Moving from FL to TN (Knoxville, Johnson City: crime, house, schools)

[ginasharee]

We are currently looking at a house in 37804 zip code, I do not know the city, but that is the zip code. I think it is Maryville? I was wondering what everyone thinks about the city. Is it safe? Is it nice? What size is it? I have looked up demographics but they are back from 2010, and I am not sure why. We are a young couple 38 yrs old have a 3 year old child and will be moving in the next few months possibly. Hubby is a disabled veteran though, not 100% disabled. My son will be homeschooled so I am not worried about schools. Is it a friendly city? Mostly old people or are there couples with kids?
Please give me as much info as you can. We are going into this house by just pictures thru an organization that helps disabled vets and it is scary to go in town unseen and say yes to a house. The house is beautiful but I am concerned if the city is big enough. My son also has health issues so we need a hospital close by.

Thank You in Advance

[JMT]

That is one of the ZIP codes for Maryville, so I am moving this thread to the appropriate forum, Knoxville (Maryville is adjacent to Knoxville).

[MetropolitanTN]

Originally Posted by ginasharee

We are currently looking at a house in 37804 zip code, I do not know the city, but that is the zip code. I think it is Maryville? I was wondering what everyone thinks about the city. Is it safe? Is it nice? What size is it? I have looked up demographics but they are back from 2010, and I am not sure why. We are a young couple 38 yrs old have a 3 year old child and will be moving in the next few months possibly. Hubby is a disabled veteran though, not 100% disabled. My son will be homeschooled so I am not worried about schools. Is it a friendly city? Mostly old people or are there couples with kids?
Please give me as much info as you can. We are going into this house by just pictures thru an organization that helps disabled vets and it is scary to go in town unseen and say yes to a house. The house is beautiful but I am concerned if the city is big enough. My son also has health issues so we need a hospital close by.

Thank You in Advance

It's a nice suburb of Knoxville. It looks nice and has a lot of good amenities, shops, restaurants, etc. It's a safe place and the people are friendly. The city is a mix of ages and family make ups.

[ginasharee]

Ok, thank you I wasn't sure. I actually found the address and it is on a main road 35 I believe.

[INFP1973]

Yeah, it's Maryville. It's very family oriented. Crime will be low compared to most places, and it's very affordable. I think it may have been mentioned once as one of the "best places" to raise children or retire or something like that. Here's a link that might be helpful:

Best Boomer Towns - Best 21 U.S. Places for Retirement

One thing about East Tennessee (and certainly not everyone reports having this experience) is that it's not especially embracing of "outsiders." Many people who relocate to East TN talk about feeling isolated or "left out" because the locals seem to have a "you're not one of us" mentality. I've lived here 6 years and felt kind of "unwelcome" until about a year or two ago. I think it may depend on your frame of reference... I lived in other southern states (which were all much friendlier in comparison) prior to moving to TN. But that's just my take. Good luck!

[hiknapster]

Knoxville is very welcoming. I've never read reports on CD of people feeling unwelcome in Maryville or Sevier County, either.

[ginasharee]

I did find the house I had to search long and hard lol. We are prior Marine Corps so we have moved around a lot. We love the look of this area and that it looks a bit country and we want to raise our son in an environment like that, open fields and change of seasons. We only came back down to FL for my dad and my dad doesn't want our help so now we start a new chapter. My son has severe life threatening food allergies any my husband is a disabled vet, so I was wondering if there was a hospital close to Sevierville Rd? It is around the Church that is on that road I think that is 35? We have put in an app to see if we get approved for the house. We don't mind feeling like outsiders, seems it is like that a lot of places we go and then with my son's food allergies we feel that even more. Are there major stores like Target, Walmart etc.? Or is it a smaller town? I tried to pull up info on it but I can't find much it is very hush hush haha. I will look at the link above thank you all for your input

[Road Pig]

Maryville is a nice and slow growing area. It does have the stores you asked about and there are hospitals there. UT hospital is 15 minutes up the road and is the best around. The Smokey mountains are close and there are lakes in the area. It does seem that most of the posters on here are recommending areas west and south of Knoxville as the preferred areas to move into. Maryville fits that description.

BTW I am from FL and prefer TN.

[J&Em]

Originally Posted by ginasharee

I did find the house I had to search long and hard lol. We are prior Marine Corps so we have moved around a lot. We love the look of this area and that it looks a bit country and we want to raise our son in an environment like that, open fields and change of seasons. We only came back down to FL for my dad and my dad doesn't want our help so now we start a new chapter. My son has severe life threatening food allergies any my husband is a disabled vet, so I was wondering if there was a hospital close to Sevierville Rd? It is around the Church that is on that road I think that is 35? We have put in an app to see if we get approved for the house. We don't mind feeling like outsiders, seems it is like that a lot of places we go and then with my son's food allergies we feel that even more. Are there major stores like Target, Walmart etc.? Or is it a smaller town? I tried to pull up info on it but I can't find much it is very hush hush haha. I will look at the link above thank you all for your input

First of all thanks to you and your husband for service to your country. You will find most people here very much appreciate what your husband did.

I'm not sure why it would seem it is on the hush hush.... Everything you have asked for from a hospital just down the road to stores that are under 20 minutes away depending on how far out you will be living from the center of Maryville. You will have a choice of several supermarkets, 2 Walmarts, a K-Mart, Target, both Home Depot and Lowes, a small Mall and tons of other small stores as well as every fast food and chain restaurant you can think of. Within 30-35 minutes you can be at the UT medical center and many more stores in Knoxville.

Sevierville Road extends all the way out to Seymour and varies between small subdivisions and country side. I can't tell you what your neighbors will be like but we have found most people are friendly and polite. I hope that gives you some of the answers you need.

You may also want to know that there is a VA clinic in Knoxville and the closest VA hospital is about 2 hours away in Johnson City. Tennessee - Locations

Good luck to you and your family.

[INFP1973]

I think Maryville is about 25,000 -30,000 people. One of the nice things about it is you can always go to Knoxville if you want a little more amenities. You'll get more of a "four seasons" weather pattern here too - summer is more bearable than in FL, and it only snows a few times a year (if even that).

I haven't heard of anyone on CD talking about feeling unwelcome either, but I have on other sites, and occasionally hear about it from people I know who've moved here from other areas. Like I said, I think it just depends on what you're used to. It definitely felt like "closed" community to me at first, but then I've lived in places like Savannah GA, New Orleans, Atlanta, etc.