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Over the past few years, my finace and I have been down to the Bristol area to visit with family (we come down every year on Father's Day) and I fall more and more in love with the area every visit. I've finally won him over, or at least I am very close to it. Last year, he didn't want to leave his friends, but now I catch him looking at real estate and this past trip, he stopped in at the BMW dealer in Kingsport (he's a BMW mechanic).
I've been trying to figure out what we can afford and what we have to look forward to as far as what we may need to keep our current lifestyle up here. I am hoping that he can make a minimal of $16 as an auto mechanic and if so, I can take the next 2 years to settle us in and get our girls situated with the move and the school (My youngest is 2 1/2 and I am hoping that I can stay home with her until she starts school and then find something part time. Currently I'm an office manager / secretary for a PT clinic).
With us wanting to move we are hoping to find out more of what to expect financially... I am hoping that I can find out more about the financial ends of living in the tri-city area and hope that my assumptions are correct. (I like to budget and know where my $$$ is at... ) and give me more insite to the areas / towns, schools & healthcare providers.
We were looking to reside in Blountville, Bloomingdale, Piney Flats, Boone Creek Area, Gray... are there any other areas that we can consider that are safe and within decent distance to Kingsport & Bristol (Possibly JC, but we'd like to stay closer to KP & Bristol).
Currently our home is about 1200 SF
(we bought at $100k and put in $40k)
we pay for a family of 4:
taxes at $4000 (county, local, school & real estate).
Electric & Natural Gas is $280/month
Cable & Internet (Comcast) is $180/month (we only get 200 channels, non high def.)
Home Owners Insurance : $700/year
Water is about $40/month
Sewer is about $30/month
From what I've previously read, there is no Local State Tax or school Tax??? the sales tax is about 9%??? there's city and county tax, depending on where you actually live??? Would my current utlities be about the same????
Also, I've read in a few posts, that some have found the auto insurance to be relatively higher??? We have 2 drivers, 3 vehicles (05 titan, 95 subaru, 91 mustang - all paid for) and we pay about $280/month w/Nationwide. Who have you found to be the cheapest, but most reliable auto carrier??? Pa vehicle registration is every year & we pay $56 for our truck & $36 for each of our cars. I've heard people post that it's $24, is this for all vehicles or does it change for cars vs. trucks??? Also, are vehicle inspections every year and are they done by your local shop (like here in PA) or at the DMV's (as in DE)???
I also have 2 daughters, ages 7 (going into 2nd grade) and a 2 1/2 year old. What are the school districts like and what ones should I avoid???
I've heard that JC is relatively larger when it comes to having Healthcare Practitioners and Hospitals. Are they better than KP healthcare providers?
I've also seen A LOT of posts about decent / "fair" expensed mechanics. My fiance has done a lot of side work out of our home for family and friends over the past few years, and relatively hourly cheap compared to our local shops here ($90/hr +). What is the average labor rate at a local repair shop in the Tri City area? How in demand are auto mechanics compared to the availability of local shops? He's also a "M-Tech" meaning that he's educated and licensed to work on the high end cars (BMW, Mercedes, etc...) How in demand is this type of work????
I'm hoping that eventually he can have his own shop & in the meantime, I can finally get to be an "At-Home-Mom" for a little a while, without abandoning too much of our current lifestyle.
I know it's a lot of information that I am trying to look for, but I am a planner and budgetter and always looking for more information. I would appreciate any information that you can provide for our move. We are hopefully going to try and make it back down in another month or so and look at properties (I hope) so that we can make our move hopefully by the end of the year.
Some of this stuff, I'll leave to other posters who hopefully will know more. I can share my own experiences, though...
My Electric is around $90/mo in the summer, and around $250-$300 in the winter. I've never used gas.
