Igor Blevin's, "A Native Californian in Knoxville" (Columbia: sales, violent crime)
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I am seriously considering renting a place in the Maryville or Seymour area for the summer this year and do a lot of looking at the area.
I have a cousin in law who just lost his wife and My wife and I need to do something besides stay in the city and walk the same trails till the reaper comes for one of us.
Cuz and his wife spent a lot of times up here so we may make him find a friend and live up this way for a couple of months.
Probably get a place with four brs so the kids can take turns.
Any Ideas of a good safe place. No more than 10,000 for the two months.
Igor you should know some of the places as you seem to keep on the roads a lot.
Thanks for the thread, it is full of info and memories!!!
You can check home rentals near Maryville or Seymour on Zillow or Trulia as easily as I can. Pickings are slim for 4 bedroom homes, but none of the 4 bedroom homes are asking over $3,000 per month to rent.
Your biggest issue will be availability if things stay as they are. The Knoxville region is experiencing a boom for people moving into the area, so rents are up but mostly vacancy rates are low. There just isn't much selection available among single family rental units. If you are flexible with your move-in date, you should eventually be able to find a 4-bedroom next summer near Maryville/Seymour but you may have to settle for whatever is available.
I don't know if renting short term for 2 months helps or hurts you. I would think most SFH landlords would want a longer lease. 2 months would work for an apartment.
It sounds like you are just scouting and won't be too picky on a 2-month home rental, especially if you maximize outdoor time rather than indoor time.
They are building everywhere these days around Maryville. They are building new homes along Old Niles Ferry Road almost down to Greenback. I only say this because if they can't sell those homes, you may see some available as rentals next summer until they can off load them. Homes here in Knoxville are still selling if they aren't over priced. Demand is still strong and people move here with enough cash from the sale of their old home that interest rates don't matter.
Safety? Well, my knee jerk response is -- avoid Alcoa. Alcoa seems to be the roughest area. You proabably already know that. I didn't case the whole town, but driving around Alcoa, my crime app stayed in the "elevated" range. Not deadly or anything, but who wants porch pirates and stuff like that?
Futher from downtown Maryville seems to be safer whether you head southwest to Greenback, or south down Montvale, or southeast down Lamar Alexander Parkway, or northeast on Sevierville Road to Seymour or just south toward the mountains.
I personally don't like it just west of Maryville. Seems run down and dumpy everwhere around there, until you get well away from Maryville toward Friendsville or up to Louisville.
I can scout out a little bit of more safe/less safe area with my crime app, especially if you have spots you want me to scout out, I can drive out there for a look see. It helps me too get more familiar with Maryville.
I use an iphone app called "Crime and Place" tailored to my specs. For example, rapes not a crime I am worried about. I don't expect to be murdered. I tend to focus on home and auto burglary and assault/robbery out and about.
They seem to be adding fiber optic in outlying areas where there used to be no direct internet service, but I don't know a start/completion schedule. Internet is coming.
I have only lived in West Knoxville for 18 months, coming from Sacramento. I can help you better if you let me know what you are looking for regarding my impression. Cost, traffic, weather, amenities, people, shopping, food, or what?
Futher from downtown Maryville seems to be safer whether you head southwest to Greenback, or south down Montvale, or southeast down Lamar Alexander Parkway, or northeast on Sevierville Road to Seymour or just south toward the mountains.
We are thinking about adding Seymour and Sevierville to our list of 'maybe good to retire' places.
Have you visited and if so, what was your impression?
I think Sevierville would be too touristy (if this is a word lol) but still want to check it out.
We are thinking about adding Seymour and Sevierville to our list of 'maybe good to retire' places.
Have you visited and if so, what was your impression?
I think Sevierville would be too touristy (if this is a word lol) but still want to check it out.
Seymour is small. It seems quiet and peaceful. I can't imagine there is much crime out there, but eventually I will drive over and get some data from my crime app.
I have only driven through Sevierville. I know little of it. I hear it is a bit expensive due to mountains proximity. Not Gatlinburg expensive. They are getting a Buc-ees.
Seymour feels too remote for me but it is actually only 20 minutes to downtown Maryville. It is pretty and a short hop to the mountains. Short. Hop. If you are outdoorsy, that is a good spot. If you just want peaceful living, there is a lot south, southeast, and east of Maryville that fits the bill.
It is not like Seymour is all ranches. There are suburbs out there, so take your pick. You can have land or just a lot. There is both.
One thing that keeps me local to Knoxville is proximity to good medical services as I age. Both Seymour and Sevierville are 30 miles to UT medical. I don't know anything about the quality of hospitals in Sevierville or Maryville.
Sevierville is just North of Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. It is sort of the gateway through which the majority of PF/GB tourists access the tourist mecca that is PF/GB. Traffic can be heavy, especially on weekends, summer vacation, and spring break, oh and the fall leaf time, and the holidays. So pretty much most of the time it's a tourist traffic disaster on the main thoroughfare. If you get out from the downtown, it's better, but you will have to deal with the tourist traffic when you go into town.
