Nashville TN or Bowling Green KY (Murfreesboro, Franklin: to rent, houses, schools)

[leonard]

Hi,

I am looking to move to the Nashville area.I and my wife have been to TN several times and have narrowed it down to the Nashville area, after looking further East. I favor being out of the city, but no further than Springfield. Ridgetop and Greenbriar looks nice and I suspect there are other areas as well. I will be semi-retired and moving from California, at least that is the plan. If not I may have to open a branch of my business.

It will just be my wife and I and we are not pretentious people. We would prefer to avoid tract homes and have at least 1/2 acre. We will be arriving in mid Sept to look around.

We will also be visiting Bowling Green, KY so any "friendly" commentary on the advantages of TN over KY would be appreciated. Kinda hard to decide and we shift back and forth as we hear good things about both. The nice thing is we will be about 1 hour away from either, regardless of where we end up.

I am now focusing more North West of Nashville. Any suggestions, advice, help, pointers, etc would be appreciated.

[JMT]

Originally Posted by leonard

Hi,

I am looking to move to the Nashville area.I and my wife have been to TN several times and have narrowed it down to the Nashville area, after looking further East. I favor being out of the city, but no further than Springfield. Ridgetop and Greenbriar looks nice and I suspect there are other areas as well. I will be semi-retired and moving from California, at least that is the plan. If not I may have to open a branch of my business.

It will just be my wife and I and we are not pretentious people. We would prefer to avoid tract homes and have at least 1/2 acre. We will be arriving in mid Sept to look around.

We will also be visiting Bowling Green, KY so any "friendly" commentary on the advantages of TN over KY would be appreciated. Kinda hard to decide and we shift back and forth as we hear good things about both. The nice thing is we will be about 1 hour away from either, regardless of where we end up.

I am now focusing more North West of Nashville. Any suggestions, advice, help, pointers, etc would be appreciated.

Bowling Green is a very nice town in a beautiful area. Being only an hour from Nashville is one reason Bowling Green has grown so much the last few years, I think.

The Tax Foundation says that Tennessee has the 3rd-lowest over-all tax burden in the country. New Hampshire and Alaska are the only states lower. Kentucky's over-all tax burden is considerably higher than Tennessee. When the stats came out a month or two ago, the Tennessean newspaper reported that it takes the average Kentuckian 13 months to make the same amount of after-tax income that it takes the average Tennessean 12 months to make because of Kentucky's higher taxes.

Another advantage to living in Tennessee is that you'll be closer to the Nashville airport. At least that would be an advantage to me. As retirees, if you plan on doing a lot of traveling or having a lot of out of town guests, you might enjoy not having such a long drive to the airport.

I'm sure you'll have a much better idea when you actually visit the area. I think Bowling Green is a very nice town, and I think the Nashville area is also nice. Good luck with your choice!

[leonard]

Originally Posted by JMT

Bowling Green is a very nice town in a beautiful area. Being only an hour from Nashville is one reason Bowling Green has grown so much the last few years, I think.

The Tax Foundation says that Tennessee has the 3rd-lowest over-all tax burden in the country. New Hampshire and Alaska are the only states lower. Kentucky's over-all tax burden is considerably higher than Tennessee. When the stats came out a month or two ago, the Tennessean newspaper reported that it takes the average Kentuckian 13 months to make the same amount of after-tax income that it takes the average Tennessean 12 months to make because of Kentucky's higher taxes.

Another advantage to living in Tennessee is that you'll be closer to the Nashville airport. At least that would be an advantage to me. As retirees, if you plan on doing a lot of traveling or having a lot of out of town guests, you might enjoy not having such a long drive to the airport.

I'm sure you'll have a much better idea when you actually visit the area. I think Bowling Green is a very nice town, and I think the Nashville area is also nice. Good luck with your choice!

Hi JMT,

Thanks for the info.

One of the problems I have with the tax figures is that they are an overview.

Let me give an example.

Which is best over all if we use the following.

A married couple
No children
One has $50,000 a year in income from employment
The other has $50,000 a year from dividends/interest.
They own a home just purchased for $350,000.00

OK, which is best in this theoretical situation.

Are the homes and lots comparable in size, all things considered at that price?

Are the property taxes the same.

If comparable homes were bought, lets say in Springfield, TN and Franklin, KY (dollar wise) which home is bigger?

Who pays the most taxes, a resident as above in TN or KY?

Now I doubt that you can answer all of those and don't need to. But it does go to the question of Tax burden.

I lean towards TN, though I also like the KY ara around Bowling Green. WE hope this trip will narrow it down even further. Every bit of info is of value. We will be there a bit over 1 week, but need to split that between both locations. If we find we really prefer one over the other, then we may spend more time in that location.

The one problem area is that Nashville has more areas to look at than Bowling Green.