Basic Cable & Internet (Comcast) is $110/month
Water/Sewer/Trash is around $50 a month
I'm not sure what you mean by "local state tax." Income taxes? No. And no school taxes. Sales tax varies depending on what municipality you're in but is generally between 9 and 10 percent. Of course if you're in Bristol, you can cross over to Virginia and pay substantially less (I think around 4%)
There aren't any auto inspections here - the only ones in TN are in metro Nashville.
Cable & internet (Charter, about 60 channels)... $66
Electric.... $70 to $110
Sales Tax... 9.5%
Income Tax... 0%
Auto Registration... $27 per vehicle (including postage)
County Tax @ $100k assessed value... 100k x .25 / 100 * 1.9139 = $478.48
City Tax @ $100k assessed value... 100k x .25 / 100 * 1.54 = $385.00
Home Owners Ins... $400.00
Auto Ins, 2 driver, 2 family style vehicles, paid for, liability only... $600 annually (esurance, good experience w/ one claim)
Monolisa83,
I am from Montco and now in the Kingsport area. You are looking at cost and without a doubt or question it is much cheaper to live in TN than PA. However, there is more to life than money. If you are in a money squeeze then a TN move might be right. If you are solvent, working, and living within you means then consider what you will be giving up with a TN move. The DelVal area has some of the best schools, best medical, best food, and good sports teams in country. In NE TN there are no Italian or Jewish deli's, there is no Race St, no South St, and you won't find any Polish food stores either. AC is fifty miles from you, WW 100 miles from you, here it is 400 miles to the beach. NE TN is comparable to SE PA in pollution. This past winter was colder than PA but with less snow. I am not going to say anything about the people here except that they are sociable. The best and most steadfast friends I have are from PA. I would love to return to PA snow or no snow. You need to really think about what you would be giving up.
If you truly want to try living in TN my advice is to avoid Kingsport. Lease a house for a year and see how you like it. Craigslist.com is loaded with house rentals but watch out for scammers.
I tend to agree with donsabi.. If friends are a very important part of your life, I'd think twice about the move. It is the luck of the draw to find friends of the same ilk here. The attitudes and interests are quite different than those in the 'north'. Those of us transplants fortunate enough to find one or two close friends here are lucky indeed. If you're deeply religious then that's another story because much of the social life (for many) is centered around the area's churches. If it''s mainly a move to cut costs, and you and your partner are content mainly being together with your family, you'll probably do just fine!
I'd also add that perhaps if you're from the younger generation, a move at this time could work --- I think it's the 40-50's somethings and retirees, expecting to find a comparable social life here, they're the ones who can often be disappointed - unless they're religious or outdoorsy types. There are innumberable choices for recreation and religion within the Tri-Cities area.
I really liked the Colonial Heights area of Kingsport when I was house hunting. Convenient location with reasonably priced housing on large lots. A coworker just moved there with her young family and loves it.
Friends are easier to make when you're younger, and having kids pretty much sets you up for meeting all kinds of people in all kinds of situations. It's a little more difficult to meet people you have as much in common with as you get a little older, in my experience.
Health care is only as good as your insurance plan. I switched to a new plan after I moved here because my old plan didn't offer very many options in this area. I haven't had any issues with finding good care in Bristol. Special circumstances would call for diligent research of course.
Food, yeah a little lacking in the food options. It just doesn't compare to bigger, more diverse areas. One of the trade offs to living in a smaller, more homogeneous community.
Lots of parks, lots of recreational opportunities... but I was a little surprised at how few public beaches are available, considering how many lakes there are.
COL, my costs are comparable to rccrains, for an 1100 sq ft house with two people in Bristol.
Great little COL calculator, compares everything from the price of utilities to the cost of a haircut Cost of Living comparison calculator
Guess it just comes down to your wants and needs, and what your priorities are.
Thank you all for your input. Our friends, either way will always be our friends, just gives an excuse to get a vacation and go away to visit them.
I am not much of a beach person, neither is my fiance. We only go to the beach maybe 3x a year (literally 3 days a year).
