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Johnson City and Knoxville probably have the lowest cost of living. I live in Johnson City.
If you are in an affluent part of the Knoxville metro like Farragut, I'd guess those schools would be better than JC. I have no idea about Chattanooga. JC city schools are good, but surrounding county schools are awful. Obviously UT-Knoxville has a lot more going on than ETSU or UT-Chattanooga.
Toss-up between Knoxville and Chattanooga. Johnson City's downtown is improving, but it's a smaller area.
Chattanooga has a particularly vibrant and nicely laid out downtown, but I think Knoxville is more well rounded overall with better suburban areas and satellite cities. Johnson City is a lot smaller than the other two cities and in a less prosperous metro area, but it certainly shares in the picturesque scenery that is prevalent across east Tennessee.
Knoxville is the best choice due to the low cost of living, decent job and wage growth, and higher education options. Johnson City should not be compared with these two.
Cost of living
Schools
Downtown (Nightlife)
Commute from suburbs
Crime
Cost of living: Johnson City
Schools: Knoxville
Downtown (Nightlife): Chattanooga
Commute from suburbs: Chattanooga
Crime: Johnson City
In terms of overall size, Johnson City is really not a fair comparison to Knoxville and Chattanooga, though.
Although I really like Johnson City and it has a super great quality of life, and is growing and inexpensive, it doesn't really have a downtown core anywhere near the size of Knoxville or Chattanooga.
Johnson City's downtown is small, and is more in line with a city of about 30-40,000 people rather than even it's own population of almost 70,000. It really needs to work on its downtown being built up in terms of physical buildings, either office or residential. There's a fair amount of gentrification happening in downtown JC though, so the momentum has started over the past 10 years and continues to progress--which is terrific.
JC's economy and business/job diversity can't compete with Knoxville or Chattanooga either, just due to sheer population. JC's metro is about 200k, while Chattanooga is 550k and Knoxville is approaching 900k.
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