Hope For A New Life (Knoxville, Oak Ridge: rentals, cheap home, transfer to)

[savoreeb]

HI, My name is Charlie. My family and I are going to drive up to the knoxville area in feb. We recently lost everything in bankruptcy here in florida thanks to the housing market crash, first job, then home, then most everything else. 2007 was rough but 2008 is looking better. My wife has a good job in distribution and a chance to transfer to the knoxville area.
If anyone lives in roane county please give advice on towns schools, and housing. We are moving on a shoestring and a prayer. We dont want to live in knoxville to big and crowded. Somewhere in roane co. Cheap home purchase or rentals, fixer upper ok. good high school, safe area.
All and any advice, tips or wisdom appreciated. Thank you for reading.

[Beretta]

Originally Posted by savoreeb

HI, My name is Charlie. My family and I are going to drive up to the knoxville area in feb. We recently lost everything in bankruptcy here in florida thanks to the housing market crash, first job, then home, then most everything else. 2007 was rough but 2008 is looking better. My wife has a good job in distribution and a chance to transfer to the knoxville area.
If anyone lives in roane county please give advice on towns schools, and housing. We are moving on a shoestring and a prayer. We dont want to live in knoxville to big and crowded. Somewhere in roane co. Cheap home purchase or rentals, fixer upper ok. good high school, safe area.
All and any advice, tips or wisdom appreciated. Thank you for reading.

Charlie,

I don't know a thing about Roane County but your post touched my heart. I wanted to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year! May your move to Tennessee be just what the doctor ordered!

SMGal

[savoreeb]

Thank you and GOD BLESS you, and your family.

[Tinman313]

Try this link.... My prayers go out too you and have a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year. It will work out........ http://www.roanealliance.org/doing_business/chamber_about.html (broken link)

[Botts]

Hello, Charlie!

I too, hope that down the road you and your family will be able to look back on 2008 and remember it as a good year!

My wife and I do not live in Roane County - we live in McMinn County, which is not too far away. We have been to Kingston and have driven through the Roane County area several times. I would guess it is like most of the Tennessee Valley in that smaller towns (like Kingston) are less expensive places to live than larger cities (like Knoxville) and then out in the county, it's even less expensive. My suggestion would be to head South on U.S. Hwy-58 and look in the rural parts of Roane County. There are some pretty nice areas down toward Tennessee Hwy-72 and then, from there, over toward Loudon.

My best wishes to you and your family and we pray that you have a blessed Christmas Season!

[bbkaren]

I'll take this one! lol

1. Search for keywords on this forum:

"Roane County"
"Kingston"
"Harriman"
"Oak Ridge" (part in Roane, part in Anderson Counties)
"Rockwood"
"Oliver Springs"
(plus any other cities I've forgotten)

There's lots of info here.

2. Take a look at my "epic" thread on our search for the right area. In a nutshell, we were looking for rural but within 30 min of Knoxville. At first, we over-compensated by going, I think, a little too rural (Follow our virtual journey of decision-making, from one end of TN here):

http://www.city-data.com/forum/knoxv...-w-30-min.html

3. For a "feel" of the everyday flavor of these communities (and many others) take a look here:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/knoxv...nox-union.html

There are literally thousands of pictures from various areas.
_____________

In a nutshell, we settled on Kingston (actually we're more than 10 miles out of the city of Kingston, on the Loudon border).

It's far enough from Knoxville to be rural and purely so (not just a false rural little oasis in the middle of mayhem like we have here in NJ). But close enough for nightlife (we're musicians and like to play out on weekends), with plenty of routine shopping (walmart etc.) within 20 minutes.

We really value our privacy and have a "live and let live" attitude that's few and far between here in NJ. We felt strongly that we didn't want to buy land that's surrounded by vacant land just waiting to be bought up by mcmansion developers. We live in a similar situation now and it's awful. We have a nice quiet little neighborhood in the woods but at the end of our driveway are mcmansions with hummers and aloof, "richer than thou" new jerseyans looking down their noses at us.

