Possibly relocating from Boston to TN (Memphis, Knoxville: for rent, houses, job market)

[SJConnolly]

My husband and I would like to move south, we've heard great things about TN and I was curious as to what towns may be a great fit for what we're looking for. He is a design engineer so employment location would be key for that as well as a great school system for our children. We would like a quiet town as opposed to a city but open to any suggestions. Thank You!

[mad fiddler]

What's your budget?
Does he have a job lined up?

It's hard to answer your question without a few more details about what you're looking for. It would be useful, as well, if you'd rank what you're interested in. Everyone wants good schools and safety, but not everyone can afford them. What's most important to you? What would you be willing to give up to get those most important things?

[SJConnolly]

We're only looking to rent to start and looking for around $1,000/month or less. I think safety would have to come first for the children as I used to be a teacher so I guess I can compensate that part in a way .... and no job lined up as of yet, & I'm now reading that it's difficult to find work in Tennessee at this time? Is that correct? Thank you for replying!

[Serious Conversation]

You're going to have to compromise on a lot of things. I'd recommend that you stay up north.

"Great school systems" just aren't in small town Tennessee. TN is not up north where even small towns have quality schools. TN schools overall perform much worse than schools in MA and most small town public school systems are starved for funding, and are going to have higher rates of dropouts, students involved in drugs, lack of concern for quality education, and other problems that you're probably not used to. I graduated high school ten years ago from county schools in east TN and I certainly wouldn't feel comfortable sending children to those schools. They won't have the academic or extracurricular edge they need to succeed.

I'm assuming design engineer is something in tech. Tech jobs are extremely hard to find in TN. I work for a company based out of the Boston metro and the ease at which people find jobs and job hop up there isn't going to happen in TN. You will make significantly less than you will up north, perhaps only half as much. I live in Indiana and we get paid less than the Boston folks, but I still make more than double the highest salary I ever made in Tennessee, and it honestly costs no more to live in Indiana than Tennessee. Aside from taxes, which TN wins on, most things are cheaper in IN. FWIW, most of the professionally minded peers I grew up with in east TN all left the area because there is little in the way of decent employment.

That really leaves with you the Nashville metro, Chattanooga, and possibly Knoxville. If you're coming from Boston, frankly you should have a bigger budget for rent, as $1k won't go very far in the more desirable, safer, closer areas to Nashville. You could find something far out, but then your commute will suck and the schools won't be very good. Your budget will work for most of Chattanooga and Knoxville, but the jobs really aren't there. Cheap, safe, and good schools don't fit together. There are a lot of northerners posting on the TN boards wanting it all, and it's just not so.

Feel free to shop around in TN, but if you have a comfortable life in Boston, I wouldn't give that up without doing painstaking research and have a firm, written offer for both of you in hand prior to moving.

[My_home_town]

It's tough picking up roots and just moving. Trying to garner quality information on the internet is challenging at best. Oh sure you'll get lots of information, but it can be tough to discriminate between the truth and the baloney.

I'd like to think My hometown of Memphis is a great place to consider. But, before I go into my diatribe of why I think Memphis is great, it's really important to better understand more about you. For instance, what type of employment does your husband have now. Not title, but who is he with and what does he do with that title. Are you employed or a stay at home mom (which is a very hard job). Is religion important? You mention schools, do you want public or private?

Personally, if you are considering a life change like this, I recommend you take some vacation time, come on down and spend some time in a few of our fine cities. There's much to offer here because the cost of living is much less & there's no state income tax. The weather would be much more fair than you are accustomed to, however, the summers can be brutal. Winters for sure will be milder.

I wish you luck.

[creeksitter]

Emigrations, there you go again. Do you have an app on your phone programmed to bash TN wherever and whenever, irregardless of accuracy?

3 small towns I can think of with good job markets and great schools are Maryville, Oak Ridge, and Franklin. I'm sure there are others.

I don't expect the OPs will arrive without a job. But it helps to know where to look. It would help I we knew what the hubby has experience designing.

[DubbleT]

OP My kids went to one of the better schools in TN, in what could be one of the worst systems in the entire country. A good many of their classmates have gone on to Ivy league schools and have careers as doctors, researchers, engineers, etc. I'm going to suggest that you look for a great high school and don't worry about school 'system' ratings. Look at SAT/ACT scores, graduation rates, scholarship amounts awarded and to which colleges.

It might also help us to know what sort of great things have you heard that draw you to TN. We do sometimes get people that have heard some 'interesting' things about TN and they have some pretty unrealistic expectations.
We aren't chockablock with gorgeous houses on 10 acre parcels for 50K that sit just 10 minutes away from good healthcare, great schools and tons of cultural activities. But if you poke around enough you might find something that suits, depending on your expectations.

[Serious Conversation]

Originally Posted by creeksitter

Emigrations, there you go again. Do you have an app on your phone programmed to bash TN wherever and whenever, irregardless of accuracy?

3 small towns I can think of with good job markets and great schools are Maryville, Oak Ridge, and Franklin. I'm sure there are others.

I don't expect the OPs will arrive without a job. But it helps to know where to look. It would help I we knew what the hubby has experience designing.

Those are essentially suburbs of two of the big four major metros. They are not small towns in any traditional sense.

[creeksitter]

Maryville and Franklin are small towns in appearance with traditional downtowns. Franklin may have grown too suburban for the OPs taste, but Oak Ridge and Maryville still function primarily as independent towns and have their own school systems. Oak Ridge was built for WWII so doesn't have an old-timey downtown, but will have the quiet ambience the OP likes.

[NY Annie]

Originally Posted by Emigrations

Those are essentially suburbs of two of the big four major metros. They are not small towns in any traditional sense.

Originally Posted by creeksitter

Maryville and Franklin are small towns in appearance with traditional downtowns. Franklin may have grown too suburban for the OPs taste, but Oak Ridge and Maryville still function primarily as independent towns and have their own school systems. Oak Ridge was built for WWII so doesn't have an old-timey downtown, but will have the quiet ambience the OP likes.

I raised my family in RI, grew up in NJ and most recently spent 17 years living on Staten Island, which is NYC for those who don't know.

Maryville, Franklin, and Oak Ridge will feel very small to the OP coming out of Boston. Most of east TN will feel small town-like with the exception of Knoxville and maybe Johnson City.

OP, most of the information so far in this thread is accurate to a degree. For people who have never lived in the northeast, it's just not within their ken to be able to make realistic comparisons.

I went to college in NE TN in thelate 60s and that is one of the reasons we chose to retire here. Where I went to college is much more suburban than I expected it to be - and a reason we are living in WEST TN, in the middle of the poorest county and surrounded by farms, cows, and goats. Oh, and horses.

If you truly want small-town living, then look more into what schools can offer you and pick your location based on that and job opportunities. Then come on down and spend some time here. It's a solid 2-day drive but there's so much to see and the drive is quite pleasant once you get out of the metro areas.

It's a very different type of living down here and you can quickly get used to the slower pace and more civility.

One thing that a previous poster mentioned is the difference in pay scale. Consider how that impacts upon your social security benefits when you are older.