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$50k is probably not going to get you 1-3 acres with a nice house in the whole state. You might have been able to do that say in 2002-2003 before everyone in NY and CA decided that had to escape from wherever, but definitely not today. My parents live about 20 miles from Knoxville and own 5-6 acres and a nice house ( nice as in 2 stories, built in the 70's. Etc) and it was accessed for $175,000. By national standards that's still a bargain. But 50k? I seriously doubt it. Secondly, you mentioned something about if you bought a house for 50k then you could find a job? I think you need to do the opposite- get a job first then buy a house. If you have 50k then you could easily put a down payment on what's likely going to be a more realistic price- 150k-200k for a decent house with maybe an acre.
You also mentioned that you wanted to live somewhere where the neighbors say hello to each other and so forth. No offense but it sounds like you've got this idealized perception of what Tennessee is like. I grew up there and now live in California myself. I never felt that people here are drastically different than those I live around now. I think the biggest difference is that there's definitely way more of a class warfare sort of thing going on. For me personally I'd say the biggest difference is in the cost of living and perhaps that in TN there's maybe a little less stress tied to that aspect.
Like other said- I would suggest you visit here first. As someone who grew up here and live in Cali- it is VERY different in TN. You need to check it out to see if its going to be your thing.
I've never lived in California, so I can't compare, but I have lived in New England and Florida and the people here are incredibly friendly in Knoxville. People still wave at strangers and chit-chat in grocery store lines. If you are not the friendly-type, they are not going to hunt you down and talk to you, by any means, but if you are outgoing you will definitely see how friendly people can be here, compared to most of the country.
$50k is probably not going to get you 1-3 acres with a nice house in the whole state. You might have been able to do that say in 2002-2003 before everyone in NY and CA decided that had to escape from wherever, but definitely not today. My parents live about 20 miles from Knoxville and own 5-6 acres and a nice house ( nice as in 2 stories, built in the 70's. Etc) and it was accessed for $175,000. By national standards that's still a bargain. But 50k? I seriously doubt it. Secondly, you mentioned something about if you bought a house for 50k then you could find a job? I think you need to do the opposite- get a job first then buy a house. If you have 50k then you could easily put a down payment on what's likely going to be a more realistic price- 150k-200k for a decent house with maybe an acre.
You also mentioned that you wanted to live somewhere where the neighbors say hello to each other and so forth. No offense but it sounds like you've got this idealized perception of what Tennessee is like. I grew up there and now live in California myself. I never felt that people here are drastically different than those I live around now. I think the biggest difference is that there's definitely way more of a class warfare sort of thing going on. For me personally I'd say the biggest difference is in the cost of living and perhaps that in TN there's maybe a little less stress tied to that aspect.
Like other said- I would suggest you visit here first. As someone who grew up here and live in Cali- it is VERY different in TN. You need to check it out to see if its going to be your thing.
I also live in CA & considering moving to Knoxville. Do you like CA better then TN? May I ask how long ago you moved? Thanks
I also live in CA & considering moving to Knoxville. Do you like CA better then TN? May I ask how long ago you moved? Thanks
I don't know much about Cali. But if you are looking for a slower pace in life, more relaxed then sounds like TN to me. But unless you try it. Some people like it and some don't. But it is that way everywhere. If you like the hectic life style then you won't like TN.
Good like in your research.
Sliverbox is a native Tennessean that moved away. It's a different dynamic from a Californian that moves here.
Suffice to say that my non-scientific survey shows that Californians that move here love it and natives that move to California, and some other places, tend to look "down" on their heritage. I don't necessarily mean Sliverbox. In fact, he tends to speak well of the area although a lot of what he remembers has changed, even though he comes back to visit.
But I've seen more than a few natives move away, cover up their accent and bash all things Southern. They also tend to think that outsiders have a warped view of them, like we all think they come right out of an episode of "Dukes of Hazzard" or "Hee Haw" and are making fun of them. We are not.
I think it is regrettable. Maybe as an outsider I see things that they've taken for granted.
I also live in CA & considering moving to Knoxville. Do you like CA better then TN? May I ask how long ago you moved? Thanks
Well... I've been gone for about 12 years altogether. I first moved to the Northeast and later California and have been here in Cali for 10 years or thereabouts. There are good and bad things about both areas. Something important to consider is that Tennessee and for that matter most of the Southeast has changed dramatically since I lived there. Knoxville was a totally dead city. Most of the downtown area was boarded up with the exception of a few of the banks and some old holdouts like Kimball's Jewelers and an old delicatessen. Thus when I was growing up the area was... pretty boring actually, or at least that's what I thought when I was younger. The last few times I've visited the downtown is amazingly vibrant- a Renaissance. It was actually fun.
