Another moving to Knoxville post (Seymour: apartments, to rent, health insurance) - Tennessee (TN) - City-Data Forum

cory1848 · 04-08-2010, 10:04 AM

Currently in Florida and needing to get out. Visited Knoxville in November and loved it. I love the mountains, motorcycle riding and the general nature of the parks. I am a photographer/designer with my own part time business (maybe full time after the move) and my wife is a massage therapist with a part time job serving.

I know this is a bad time to give up full time jobs to move out of state, but we really need to move on to the next chapter of our lives and can't think of a better place to start. I grew up north of Boston so hate harsh winters, lived in Florida since 95 and really hating harsh summers.

I am wondering what the current state of employment is around town? Wife and I have very little debt so all we need to survive is just small jobs or even retail, health insurance would be a plus too. We are looking at the West side. In November we checked out a bunch of apartments and liked what we saw, rents are cheap. Would love to find a place that has residence upstairs/retail space downstairs. Haven't seen much of that. THoughts?
Looking to move August/Sept. My wife may move up sooner to secure job and housing though.

jessyj2009 · 04-08-2010, 01:57 PM

From what everyone has been saying in other threads the job market is so so. It's better than a lot of places around the country but it's far from ideal. Getting a job may be harder than you think so i would be prepared to go a long while without finding one. Are you financially prepared for this?

My husband and I moved from AZ in late Feb and let me tell you moving is more expensive then you realize. While we were thinking 4-5k to get us going it actually ended up being closer to 10k to get everything set up.

Best wishes.

creeksitter · 04-08-2010, 02:36 PM

The apartment over business situations are few and far between and nonexistant on the west side. Unless you count the new urbanism of northshore town center and that won't be affordable. best bet is to find a nice complex, W knox is full of them.

cory1848 · 04-08-2010, 04:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jessyj2009

From what everyone has been saying in other threads the job market is so so. It's better than a lot of places around the country but it's far from ideal. Getting a job may be harder than you think so i would be prepared to go a long while without finding one. Are you financially prepared for this?

My husband and I moved from AZ in late Feb and let me tell you moving is more expensive then you realize. While we were thinking 4-5k to get us going it actually ended up being closer to 10k to get everything set up.

Best wishes.

I do a lot of remote freelance work as well, so not preferable, it can get me by. Wife can transfer her current job from here to there although she would rather start new somewhere else. So we have options. I have about a 6 month reserve for expenses. I have moved across country many times, well Fl to MA, so I have a good idea on expenses, though I never came close to spending $4-5K for that. How did it cost you so much? You hire movers?

cory1848 · 04-08-2010, 04:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by creeksitter

The apartment over business situations are few and far between and nonexistant on the west side. Unless you count the new urbanism of northshore town center and that won't be affordable. best bet is to find a nice complex, W knox is full of them.

Kind of what I was afraid of... Not married to the West side but wife prefers it... Would love downtown Knoxville but the lack of off street parking and garages limits that.

jessyj2009 · 04-08-2010, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cory1848

I do a lot of remote freelance work as well, so not preferable, it can get me by. Wife can transfer her current job from here to there although she would rather start new somewhere else. So we have options. I have about a 6 month reserve for expenses. I have moved across country many times, well Fl to MA, so I have a good idea on expenses, though I never came close to spending $4-5K for that. How did it cost you so much? You hire movers?

Well being a decently young couple (not too much worth taking) we thought replacing our large furniture would be a lot cheaper than taking our old (beat down) stuff across country. So new bed (1100) new couch (400) lots of the utilities take deposits which we weren't prepared for. 200 for electric 120 for water 110 for cable. This also included our first months rent and deposits. Though it was the small stuff that we didn't really think of. Brand new towels, shower curtains, dishes, silverware, brooms, trashcans etc etc etc.... it all adds up quick.

Though what really bummed me out afterwards is I found out from our tax guy that we could have written off movers on our taxes for the next year. Which would have been a HUGE break for us being self employed. I believe this tax credit goes for everyone so keep that in mind when you move and write it off the next year.

Anyway it seems your family has some flexible options so it may work well for you if you both can find semi decent jobs to survive on.

Best of luck.

creeksitter · 04-08-2010, 08:32 PM

Some of the downtown condos have garages but they are pricey. It's not too hard to find a small house with a garage near downtown. Off street parking is readily available in the nearby neighborhoods. It's not a given, but it's more likely than not.

hiknapster · 04-08-2010, 09:41 PM

I'm from Mass. I lived there 33 years. I also lived in Florida for 10. Tennessee is going to feel like nirvana.

There are jobs in Knoxville, especially for servers and small jobs, as you put it. Where we used to live in Florida, the unemployment rate is 14 percent. Here, it is 8. That's a huge difference.

We moved here in 2005 with a five-year-old, a small amount of furniture, two cars and about $30,000 in tools. I had about $1,000 in my pocket. I spent another $1,000 to put down on a rental. It's doable.

We've thrived in this area while our Florida relatives have badly struggled. Most of them are waiting around for the good jobs to come while we are about to open a business.

When I say that moving to Knoxville was the smartest decision of our lives it is not ridiculous hype. I have the proof.

Yes, it is a write-off and yes, we did it. We wrote off gas, hotels and meals. I'm sure you can at least do that, Jessy.

Yeah, the over/under deal would probably be only in the downtown area. It would be pricey but may be worth it.

cory1848 · 04-09-2010, 07:28 AM

Wow thank you guys! When I will be moving, I will be moving from a 3 br/2bth house to probably a 2/2 so will be getting rid of a lot of stuff but taking what is necessary. We wont need much in terms of small stuff. I expect utility deposits so the amounts Jessy listed are a big help too. Will probably rent a smaller less expensive place for the first year to make sure we like Knoxville in general then plan on settling down. We are in our early 30s and want to start a family so thinking about that as well.

We have about $15k in savings that we can use for the move so hoping that gets us by until we are settled in.

Hiknapster - Thanks, your post was very encouraging. Especially the unemployment rate info. I have a decent job now, pays ok but worry about losing it everyday. It will be outsourced soon, so looking to stay ahead of that. Also looking for better quality of life, simpler jobs so I can enjoy life.

I am figuring $10 hour for jobs for my wife and I and we can be comfortable. Are $10/hr jobs available up there now?

hiknapster · 04-09-2010, 08:09 AM

Utility deposits?

200 for electric.

I don't remember one for water, but we had to pay to have it turned on. I think it was $30. That was to have it turned on that day. It would have been less if we waited two days but the entire family was pretty stinky at that point. LOL That was Powell. If you have KUB (the electric co.), the deposit covers the water, too. Jessy is in Seymour and wow, that is a lot for water!

Cable: no deposit. I worked for Comcast for a few years. Just left several months ago. No deposit.

It is always a good idea to rent first. There are so many nice areas that we are not a lot of help on pinning down an area. It always comes down to you all having to come up and look around and find an area that feels right for you.

Yes, we have $10 jobs, and $8 and $12...Sorry for being a wise guy! LOL

Here's the best advice I can tell you. When we moved from Fort Myers, Florida we found that the pay was the same. Comcast billing support jobs pay $10 a hour, whether you are in Fort Myers or Knoxville.