the historic.

[loveautumn]

Just curious, why do you want to move from Plano?

[Johnhw2]

Couple of reasons.

Plano is growing at a super high rates where traffic is becoming city like. I avoid rush hours but all hours a day are getting more congested despite expanded highways. 15 thousand direct jobs from Toyota HQ move from Ca and Liberty Mutual and Chase building campuses for 5k employees each, all four miles from my home. They are moving in now as their facilities are completed. An estimated 35k indirect jobs will follow over this and next year. Property taxes in Texas are high, $15k per year and that is capped since I turned 65. Loss of federal tax deductibility for some of this tax is a factor too.

Family who live in the area are not planning to be there long term.

Plano is a great place to live and work, with a school district in the top 0.5% nationally and plentiful jobs, lots to do and a diverse interesting population but less so if one retires with no family in the area. Within 2 miles of my home are all the shopping I need and 2 good hospitals. We are about 15 miles from the DT Baylor medical complex with some great MDs there. It is very safe as a city and is surrounded by upper end neighborhoods so crime ridden locations are miles away. We bought a bigger home (5k+ sf) than just the two of us need. But to move to a smaller home home , say 4200 sf I would still have property tax of $15k as I would lose the benefit of the tax freeze on my current home where the current tax values to a younger owner would exceed $20k

I am exploring my options not a definite move now. Ive explored several other attractive locations labeled as low tax only to find they are not low tax for me at my income and home price level. Tn is with low property taxes and a very limited income tax for a retiree like me. To be honest when I calculated my tax situation living in TN I couldn't believe it and wonder how they get things done with less tax revenues than other states.

[loveautumn]

Thx, appreciate your input

[Johnhw2]

We are exploring Nashville and Knoxville and perhaps Chattanooga as options to relocate from Plano, Texas. Ive been on the ground but my wife has not, she has health issues that kept her from going with me earlier this year.


I have a 8 day visit planned, 4 in Williamson County as I believe it is the highest probably location for our needs with Vandy Medical. I am retired so commute is not an issue, we want to be near good Dr's and Hospital, good restaurants and Costco and other grocery options. My target home price is $750k to 800k I can go higher but prefer this range. We do not travel much any more nor do we partake of night activities.



I plan to see the area closer to Vandy that is outside Williamson County she the schools are not something we will use directly although it is a good way to assure value of the home in my view. Id prefer a newer home than the 1999 built I am in now to avoid the maintenance headaches while we get settled. I am not looking for a large yard but know that is not likely in this area.


If I have my dream place, it would be on a third of an acre at most, side walks and a near by WalMart neighborhood market. A one story with a basement for resale might be ideal too but rarely something I see on realtor. com in this area. I did not see the areas mentioned north of Nashville, Hendersonville I believe is one town up that way and did not visit east of Nashville either though Mr Julient was mentioned. I may explore one or both of them depending on time we spend in the earlier areas mentioned. My wife is not able to move as fast as I can so will be paced to fit her needs.


I know there is a second Costco in West Nashville not too far from the area closer to Vandy, but it looks like a drive from the northern and eastern areas so they are lower on my priority. I do not plan to engage a realtor this trip as I am stil exploring. If my wife sees it as good a fit as I do, we wil come back and put our home here on the market after a few fix ups that will pay when we sell. So the most likely time frame should we decide to move as early next year to late Spring. Ive been following the real estate market there and noticed more existing homes coming on market in spring to even summer. In the late winter when I was there it was mostly new built homes and those sitting on the market a while. If we move I sense I need a good listing realtor to work with as the great homes seem to go under contract quick which is the same here in Plano.


We both have been to Tennessee quiet a few times just not to view it as a place to live. I have visited family in middle Tn for over 60 years. We also have some good friends we met in Pittsburgh who retired to Hermitage area I believe it is called. Moving further from family is the biggest challenge of this idea as is just the physical move itself. We were 8 years younger when we moved from Houston to Plano and what was a chellenge then will be more so now for sure.


I look forward to exploring your area and welcome any thoughts anyone has for me with my narrative of what we want. I noticed Vandy had a medical office in Cool Springs, currently we have a couple of Doctors in Plano and have used ER and the local Baylor hospital for C Diff infection episodes my wife had. Our specialists and primary care Internal Medicine MD are near Downtown a good 18 miles from us now. I can see that working in Franklin area too, assuming the facility in Cool Springs or elsewhere in Fanklin are good as I imagine they must be with the county population. So we do not mind driving to specialist, we do it now.


We need a good concierge Internist and a research focused RA specialist, along with an Infectious disease specialist too. We use much less frequently a kidney specialist, ob gyn, orthopedist surgeon, peridonist and a hand surgeon.


Thanks for all the help thus far too.