As totally cliche' as this sounds, the most noticeable difference is the cost of living and dealing with lots of people. It seems that in my experience, people living in places like CA, NY, MA and so on have to deal with extreme expenses- like expensive real estate, higher taxes, registration and inspection fees and so on and this in turn seems to make everyone either work harder or put a lot of focus on these aspects: Buying a home, paying for private schools since the public schools are bad, and so on. Thus it seems that people are a little more stressed out.
I think a lot of people in these places get fed-up and they have some sort of romanticized image of the old south in their heads- that it is "easy going" or "Laid-back" or whatever. Its a form of escapism. I never personally felt that people were particularly laid back here versus other places. Perhaps that's just because I grew up here and didn't really pay attention to it.
As for my comparison having grown up in TN and lived in California, well California at least from a professional and financial perspective has been very good to me. There are a lot of jobs here and the market is diverse. The food is excellent and you can do many things here you can't really do in Knoxville. That and the scenic beauty is incredible and diverse. But... Its also a difficult place to live. Buying a house means a huge sacrifice. I'm sort of ok not buying a house at this point. Our rent is cheap. So in the meantime we're just saving our money and the day will come that we'll move out and buy something elsewhere for cash. Its difficult because there are so many people- everywhere. Getting anywhere on the freeway takes forever. Going camping means you better make reservations months in advance. The lines at the stores are long. The commutes are bad. In comparison if I were to suddenly move to Knoxville with what we've saved and had a job that paid not even 50% of what I now make, it would give us an almost instantaneous boost in our financial situation. Not that this is our goal- to rise in class. But its the reality if we did.
As someone else mentioned, its probably going to be a big difference if you move from somewhere to TN, especially if its somewhere like CA. But be aware that it is a very different place.
Well... I've been gone for about 12 years altogether. I first moved to the Northeast and later California and have been here in Cali for 10 years or thereabouts. There are good and bad things about both areas. Something important to consider is that Tennessee and for that matter most of the Southeast has changed dramatically since I lived there. Knoxville was a totally dead city. Most of the downtown area was boarded up with the exception of a few of the banks and some old holdouts like Kimball's Jewelers and an old delicatessen. Thus when I was growing up the area was... pretty boring actually, or at least that's what I thought when I was younger. The last few times I've visited the downtown is amazingly vibrant- a Renaissance. It was actually fun.
As totally cliche' as this sounds, the most noticeable difference is the cost of living and dealing with lots of people. It seems that in my experience, people living in places like CA, NY, MA and so on have to deal with extreme expenses- like expensive real estate, higher taxes, registration and inspection fees and so on and this in turn seems to make everyone either work harder or put a lot of focus on these aspects: Buying a home, paying for private schools since the public schools are bad, and so on. Thus it seems that people are a little more stressed out.
I think a lot of people in these places get fed-up and they have some sort of romanticized image of the old south in their heads- that it is "easy going" or "Laid-back" or whatever. Its a form of escapism. I never personally felt that people were particularly laid back here versus other places. Perhaps that's just because I grew up here and didn't really pay attention to it.
As for my comparison having grown up in TN and lived in California, well California at least from a professional and financial perspective has been very good to me. There are a lot of jobs here and the market is diverse. The food is excellent and you can do many things here you can't really do in Knoxville. That and the scenic beauty is incredible and diverse. But... Its also a difficult place to live. Buying a house means a huge sacrifice. I'm sort of ok not buying a house at this point. Our rent is cheap. So in the meantime we're just saving our money and the day will come that we'll move out and buy something elsewhere for cash. Its difficult because there are so many people- everywhere. Getting anywhere on the freeway takes forever. Going camping means you better make reservations months in advance. The lines at the stores are long. The commutes are bad. In comparison if I were to suddenly move to Knoxville with what we've saved and had a job that paid not even 50% of what I now make, it would give us an almost instantaneous boost in our financial situation. Not that this is our goal- to rise in class. But its the reality if we did.
As someone else mentioned, its probably going to be a big difference if you move from somewhere to TN, especially if its somewhere like CA. But be aware that it is a very different place.
