Maryville or Knoxville? (for sale, real estate, mortgage)

[Susana Godoy]

I want to thank many of you on your feedback about my previous question on my possible move to Knoxville, TN. I would like to get some opinions about Maryville. Someone mentioned this small city to me, I know that it is about 15 min. away from Knoxville, and I would like to get some good pros and cons about both cities....such as…jobs, schools, housing, crime, ethnicity, night life, if any? etc…

Let me give you guys some feedback of what I am looking for ...I have been living in Miami for over 5 years now, and I am tired of the hectic city life style...I am 28 years old, and recently graduated from DeVry University with a Bachelor's degree in Business. I have 4 years of marketing assistant experience for a commercial real estate firm and I am really open to work in any area; however, I would prefer the marketing industry...I do not have any children yet, but my idea is to form a family as soon as I move and settle into a nice city. My husband works in IT, so I don’t think I will have to worry too much about him finding a job. (I think??) (....by the way, he is thinking to go back to college) I am willing to maybe live in Maryville and travel to work to Knoxville….(would that be a good idea??) My husband and I are looking for a nice neighborhood area where people are friendly, but not a crowded area. We like a lot of space between houses with a big back yard…but, we want something affordable (not sure how much is the average income in TN) I am really over the partying nightlife, lived in Miami all this time and it’s not all that good…..I guess if I want to go out, I’d go to Nashville ….Anyways, anything you can input would be great! Again, thanks for your help…this is a great forum, glad I found it, cause this will help me make up my mind on where to move……Good luck to everyone looking for a nice place to live …

[bbkaren]

I'm in a very similar situation as you, even to the point of being in Marketing...although I have a decade and a half on you in age!

We're looking in Maryville area as well. We need rural. We live in NJ and are fortunate enough to have a place that's surrounded by state land on 3 sides so we only have one neighbor right now.

But we have a megachurch of over 5,000 people coming to a location down the street from us and don't look forward to the traffic that comes with it.

Plus, our mortgage payment is $3,500 a month and the rat race to pay for that is killing us.

We have a 15 month old son who'll be school age by the time we plan to move to TN, in about 5 years so school quality is a concern for us as well. My other two from my first marriage are 15 and 16 so they'll be done with school by then.

From what I understand, Maryville has very good schools within the city limits; apparently the schools in the outlying areas are not bad but the ones in Maryville I hear are better.

We're looking in both locations because we're concerned we might not find land we like within the city limits (we're looking to buy land now, then build as we're able, then move down after selling this place).

Walland seems very nice although the land that's for sale there seems to be all in gated communities, which we have no interest in. If we wanted to live in some synthetic gated community we could stay here in NJ.

Maryville seems to have some parcels (we're looking for a few acres, not just a building lot--we tend to want a buffer between us and the neighbors) and we're going to have a friend drive by to see if it's the sort of thing we'd like.

It seems like in that area you can get land for about $10,000 an acre for larger parcels. Of course, if you're looking in town or a subdivision, you can pay twice that for a 1/4 acre lot...

The Blount county chamber of commerce has some relocation and introduction packets that we intend to order; they're not free but we're pretty sure it's an area we're interested in so I'm gonna spring for them.

From the locations I've been looking at, Knoxville has tended to be more like 30-45 minutes away, but we're trying to stay down towards the mountains more. I don't know, but I think 15 min from Knoxville might be a little optimistic for Maryville...?

This is, so far, all I've been able to learn about the area. Good luck!

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