As for food, I love to cook, and we rarely eat out, so the lack of deli's and resturants isn't a big one.
We don't live below our means, we are in our mid 20's and have everything paid for except for our current home. It's just expensive and we would like more room. It's hard to find anything for less than $200k + here plus $5000+ in taxes every year.
So, over all, the move I don't think will be too bad as far as us missing out on anything.
I want to agree with what DubbleT said about Colonial Heights. I moved to Colonial Heights about 34 years ago and have always found it to be a most agreeable location- convenient to all of the three cities and well provided with amenities for a bedroom community.
There is an independent shop called Blue Ridge Motor Works that specializes in German machinery (strictly German makes). I was very impressed with the professionalism of the owner (Greg Hamilton) when he did some work for me a few years ago on a vehicle I no longer own. You might check them as an independent shop. No website but Googling: Blue Ridge Motor Works in Kingsport, TN : RepairPal (http://repairpal.com/blue-ridge-motor-works - broken link)
[quote=jabogitlu;14732936]Some of this stuff, I'll leave to other posters who hopefully will know more. I can share my own experiences, though...
I'm not sure what you mean by "local state tax." Income taxes? No. And no school taxes. Sales tax varies depending on what municipality you're in but is generally between 9 and 10 percent. Of course if you're in Bristol, you can cross over to Virginia and pay substantially less (I think around 4%)
Jabogitlu--just wanted to let you know about "local state tax" I grew up in Illinois, lived in PA for 11 years, and Florida for 10 years. I remember I used to always wonder what in the heck the "Local" tax statement was for that used to come with the old-fashioned W-2"s..I always thought it was an extra copy for me to keep--and a terrible waste of paper......
UNTIL I moved to Pennsylvania-I quickly found out that Pennsylvania had a whole slew of taxes that I had never heard of before...It was ridiculous. You paid a local tax to either the city or township in which you lived based on your IRS W-2.
We also paid a school tax and an occupational tax--In short, in PA we were pretty much taxed to death.
The occupational tax was based on your JOB TITLE--which is the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard of. You could be a manager earning $20,000 year or earning $200,000 a year-yet you both paid the same occupational tax. As a stay-at-home Mom with no real income--even I was charged an occupational tax--INSANE!! since I had no income. Therefore, it was expected that hubby would pay my occupational tax for me.....
To original poster--no, you do not have near the taxes that you currently have in PA--everything is lower or non-existant except for the sales tax. Tennessee has a higher rate on that--but at least it is a fair tax based on your consumption of taxable goods & services. I say "services" lightly as I don't know if TN charges sales tax on services.
I used to live in MD near the Manson/Nixon line. There is no...NO comparison to the property taxes of that region to here. I pay about 840.oo a year in property taxes and I pay washington co. and johnson city tax at my location. My friends in MD in comp. homes pay 2,800 to almost 5,000 in property taxes depending on locales. About 2 miles up the road I'd pay about half of the 800 bucks. Forget about property tax worries...you'll laugh when they give you the bill. TN does everything on 9.5% sales tax. My auto insurance dropped almost 400 a year on my miata and my ranger pickup when I moved here. Don't sweat the auto insurance either. Call Farm Bureau for auto/ home insurance when you get here.
Don't move here without some employment DEFINITELY lined up before you come here. Work is very scarce here these days. It's difficult in good times but very tough to break in for an outsider now. Having a specialized skill like Beemer mechanic should go a long way for you however.
DM me for more insight on a "Yankee in the State of Franklin" if you care too, Great place, no regrets moving here but...again...don't move here on a whim with no job lined up.
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) and give me more insite to the areas / towns, schools & healthcare providers.
I grew up in Illinois, lived in PA for 11 years, and Florida for 10 years. I remember I used to always wonder what in the heck the "Local" tax statement was for that used to come with the old-fashioned W-2"s..I always thought it was an extra copy for me to keep--and a terrible waste of paper......