We found Harriman to be a little run down, although being a historic town I can't see it not being in for a rejuvination soon, especially since the fairly small Roane Medical Center there will be bought by Covenant Health to create a large medical center as one of their hospitals and will certainly be a plus to the community. The outskirts of Harriman, we found, to be a little too ramshackle, although we did see some nice areas.

Rockwood we weren't impressed with, in general. It seemed worn out in general, and the piece of land we were looking at was just around the corner from one of the scariest trailer parks I've ever seen (no, seriously--windows taped over with plastic shoprite bags, row upon row of mobile homes in what looked like a dirt parking lot, both adults and kids wandering around barefoot; it looked like something from the Depression. Very sad...). Although downtown Rockwood is the home of Yonder Hollow, where they have an old-timey music show every week that sounds wonderful and I can't wait to go!
http://www.yonderhollow.com/

Oliver Springs seems like a struggling little town, and if I'm not mistaken, doesn't really have a downtown. I recall seeing a train station there and maybe a couple of shops and a police department (assuming I'm not confusing it with somewhere else lol!)

Oak Ridge we didn't bother looking at really; we were looking for a LESS progressive area, and Oak Ridge is one of the more progressive areas (lots of culture, arts, pHd's, etc.) and while I have nothing against an area like that, we're a little oversaturated in that sort of environment here. Plus, those words bring with them an increased cost. We were not able to find a single piece of land in our price range in Oak Ridge. I believe that might have to do with the town being pre-designed as a community for the people who worked on the Manhattan Project years ago--I'm not sure there's much open land there to begin with but could be wrong.

The whole county has places that are a little urban for our taste, and others that are downright scary, in a "deliverance" kind of way. I'm a fairly country girl and for me to say that, it means something! lol

Here's one: Woodcutters' Paradise
http://www.city-data.com/forum/tenne...nterville.html

I should mention also that you might consider Loudon County. Our property actually has a Loudon address and I've been getting the papers for both Roane and Loudon Counties for several months now.

I prefer Roane County in terms of being "on their game" more than Loudon especially with regard to the schools (Loudon County has terrible problems with their schools - mainly due to lack of funds to maintain them. Greenback School in particular is horrendous, and Loudon High School has had multiple fire code violations, plus when they opened school, the air conditioners-window mounted-weren't working and those poor kids sweltered in 100+ degree heat with no a/c). I believe Loudon County's problem is that a lot of their tax base is in Tellico Lake communities (Tellico Village?) and they're all retirees. I read that there's a new library being considered for Tellico, at a cost of something like $500,000...and yet the kids in Greenback are reading about the cold war and East and West Germany in their library, and they have to have a fireman on the premises at all times because of the fire hazards at the school.

Recent articles here:
http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story...provider=gnews
http://loudon.xtn.net/index.php?tabl...&newsid=143327

LOL the more I read, the more I'm thinking, stick with Roane county!

Good luck!

[kamoshika]

Welcome, savoreeb! bbkaren has done a terrific job w/ the information above and while I know next to nothing about Roane Co., perhaps you'll find something useful in the links below:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/tenne...ne-county.html

http://www.city-data.com/forum/tenne...rriman-tn.html

Roane County News

http://www.goroane.com/

http://www.tennesseeanytime.org/local/roane.html

Roane County Schools

FWIW, I saw this on another site:

The County is served by two excellent school systems--the Roane County School System and the Harriman City School System. Both systems have achieved the Governor's A+ Award for Community Commitment to Excellence in Education for five consecutive years. The A+ award, which was established by the State of Tennessee, recognizes our entire community, as well as our schools, for placing high emphasis on quality education.

Hope your family has a wonderful Christmas and much, much brighter days ahead!

[savoreeb]

Thank You, to everyone who has responded so quickly and with such kind words, and wishes. It's truely uplifting to find such GOOD people. The information given so far is GREAT. Thank you.

[AlisonL]

Best Wishes for a prosperous New Year Charlie!

[Ucandoit]

Charlie, I too am very sorry you ended up in such an awful situation. Remember that God doesn't give you more than you can handle, I have to remind myself of that all the time, and this too shall pass........My prayers go out to you.