Would like to retire to Northeast or West Tennessee, please help (Memphis: home, schools)

[Bellaroma]

I'm retiring in three years and we love the mountains and are considering northeast or west Tn. Can you make suggestions of cities that are good? We were considering the Johnson City area, but read the air can get stagnant and it's not the best place for folks with allergies. We live in Baton Rouge and are tired of the hurricanes. Any help of where to start looking would be appreciated. We can afford a home for no more than 190,000. We'll have a daughter with us who'll be a 10th grader by the time we retire.

[jabogitlu]

Well, if you love mountains, I'd steer clear of West TN. Allergy sufferers can be miserable in much of TN, so I would suggest a minimum one week visit before you move *anywhere* here.

Parts of West TN are beautiful, but in general it's the backwards third of the state. Just being honest here. Aside from Memphis, economic development is pretty slow there. You could easily find a home for under 190k in either NETN or West TN.

That's about as far as anyone can recommend before you tell us more about you. Why are you moving? What do you do? What do you want besides mountains? Will you need work? healthcare? etc etc etc.

(BTW - as far as schools go, JC Schools and Kingsport City Schools are far better IMO than anything west TN has to offer. If you live in Washington or Sullivan counties, you can get two free years of college for your daughter at Northeast State Community College, too.)

[beachmouse]

As someone who spent a couple years in west TN, I'd say that it's considerably duller and far flatter than anything you'd find from Nashville to points eastward from there. I'd definitely go for the Johnson City area over anything you'd find in the west.