Retiring to TN -Which area is best? (Knoxville, Chattanooga: HOA, living in)

[lpc123]

Originally Posted by rossn2

Have you visited any three of the places you listed?
Have you considered areas around Nashville or south of Nashville?

I have visited Chattanooga, and Nashville & areas just east of there. I have researched areas south of Nashville, and have not ruled out.

[lpc123]

Originally Posted by fishingupnorth

We moved from Wisconsin to Fairfield Glade 7 months ago and just love it

Thanks for the suggestion! What do like most and least?

[Serious Conversation]

Originally Posted by lpc123

I am interested in what you have to say about Greeneville. What do you like and dislike about it?

Greeneville is somewhat viable, but is tough to recommend for an out-of-area resident.

Greeneville is generally trending upward, but is pretty far removed from any other cities of decent size, and has a very insular/"townie" local culture. It's a tough nut to crack.

It used to have two hospitals. Both have experienced a decline in services with one basically becoming behavioral health oriented. PM me for details. A lot of services that used to be in Greeneville are now bounced to Johnson City.

Johnson City is the only city in the Tri-Cities worth raising a family in, and the demographics in Washington County and Johnson City trend younger. Sullivan County and the rural counties tend to be inferior places to lie, though demographics trend older.

Pick your poison.

[Bamaman1]

Originally Posted by fishingupnorth

We moved from Wisconsin to Fairfield Glade 7 months ago and just love it

Fairfield Glade is a golfing/country club community on the outskirts of Crossville. It's a great retirement community with many GM and Ford retirees there. Crossville also has some other like golfing communities, and it has an outstanding Summer Stock theatre program.

Crossville is an hour west of Knoxville up on the Cumberland Plateau. It's also about 125 miles East of Nashville on I-40.

Another very upcoming city in the area is the larger Cookeville, home to Tennessee Tech University. Homes are well priced, and there are many new residents moving there. Center Hill Lake and Dale Hollow Lake are 30 minutes away, and both are fabulous impoundments.

[Geneyus]

Some places have "senior neighborhoods" that are just regular houses with an age limit of 55+ plus. Maybe that's your cup of tea, since you don't want neighbors with kids. There's a difference in obnoxious kids and regular kids. The kids on my street are always doing something silly and funny, and we enjoy watching them as we walk by. The other day, they were pulling each other around the grass on snow sleds when it was 85 degrees.

The most obnoxious family on my street is actually an elderly couple who seems to walk by and judge everyone else's yards. They make passive aggressive comments about what gutter company they recommend when you didn't ask them. They call code enforcement on every little thing.

Lighten up, Bud.

[SteelCityRising]

Cookeville has a fantastic location if you enjoy day-tripping (as we do). It’s about 90 minutes west of Knoxville, about 90 minutes east of Nashville, and about 90 minutes north of Chattanooga. I can see why it’s growing so quickly. I’m flirting with the idea of Eastern TN for retirement. Milder winters than PA. Hot in the summer but not so much hotter than PA. Cheaper. Granted I won’t be retiring for 30 years, and a lot can change by then. By that time Cookeville will probably be a much larger city with many more amenities than it already has.

[Stone1]

If Cleveland is still on your list, my wife and I moved here a little over 4 years ago from Wisc.. I'm retired but my wife still works and has a office in our home.

The things we like about Cleveland are; it is big enough to have most everything you want, a good variety of restaurants and grocery store options, the mountains and rivers are close by, about 25 minutes from Hamilton place in Chattanooga, 50 minutes to west Knoxville, easy day trips to popular North GA mountain towns.

The Cleveland area offers good housing options with a lot of new construction taking place. We also noticed a big savings in taxes living in Tennessee compared to WI.

Hope this helps a little.

[lpc123]

Originally Posted by Stone1

If Cleveland is still on your list, my wife and I moved here a little over 4 years ago from Wisc.. I'm retired but my wife still works and has a office in our home.

The things we like about Cleveland are; it is big enough to have most everything you want, a good variety of restaurants and grocery store options, the mountains and rivers are close by, about 25 minutes from Hamilton place in Chattanooga, 50 minutes to west Knoxville, easy day trips to popular North GA mountain towns.

The Cleveland area offers good housing options with a lot of new construction taking place. We also noticed a big savings in taxes living in Tennessee compared to WI.

Hope this helps a little.

I check Cleveland listings pretty regularly. I like the close proximity to Chattanooga. Do they have Gigabit Internet available there yet?

[AppalachianAngler]

Originally Posted by Serious Conversation

Greeneville is somewhat viable, but is tough to recommend for an out-of-area resident.

Greeneville is generally trending upward, but is pretty far removed from any other cities of decent size, and has a very insular/"townie" local culture. It's a tough nut to crack.

It used to have two hospitals. Both have experienced a decline in services with one basically becoming behavioral health oriented. PM me for details. A lot of services that used to be in Greeneville are now bounced to Johnson City.

This is all accurate, although some folks, particularly those that just kind of want to be left alone and do their own thing, still can enjoy Greeneville if you have appropriate expectations for what it is. But I do agree that it is hard to recommend for a non-area resident and takes a specific person.

Greeneville has all of your basic amenities, including Wal-Mart and some pretty nice grocery stores like Publix and Ingles. It is a small town yet is close to bigger cities like Johnson City, Asheville and Knoxville. Greeneville has beautiful mountain views with tons of hiking, camping, fly fishing, and other outdoor opportunities in abundance, right in its backyard. If you really enjoy the outdoors, it is a really great town for quick access to same. The Capitol Theater has lots of improv shows, musical acts, old movie showings, and the NPAC has good concerts (well, at least pre-COVID-19).

On the downsides, groceries are relatively high (although this is true of the region in general); people are very skeptical of outsiders; the natives control all of the local politics and always will; the healthcare is severely lacking; there is essentially no fine-dining and mostly just fast food; there is not much in the way of entertainment outside of the outdoors; and it may be pretty difficult to make friends as outsiders.

You really need to be okay with mostly keeping to yourselves and enjoying the outdoors to truly like Greeneville. (That really goes for almost any town of similar size in upper East TN). Otherwise, you will probably be disappointed. That is not to say that people are rude there; they are not. Most folks are polite and friendly, although not in the traditional deep south hospitality way you may think. Most are not going to go completely out of their way to help a newcomer, including making a friend. It is much more of a live and let live area, and they are going to stick with what and who they know.

[fishingupnorth]

That's what great about Fairfield Glade. No one here is from here. We are all transplants. So everyone is extremely friendly.
11 private lakes. 4 golf courses. Racquet Center and low HOA fee of $104 per month. You can't beat it. Only downside is there are very few residents under the age of 70.
But it is quiet and very nice for weather and humidity being 200 ft up on the plateau.