Moving from Los Angeles to Nashville area (Knoxville, Franklin: low crime, house prices)

[CaliCouple]

My wife and I are hoping to relocate to Nashville from Los Angeles in about a year. We've been doing a good bit of research, and we like the following communities...at least on paper: White House, Goodlettsville, Hendersonville, Mt. Juliet, Franklin.

Are these difficult commutes if we have to work on the opposite side of Nashville?

We are also looking for low-crime areas, and areas with a bit of space. (That's why Brentwood is probably out--it reminds us of overcrowded Valencia here in CA).

Home prices of course seem quite reasonable to us, given the skyrocketing market in L.A. We've never been able to purchase a home, hence the move.
However, are prices inflated in Nashville? Is it difficult to sell if we buy a simple starter home?

Much of our move will depend on work availability. We both work in the entertainment industry, and hope to continue in Nashville. Does the film/tv work appear to be on the rise, about the same...?

[JMT]

Originally Posted by CaliCouple

My wife and I are hoping to relocate to Nashville from Los Angeles in about a year. We've been doing a good bit of research, and we like the following communities...at least on paper: White House, Goodlettsville, Hendersonville, Mt. Juliet, Franklin.

Are these difficult commutes if we have to work on the opposite side of Nashville?

We are also looking for low-crime areas, and areas with a bit of space. (That's why Brentwood is probably out--it reminds us of overcrowded Valencia here in CA).

Home prices of course seem quite reasonable to us, given the skyrocketing market in L.A. We've never been able to purchase a home, hence the move.
However, are prices inflated in Nashville? Is it difficult to sell if we buy a simple starter home?

Much of our move will depend on work availability. We both work in the entertainment industry, and hope to continue in Nashville. Does the film/tv work appear to be on the rise, about the same...?

Brentwood is much less crowded than Hendersonville. At 35 square miles, Brentwood has 25,000 people. Hendersonville is 27 square miles and has 45,000 people.

If you're working in Music Row, Brentwood is the closest. Traffic from the other places you mentioned can be quite heavy during rish hour.

White House is definitely the least crowded, but it's also located the farthest from town.

They all have pretty low crime rates which you can check at city-data.com.

Believe it or not, Knoxville has a lot of job possibilities in the TV industry because it's HQ for several cable channels: HGTV, DIY, Food Network, Jewelry Television.

[alleycat]

Hendersonville, Mount Juliet and Goodlettsville wouldn't be bad, except that I-65 to Goodlettsville and Hendersonville and I-24 to Mt. Juliet can be bad at rush hour. Coming from LA though, you might not think so. Franklin is a bit further. And White House further still. Commute time would be around 40 minutes to close to an hour at rush hour for the places you listed. A rough guess. It could be a little less, or a little more.

Personally, I think house prices are a bit inflated, but not excessively so. And not likely to drop much if at all. The thing you need to watch out for is houses built in the past twenty years or so. Like most areas of the country near cities, developers come in and throw up houses using whatever labor is available. The quality of construction is poor in some cases. I would suggest you pay for a home inspection.

I'm not in the entertainment business, so my comments might not be accurate. TV and film work seems to ebb and flow. It seem a bit slow at the moment. Of course, they're always making music videos. By the way, I think most of the film and TV businesses are near the Music Row area, or downtown.

[CaliCouple]

Thanks alleycat. I'm really enjoying this forum. My family is from the area, so I'm pretty comfortable with it overall. My wife is a 5th generation Californian and has never visited Nashville, so your experience and information is greatly appreciated.

[alleycat]

I work with a guy originally from LA. I don't think he's in any hurry to go back. About the second year he was here, his brother was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in LA. Nice.

Of course, there's crazy violent here too. Just not as much, I think.

Your wife might enjoy Franklin and the areas nearby. Without meaning any criticism toward the other areas you mentioned, Williamson County is a little more "sophisticated". That might not be the right word, but you get the idea. The other areas have their good points too, for example, Hendersonville is right next to a large lake.

[TNSoundsGood2Me]

2007 Population Densities (Per Square Mile)

Brentwood: 779.1
Franklin: 1619.4
White House: 923.8
Goodlettsville: 1058.9
Hendersonville: 1602.3
Mt. Juliet: 932.4

Information from Sperling's Best Places.
I thought you might want to see that Brentwood, despite all of its growth over the past years, actually still has the lowest population density.

[alleycat]

There's a good reason for that. Unless the regulations have been changed lately, Brentwood requires at least a one acre lot to build a house on.

[akm4]

Lots of existing homes on less though.....

[alleycat]

One day it will be covered by one giant church.

;-)

[wellkids]

Brentwood still has the one acre minimum requirement which keeps their population density low. The newer developments that have homes on less than an acre get around the one acre minimum by allocating the remaining acreage to common area or green space. Brentwood is the lowest populated community that you have listed as a possibility. I also agree it would be your easiest commute into Nashville.