Here is a link to my blog post with a map of crime rates around Maryville and Seymour. It is a starting point for relative information, not a be-all or end-all. Generally, crime is lowish all over the area and matches the generally low crime rate listed on City Data for those cities. Not Alcoa, of course.
Seymour looks higher than I expect it is, but I have no way of truly knowing. IMHO, my crime app somewhat overestimates crime in rural areas.
Sevierville is just North of Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. It is sort of the gateway through which the majority of PF/GB tourists access the tourist mecca that is PF/GB. Traffic can be heavy, especially on weekends, summer vacation, and spring break, oh and the fall leaf time, and the holidays. So pretty much most of the time it's a tourist traffic disaster on the main thoroughfare. If you get out from the downtown, it's better, but you will have to deal with the tourist traffic when you go into town.
For fun I checked out Tellico village. Crime free. You live in the safest place but you already knew that.
2.5 - violent crime
2.2 - property crime
Just all over Tellico village. Your biggest crimes are probably jaywalking and people who don't pick up their dog's droppings. Crime doesn't hop up until you are approaching Sweetwater.
Tourist areas are impossible to gauge due to retail theft or pick pockets or car break-ins that would never affect you in your neighborhood or at your local grocery store. I think we all know crime in resort areas can be high. Reported crime rates always look worse than residents really experience.
My crime app for the Smoky Mountains national park looks like something from Mad Max. It is probably just alot of car break ins while people are hiking. I don't know. It is probably just a skewed value because there are so many visitors to a place where so few live, the alghorythm is no longer accurate for those assumptions. That is why Myrtle Beach looks like the south side of Chicago, when locals will tell you that residential crime is really not that high.
Unless I missed it, you previously mentioned Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, and Florida as possible states.
Dark horse Florida was never a realistic candidate, but just a fantasy of luxury beach living that I knew was beyond my financial reach. I was only realistically considering Jacksonville which was not a good fit outside of being closed to the beach. Florida has so many issues from flat land to long brutal summers.
My fantasy of living within miles from the Atlantic Coast were never a realistic one.
Unplanned soaring inflation has made me greedy for a "no income tax state" to stretch my retirement dollars. It saves me several thousands a year. That eliminated Virginia and South Carolina. I would be living in South Carolina if it did not tax income.
It is sad to prioritize money over quality of life. I hate that, but I am playing defense. Nobody knows how long inflation chip away my buying power. I don't get raises. With low inflation, I would still seriously consider South Carolina.
Alabama was sort of a dark horse too, though it doesn't tax my pension -- a fantasy of living in Orange Beach on the Gulf. Realistic is Huntsville, but I prefer Knoxville to Huntsville.
Soaring inflation and the housing boom changed everything. A home I could have paid $400,000 for in 2019 is now $600,000. I am not one of those rich Californians who sold an 1100 SqFT home in LA for a million dollars. I think I made $80,000 in equity in 10 years on my last home. I am not "money no object".
I am almost certainly staying in the area around Knoxville, Tennessee and have started home shopping.
I like living in the Knoxville area for its fantastic day-to-day retirement liveablity. Low taxes, low cost of living, peaceful with low crime in outlying areas, very polite and friendly people (southern hospitality is genuine), ample shopping, ample restaurants, gun-friendly, and the scenic beauty of rolling wooded hills and low mountains everywhere.
It is funny. Small things can make a difference, like only having to renew my Tenn drivers license every 8 years, paying only $75 to register my car, and not having to smog test my car every year. Little annoyances add up fast. Tennessee doesn't have all those little annoyances that more heavy-handed states have that want to regulate every aspect of your life right down to handing out tickets for not recycling glass bottles, like Seattle does.
These freedoms don't come up in forum discussions but they add up fast and make a difference in my quality of life.
Things I dislike about Knoxville are that it is completely unwalkable, the riverfront is under-developed IMHO, the downtown is really small and rink-a-dink, no culture such as museums or live plays (I knew that giong in & what travel is for), and there is a severe excess of fried food restaurants to the detriment of other healthier places I would rather eat. Southern fare is great at 20. Not so much at 65. Still delicious, but...
Bonus round: I am an hour to the Smoky Mountains. I was going out every day during fall to see the leaves turn and watch their splendor unfold. We are talking an hour from my door (without traffic, LOL, as if).
My main reason I like Knoxville I would term as "low hassle factor". It is peaceful. This may not be true for workers or commuters, but it is true for me. Other thinks I like are proximity to moou
A sad reason I am "settling" for Knoxville is that I am out of time searching at 65 years old. I want to settle down now, not wait 10 years. Good enough is good enough. I am happy to indulge my belief that God lead me here for a reason, like he did my last home. Much of what I am giving up living here, I would be using less and less as I age. As I age and physcially decline, the most important things for me will be the inside of my home, my neighbors, nearby shopping and medical.
Meanwhile, I can always vacation to Alexandria Virginia and Charleston SC and... on and on.
I am "settling" for Knoxville because it fulfills all my needs, despite not all I want. Life is a compromise. All I need is what adds to happiness. As much as we can carry, we can't have it all.
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