what dissappointed me about moving to East TN (Knoxville, Sevierville: apartments, rent)

[amyevansmom]

Relocated here from MI in July. I've always wanted to live here for the weather and the scenery. My husband got a great paying job in Gatlinburg. Here's where the problems started.

Could not find housing. We have a home back in MI we have to sell before we can buy one here. There are no Apartments close to Gatlinburg. We ended up renting in Seymour. Nice apartments, but 40 minutes one way to work.

Prices of housing. B/C we work in Gatlinburg, we need to be fairly close to it and home prices are way to much $. Rip-off as far as I'm concerned. Maybe b/c home prices in MI are so good? My home in MI is 1500 sq ft, 3 bed 2 1/2 bath, 1/3 acre. $120,000 in a great safe neighborhood with great schools. Here in Gatlinburg/Sevierville/Pigeon Forge, I can't touch that home for less than $175,000.

Milk prices. Anywhere from $3.25-$4.99 a gallon. Store brand, not name brand. Michigan prices: $2.79.

No Meijer. Those of you living in MI, IL, OH, IN, and KY....can you imagine not having a Meijer????

Price of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables. Ooooohhh...that one really irks me. Why is it that a nice warm area has no Fruit Stands? Grocery store pricing for veges is a crime! $3.99/lb for tomatoes in August is highway robbery! MI tomatoes are $.99/lb at the same time! And $4 for a cauliflower???? Come on!!

After all of my complaining, I have to say, I do like TN. Maybe I'm just in the wrong part of it. Knoxville would seem better for me and my family, but the drive to work would be over an hour and that's not happening. It is a bit of a culture shock as everything moves slower down here and the people are nonchalant about EVERYTHING. I guess, you just take the bad with the good.

If anybody has any insight on what I've expressed concerns on, I would love you to death!

[bbkaren]

Coming from NJ where a 40 minute commute 18 miles one way is quite good...and we pay $400,000 for that same 1500 SF house...and a gallon of milk is $4.99, I can't really relate to the Michigan lifestyle lol! And I've never heard of a Meijer...

However, I can tell you I look forward to that slower-paced lifestyle; I welcome that kind of culture shock!

I relish the thought of spending some time with my toddler (who'll be 5 or 6 by the time we move) before he's a teenager like my other two, who are already caught up in this frenzied rat-race themselves.

If the price of veggies is prohibitive, I hope to have the time to maybe grow my own!

I'm sure you'll find your niche in Tennessee; it might take another move, or whatever, but you'll get there! I'm counting on that...for us as well as you! good luck!

[daniellefort]

well it's no better here in FL. $4.99 gallon of milk. Vegetables are very pricy, home prices hardly below $200,000 for a fixer upper but then again you did move to Gatlinburg which is a busy tourist area. prices will always be higher in a tourist spot. I'm considering moving to Dandridge/Newport NE of Gatlinburg area and homes seem more reasonable to purchase there. My husband plans to travel to Knoxville which would be about 30 minute drive.

[SPLIT]

A.M. Not really in your county so not aware of the housing supply / demand. Your area is mostly Tourist region and know outside of Disney World in Orlando is not CHEAP street either. This summer was a multi avg DROUGHT for farming east tenn. Your mtn region only get Trucking in from one direction West ? Keep looking for a local Farmers Market where they sell out of the back of their pick-up trucks. Also a porch side stand on a rural farm road, almost honor system, throw dollar in jar for basket of tomatoes.
Just keep asking other church neighbors where they shop, or volunteer for the local Food Banks, etc. Find a fixer- house or one with APT over the garage and also rent out.

[JMT]

Originally Posted by amyevansmom

Relocated here from MI in July. I've always wanted to live here for the weather and the scenery. My husband got a great paying job in Gatlinburg. Here's where the problems started.

Could not find housing. We have a home back in MI we have to sell before we can buy one here. There are no Apartments close to Gatlinburg. We ended up renting in Seymour. Nice apartments, but 40 minutes one way to work.