I do not like big communities with lots of people or laid out to randomly. I did not care for Gallatin as an example, even though the area is beautiful. Springfield, and the other two I mentioned are nice. I do not know if anything a bit South or South West of Nashville is worth looking at either. I have driven around that area just a little, so any thoughts are welcome. One customer mentioned a community/area West of Nashville and I can't even find it on the map. Maybe something nice exists, that I will not know about without some direction. Not being picky, but Nashville is a BIG area to examine. I prefer to be no further away from Nashville than Springfield,a s to miles away or time to drive to the city.

I know I am picky, but moving from CA will be a big move and I will visit a couple more times before it occurs, but even then we can't see everything. My wife objects to renting and looking around, as we have too much to move twice.

Any Realtors out there?

[46Barb]

Try looking at White House, Cross Plains, Cottontown and Portland. There are areas in all of these towns that aren't trac housing and all very nice communities. These are located starting at exit 108 through exite 117 off of I-65 north of Nashville.

[DonCorleone]

Joelton and Ashland City are Northwest of Nashville and sound like they might fit your description of land + non-tract housing.

[EclecticEars]

http://www.city-data.com/forum/4740518-post4.html

Read the above link. It pertains more to Louisville v. Nashville and Kentucky v. Tennessee than just Bowling Green v. Nashville. These responses may provide some answers to your questions.

In addition, this is a thread I started discussing KY v. TN: http://www.city-data.com/forum/gener...essee-why.html

I'd pick Nashville over BG anyday. I don't even think that BG is very nice; I've always found it to be kinda run down. Not to say that Nashville doesn't have run down areas, but in terms of economic growth, international flights, entertainment, and natural beauty, Nashville is it in the mid-South. Only Lexington, KY may offer more in the natural beauty category.

[12buttons]

Originally Posted by leonard

Hi,

I am looking to move to the Nashville area.I and my wife have been to TN several times and have narrowed it down to the Nashville area, after looking further East. I favor being out of the city, but no further than Springfield. Ridgetop and Greenbriar looks nice and I suspect there are other areas as well. I will be semi-retired and moving from California, at least that is the plan. If not I may have to open a branch of my business.

It will just be my wife and I and we are not pretentious people. We would prefer to avoid tract homes and have at least 1/2 acre. We will be arriving in mid Sept to look around.

We will also be visiting Bowling Green, KY so any "friendly" commentary on the advantages of TN over KY would be appreciated. Kinda hard to decide and we shift back and forth as we hear good things about both. The nice thing is we will be about 1 hour away from either, regardless of where we end up.

I am now focusing more North West of Nashville. Any suggestions, advice, help, pointers, etc would be appreciated.

Check out Murfreesboro but check out Lascassas, our little "secret" ...Lascassas is the best of both worlds for biggest bang for the buck..you're ten minutes outside the city taxes, on bigger lots...newer houses, less traffic, great schools...further East and TN gets really pretty..it's just "greener" out this way...good luck! Trafific can be a nightmare throughout mid TN..it's a lot less an issue in Lascassas imo...

[leonard]

Originally Posted by 46Barb

Try looking at White House, Cross Plains, Cottontown and Portland. There are areas in all of these towns that aren't trac housing and all very nice communities. These are located starting at exit 108 through exite 117 off of I-65 north of Nashville.

Hi,

Thanks. I have been to White House and do like it. I am trying to decide which area is best, BG, KY or NV, TN. I will be there again in a month, so I will get to examine the areas in greater detail. I have learned from previous moves that sometimes it is easy to miss a really good area and those living in an area know about them.

[leonard]

Originally Posted by jcm1986

http://www.city-data.com/forum/4740518-post4.html

Read the above link. It pertains more to Louisville v. Nashville and Kentucky v. Tennessee than just Bowling Green v. Nashville. These responses may provide some answers to your questions.

In addition, this is a thread I started discussing KY v. TN: http://www.city-data.com/forum/gener...essee-why.html

I'd pick Nashville over BG anyday. I don't even think that BG is very nice; I've always found it to be kinda run down. Not to say that Nashville doesn't have run down areas, but in terms of economic growth, international flights, entertainment, and natural beauty, Nashville is it in the mid-South. Only Lexington, KY may offer more in the natural beauty category.

Thanks I will check those out.

[leonard]

Originally Posted by 12buttons

Check out Murfreesboro but check out Lascassas, our little "secret" ...Lascassas is the best of both worlds for biggest bang for the buck..you're ten minutes outside the city taxes, on bigger lots...newer houses, less traffic, great schools...further East and TN gets really pretty..it's just "greener" out this way...good luck! Trafific can be a nightmare throughout mid TN..it's a lot less an issue in Lascassas imo...

Hi,

Humm never heard of Lascassas. I just took a look with Google earth. Looks nice. I will see if I can allow time to visit on our trip. Thanks.