Thank you! I've lived in Cali & NV all my life & felt that E TN might be a nice change. I've been there a few times & seemed to like it. It seemed alot less stressful & all the people I came across seemed very nice. I know it's different when you acutally live in a town. Cali does have many great things about it. I'm not planning on moving far a couple years & in the mean time I'll go back to Knoxville & check it out a few more times.
I have relatives that moved from the beach in CA to Nashville a few years ago & they truely love it. I think what they like the most is feweer people to deal with!
I was born in So CA and lived there until I moved to Knoxville in 1994. I was in my mid 40's when I moved here.
Knoxville reminds me of the town in the San Fernando Valley I grew up in (when I was a kid). A town of 16K, surrounded by the sprawl of Los Angeles with millions of people. However, the SF Valley is totally different now, both in population, and ethnic diversity.
There are friendly people everywhere. There are also dangerous people everywhere. The difference in CA is the number of people that live there. So if 1% of the population are serious criminals in each place......do the math. Population of 7 million compared to 500,000 - what's 1%?
Traffic is one of the main reasons we left CA. It just took so long to get anywhere. We had a cabin 150 miles north of the Valley. In the early 80's we would leave after work Friday to get out of town for the weekend, and come back Sunday evening. Pretty soon we had to take half day off on Friday to beat the traffic. Coming home, we had to leave early Sunday afternoon.
By the end of the 80's, we had to take off Friday, and leave Thursday night, and start back after breakfast on Sunday. The last 15 years we lived in CA we lived in Long Beach.
My wife was in outside sales and had a large territory. She spent all her time on the freeways. Way too much stress.
Crowds were another reason we left CA. EVERYTHING was crowded!
The cost of living is the final reason we decided to leave CA.
The good parts of CA are sometimes obvious. There are so many opportunities, in careers and things to do. There are several large amusement parks, several pro sports teams in all the sports, mountains, beaches, hunting, fishing, well......... everything. That's the good. The bad list is just as long: gangs, drugs, illegals, crime, poverty, high taxes, etc.
We didn't know if TN was going to be a good match for us or not. We did know that if it didn't work out for us here, we would not be going back to CA, we would look for somewhere else. As it turned out, Knoxville was the greatest move we could have ever made. Maybe not financially, because we would have made a lot more money if we would have stayed. However, my wife would not have been able to be a stay at home Mom, and our daughter would not have had the same environment to grow up in (family values, etc). SHE is the reason we moved here, and she is confirmation we made the right decision.
Many of our friends thought we were crazy. Why would we want to move to that horrible hill billy State, Tennessee? They had (and some still do) the view that anywhere other than CA is backward.
I have found that some people can find happiness just about anywhere, while others will be unhappy everywhere. There is no magic bullet. The hope that "if we just move to xxxxxxx, our troubles will be over, and life will be good", or "the grass is always greener" is a fallacy.
We had friends that moved here from Michigan. Almost everything that we liked about Knoxville, they hated. They were never happy here, and finally moved "back home". They are probably finding fault with Michigan now.
All that said (sorry its so long), no one should move to Knoxville without spending time here (at least a week), and having a job confirmed before they make the move.
Sliverbox is a native Tennessean that moved away. It's a different dynamic from a Californian that moves here.
Suffice to say that my non-scientific survey shows that Californians that move here love it and natives that move to California, and some other places, tend to look "down" on their heritage. I don't necessarily mean Sliverbox. In fact, he tends to speak well of the area although a lot of what he remembers has changed, even though he comes back to visit.
But I've seen more than a few natives move away, cover up their accent and bash all things Southern. They also tend to think that outsiders have a warped view of them, like we all think they come right out of an episode of "Dukes of Hazzard" or "Hee Haw" and are making fun of them. We are not.
I think it is regrettable. Maybe as an outsider I see things that they've taken for granted.
Well, that's my diatribe for today.
You can thank the rest of the country for that, there's a reason why some Southerners are so defensive and why some of them try to hide being Southern. I wouldn't.
You can thank the rest of the country for that, there's a reason why some Southerners are so defensive and why some of them try to hide being Southern. I wouldn't.
That's great. Everyone should be proud of who they are and their heritage. To put down where they come from is very, very sad.
Yes, more than a few outsiders are buffoons and stereotype. They also do that with everything else they come in contact with, not just Southerners. However, on the other side of things, more than a few Southerners stereotype Yankees and not in a nice way. I guess buffoons live on both sides of The Mason-Dixon line.
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