HLEP! Mom with 2 little boys needs to move (from California) needs help!! Which town? (Johnson City: appointed, apartments)

[tina1234]

Hello,

Recently, my husband of 11 years has found another lady and won't give her up. We live in an extremely expensive city just north of San Francisco. I can't stand the pain any more, and rent here is $1900 a month!

I have $115,000 to buy a house with, and then I will have to budget very carefully. I would like to move to either Tennessee or Virginia.

I want a home to live in for the rest of my life, a yard for my rambunctious 3 and 5 year old boys, and a safe neighborhood.

I adore homeschooling, but open to good schools. Stability is very important. I lean towards Christianity, but strongly accept all faiths. Does anyone have any ideas?

We would adore a good YMCA, and my boy is an outstanding swimmer. We LOVE swimmable water, animals, and companionship.

Thanks So Much in Advance!!
tina

[HDL]

Just wanted to offer you some encouragement and tell you how great it is that you have a plan and are trying to move forward . I have been considering moving again also and understand the cost of living in CA and trying to find a better place.

One thing you 'might' want to consider is renting for a year or so. This way you can make certain that you like where you bought and it is a good school district and safe neighborhood for you and your family. Let's say you paid $1000 a month rent for 12 mths = $12,000. Home prices are going down or staying flat in most of the country and you could easily lose that much on your home in a year or pay realtors close to that amount to sell the house.

This way you would not get stuck in a house or neigborhood that wasn't right for you. I looked at the Greenville SC housing market for 2 yrs and quite a few of the homes had been on the market for over a year (this is basically unheard of in the Northern CA market, so you probably wouldn't have known about that type of issue before).

Tina, I wish you and your 2 children the best and pray that God leads and directs you to the state that is right for you . Much success!!

[alleycat]

You might first look at one of the smaller counties that surround the bigger cities, or one of the college towns.

If you wanted to post more information what's important and what's not, it would help. For example, what kind of employment is important; access to the arts and cultural events; rural, small town, or city; etc.

[mbmouse]

Hi Tina,
Welcome to the TN forum, I hope we can help you out here. Congrats on taking control of your life! I have been there done that.
You said TN but didn't mention what part? I would suggest East TN as I love it here as do my children. There are great schools here and good opportunities. I agree with the other poster about renting for a while first. You can find a really nice 3 bedroom house to rent for around $800 a month and sometimes that includes water/sewer. I LOVE the schools here. There are several lakes around and we do have YMCA and some public pools. There are also some town house/apartments that have community pools. There are several different denominations of churches and "community" activities are a given here, lots to do with the kids as far as out door stuff for 3 seasons (just not much during winter).
Hope that helps!
What other kind of things are you looking for?

[CAtoGA]

Hi tina1234. I am also north of SF in Sonoma County and looking to move to TN. You will find loads of great information on this forum so keep searching. My family and I were originally looking in the East TN, Johnson City area. It is, by all accounts, wonderful there and I have to say I'm a bit disappointed that I have to refocus my search to the areas closer to Nashville. I have done a fair amount of research so PM me if you have any questions or just want to chat about getting out of CA..

Good luck on your search!

[tina1234]

Thank you everyone for all your insights!!

Yes, renting is wise. I do basic bookkeeping, and I am hoping to do bookkeeping remotely via computer. I need more education before I can do that.

Passions: My passion is stay-at-home mother, so I want to live as simply/cheaply as possible so I can do that. I should be able to get $1200 a month child support, possibly more, and hopefully at-home bookkeeping.

Homeschooling: I also adore home schooling; however, I currently live near San Francisco city which is great for homeschooling (museums, zoos, etc.) as well as I teach homeschoolers in a local church two times a week. I think if I move to a small town, homeschooling might not be so good...unless there is a good homeschooling network (for socialization).

Safety/Yard: My boys need a big safe yard, in a safe town; we currently live in an apartment and my 5 year old feels trapped.


Tornadoes: I am a little concerned about tornadoes, I would be devastated if my future house was destroyed. Is there a "tornadoe-safe" area?

Duplex: I am contemplating buying a duplex so that I can rent (earn) some extra income. I think I would need a "rentable" area, by a university. I also adore the arts/etc, so a university or good college would be advantagous. I have about $115,000 to purchase a solid home.

I so appreciate your insight! And yes, Johnson/Kingsport came out high on a computer relocation quiz, except it didn't say anything about homeschooling.

If I can help anyone about California, please let me know! Tina

[alleycat]

Since you're focusing on East Tennessee, I'll let someone else reply. If you start thinking about Middle Tennessee, post again and I'll reply.

As for tornadoes, yes, we do occasionally get them here (mostly outside the larger cities) but most people don't sit around worrying about them. I don't know the exact numbers, but I would guess that, on average, more people die from drowning every year than from tornadoes. It's sometimes a bit of a problem for a short period in the spring, and again in the fall, but just about every place on earth has some kind of problem. There's earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, mud slides, tsunamis, huge snowfalls, moose attacks, and what have you.

[LilyLiz]

Hope I am not derailing the thread here.....I am in the bay area (Silicon Valley)of northern California hoping to move myself and 15 yr. old daughter to Tennessee in the next 6-8 months. Tina, maybe we can chat in PM's a bit. I also homeschool and am looking forward to a new life in Tennessee! It's a scary move for me beacuse of finances and off and on child support. I am originally from Nebraska and have lived here for 4 years. My daughter and I miss the change of seasons so much!!

I have a question for all of you there in Tennessee; When it rains, does it come down hard with thunder and lightning? We miss thunderstorms! When it rains here, you can't even hear it. I am looking forward to 'real' weather again.

[alleycat]

Originally Posted by LilyLiz

I have a question for all of you there in Tennessee; When it rains, does it come down hard with thunder and lightning? We miss thunderstorms! When it rains here, you can't even hear it. I am looking forward to 'real' weather again.

The short answer is yes, about half the time when it rains. Sometimes, particularly in the spring and autumn, it will just be a drizzling kind of rain.

[mbmouse]

Tina, I have asked around for you today and found that yes, there is a home school network here in the Tri-Cities, I will try and get you some contacts. And good idea on the multi family investment, you can NOT go wrong with that!
As for the rain, well, depends on what time of the year. Yes we have some thunderstorms that really light up the sky in spring and summer, but mostly just some rain, no light show. Tornadoes, The further East you get, closer to the mountains, the more shielded you are from them, which means less chance of them. We do get "micro burst" some times, took out 11 trees in the back yard in 30 seconds, but these rarely effect homes, and I have never head of anyone getting hurt.