Eastern Tennessee

[osmotic]

Transplants bring 'deemed to be advanced' cultural perspectives as well as money and educated residents into your hopeless town, whether you like it or not. Resistance to this national trend is futile at best. What goes around comes around, and history clearly repeats itself! Thanks to this strong influx of transplants, some part of South can now better understand how native Americans felt when their land was invaded by the white eyes. Just to be fair, remember what your ancestors did to Cherokee Indians in eastern TN. It's not very difficult to imagine how the natives felt about 'transplants' two hundreds years ago, is it? Not like your own ancestors, northern transplants are not killing you. You can keep shooting, fishing, and enjoying NASCAR, while transplants put your 'fallen behind the time' town on track, making it look more like a real 21c American town, not a 3rd world country one. Compare transplants-dominated NOVA and whole-southern, KKK-marching SWVA. THAT is the difference, in case you need an example.

[Landru]

Born and raised in NJ., we've been living in Colorado for 35 years. We are about to retire to East Tennessee. The most difficult two decisions we will make is what house to buy and where. We like Mountain City, Roan Mountain and Erwin, Johnson City - I could go on but NE Tennessee is a must. Currently at 8,600' from sea level. We need the mountains. There are so many nice homes in East Tennessee that buying one of them will probably be a problem for us. We know what we want and there are so many of them. We are very interested in any thoughts the group may have on those cities. What do you like and why? Thanks,
Lyle

[paganlove22]

Im here in horrid old Brooksville Florida and most locals can't stand the "yankees" eitherbut they still come. Alot of people relocate down here thinking its all beaches and playtime. What the ads don't tell ya is that i you live here you can't afford to go to the beach or disney world because you have to work 2 jobs to pay your property taxes and homeowners insurance. Im just counting the days until I can get to lovely East Tn.

[GettingOutOfFlorida]

I actually registered with this site because of this post. I was born and raised in Florida and am currently residing in Naples. If you have any interest in your financial, emotional, or physical well being, do not move to Florida. It would be the biggest mistake of your life. I am moving to East Tennessee in late December because this place has sucked the life out of me. You are too busy working to try to do any of your hobbies or interests. I own a company and bring in almost 4000 dollars a month and am hardly scrapping by. My rent for a 2 bedroom house is just over 1800 dollars. As a retiree, I can only imagine how you will survive in these types of settings. More times then not you will see retirees living in mobile homes which are death traps in hurricane season. The one thing that people don't really think of when they plan to move to Florida is that 6 months out of the year you are in fear of losing your home, belongings, and employment. 9 times out of 10 when I talk to a northerner about hurricanes their first comment is "I thought it was only a couple of months". Living half of the year in fear is nerve wracking. If you want any answers on the true reality of Florida living I will be happy to answer them. Who better than a Florida native?

Best Wishes.

[Zinger]

Even though I noticed that these threads are several months old, I felt compeled to offer an opinion since I am a true native of the area. It is true that East Tennessee (Knoxville area) is a beautiful place to live. The area offers a true four season climate with winter being minimal. This summer our high temps have been in the low ninties with most days having highs in the eighties. Temps at night range from the low sixties to low seventies due to the proximity of the mountains. It has been several years since we have seen a good winter snow ( more than 6 inches) and most snows last about 2 - 3 days on the ground before melting off. Winter high temps are normally thirties and forties while lows are normally twenties and thirties. I think Fall is the longest season. I have seen Fall start as early as late August lasting until Thanksgiving. Other aspects of the area are as follows:

Taxes: high sales tax (9.25% on everything in Knox County), auto wheel tax: $60.00 flat rate, no state income tax, property tax is on the low side of reasonable as compare to Atlanta.

Traffic: very reasonable, traffic jams minimal (West Knoxville mainly). I travel from a northern Knoxville suburb to a South Knoxville location to work through the middle of downtown Knoxville. One half of the trip does not involve interstate, seventeen miles in all and the commute takes normally takes 25 minutes. Worse travel day in the past 3 years was during rush hour, interstate construction during a rain storm = 40 minutes.

Health Care: It is a known fact that Knoxville has more health care facilites and professionals by population than most other areas. IMO way more than is needed.

Golf: It is the land of the low green fees. Lots of golf courses, no overcrowding. I dont know of any public courses (and there are lots of them) that charge more than $60.00 for green and cart fees. I know of one course kind of out of the way that charges $11.00 greens fees to walk all day during the week. most green/carts fees range from $20 to $35.

Kingsport/Johnson City: Cost of housing slightly higher than Knoxville, land prices slightly lower than Knoxville. less traffic than Knoxville, taxes approximately the same. 1 1/2 hour drive to Knoxville.

Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge/Seiverville: taxes about the same, cost of housing higher due to the tourist implications, traffic much worse than Knoxville. There are areas nearby (within 20 minutes) that involve much less traffic and lower cost of housing. 3/4 hour to 1 1/2 hour drive to Knoxville depending upon traffic and route. Try Kodak, Seymour, Newport, Cosby, Walland, Tennessee.

Crossville: taxes unknown, cost of housing will probably be lower than Knoxville (outside of the Fairfield Glade type areas) and less traffic. Unsure about health care. About a 1 hour drive to Knoxville by interstate.

General attitude of the residents: Most of the locals are decendants of Scots, Irish, English, German, Cherokee Indians, are normally friendly, are extremely independant by nature and tend to be politically conservative. The locals are not the traditional Southerners but Mountain people. The dialects are different than those spoken in the traditional South and their political opinions are very different historically.

Email me if you have questions. I will try to answer them.