Prices of housing. B/C we work in Gatlinburg, we need to be fairly close to it and home prices are way to much $. Rip-off as far as I'm concerned. Maybe b/c home prices in MI are so good? My home in MI is 1500 sq ft, 3 bed 2 1/2 bath, 1/3 acre. $120,000 in a great safe neighborhood with great schools. Here in Gatlinburg/Sevierville/Pigeon Forge, I can't touch that home for less than $175,000.

Milk prices. Anywhere from $3.25-$4.99 a gallon. Store brand, not name brand. Michigan prices: $2.79.

No Meijer. Those of you living in MI, IL, OH, IN, and KY....can you imagine not having a Meijer????

Price of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables. Ooooohhh...that one really irks me. Why is it that a nice warm area has no Fruit Stands? Grocery store pricing for veges is a crime! $3.99/lb for tomatoes in August is highway robbery! MI tomatoes are $.99/lb at the same time! And $4 for a cauliflower???? Come on!!

After all of my complaining, I have to say, I do like TN. Maybe I'm just in the wrong part of it. Knoxville would seem better for me and my family, but the drive to work would be over an hour and that's not happening. It is a bit of a culture shock as everything moves slower down here and the people are nonchalant about EVERYTHING. I guess, you just take the bad with the good.

If anybody has any insight on what I've expressed concerns on, I would love you to death!

I'm sorry, maybe I should be more sympathetic, but didn't you research that BEFORE you decided to move? Didn't you look at housing prices first? Didn't you try to look at housing possibilities around Gatlinburg before actually accepting the job? Why were you surprized that there's no Meijer down here? Didn't you come down here before actually making the decision to move? I guess I just don't understand how you could accept a job somewhere without investigating the area more thoroughly first.

I also think it's not very fair to compare prices in an economically depressed place as Michigan with prices in a booming resort town in the mountains. I have never paid $3.99/lb for tomatoes and have never seen that anywhere around here in Knoxville unless they're organic. And with the abundance of Grainger County tomatoes in the summer, my goodness you can't swing a dead cat around here in the summer without hitting a tomato stand along the highway. But Gatlinburg isn't designed for things like that, and the vast majority of people who go to Gatlinburg aren't looking for local produce, either.

Anyway, I'm sorry that your experience down here hasn't been better, but I do think most of that could've been solved had you done your homework before moving here in the first place.

[daniellefort]

what the heck is a Meijer anyways? i've never heard of that before

[Tinman313]

If you go too Sevierville and hang a right and had NE theirs a little town called Carsons Springs just before Newport it use too have a real nice farmers market on the week end............

[MomsTn]

Originally Posted by amyevansmom

Relocated here from MI in July.

What part of Michigan? Upper or Lower?
I know that prices in the U.P. are a lot lower than housing in lower Michigan. It all depends on the cities that you are near.

I'm sorry that you are having a not so nice relocation.... give Tennessee a little time, everything will work out.

Talk to the people in your apartment building.
Go visit the local Mom/Pop Restaurant... hang out and talk to the locals.

What I like to do in a new area, is explore.
Take a drive and check out different areas.
I tell my kids that I never get lost.... we just go on adventures, eventually, you figure out where you are.

Go on an adventure....

[amyevansmom]

www.meijer.com

Awesome grocery store with everything you could possibly need. Think like this, it's 3am, I need (fill in the blank). You can find it at Meijer. Their prices are awesome, too!

[JMT]

Originally Posted by amyevansmom

www.meijer.com

Awesome grocery store with everything you could possibly need. Think like this, it's 3am, I need (fill in the blank). You can find it at Meijer. Their prices are awesome, too!

Sorry, but the rest of the country goes to Kroger or Wal-Mart at 3am. Even the Chinese go to Wal-Mart at 3am.

At any rate, since you know about Meijer's web site, why didn't you look at it before you moved here and see that there are no Meijer stores anywhere near Gatlinburg?

I'm really not trying to offend, so I apologize if it comes across that way. But your complaining about the cost of housing, no Meijer stores, etc., AFTER moving here is the equivalent of someone who adopts a cheetah as a pet but then complains that it runs too fast.