Relocating to Nashville - Salary and cost of living expectations? (Brentwood: student loans, median income)

[CountryGirl2b=]

To check housing prices look at Williamson County on this website. Plug in your budget and see what pops up!

RealTracs Real Estate Mid-South Property Finder

You can look for houses OR for rentals. For a house, you CAN get a small (1500 sq ft) house in Franklin for $250,000 if you are patient. But $350,000 to $400,000 will of course, get you that curb appeal.

Electricity is VERY cheap for me, coming from CT. In winter our electric heat (again, about 1500 sq ft condo) could easily hit $600. Here it might be (gas) about $130? And my summer A/C bill was $70 last month.

Property taxes are pretty reasonable here. Again, I have a small house, but it's $1300 compared to nearly $6,000 in CT. You can find the property taxes for a house if you look it up on Zillow.

No income tax, but there IS a "Hall Tax" on dividends and interest of 6%.

Gas is probably cheaper than NY? Last time I went to Costco it was $2.20 a gallon.

You'd need a car or two here. Nashville is not great with public transportation.

You could live VERY well on $170,000. And I think you could even live a good life on half that if you wanted.

[usamathman]

Originally Posted by CountryGirl2b=

You could live VERY well on $170,000. And I think you could even live a good life on half that if you wanted.

Absolutely agree.

With those combined salaries you all can live very well here.

Nashville is a nice city.

Cannot be compared with NYC in regards to entertainment and hustle and bustle.

But worth a move if you are a looking for a place to settle.

[Siamese Kitty]

I've heard both things from transplants-some have been able to retain their salaries, others not so much. That said, as others have pointed out 170K combined should afford a comfortable existence in our city. Which parts of South Nashville are you considering?

You may also want to throw schools into the equation as a pro/con for an area. Please check out greatschools.org.

Good luck with your search!

[Sunflower_gal]

You didn't mention how many years of experience your wife has in the accounting field. Entry-level accountants are making $45-55k in this area. So unless she is straight out of school with her CPA, she should be able to do better than 50% of her East Coast salary. I think on $170k per year in suburban Nashville would be very comfortable, especially with no state income tax. TN does Hall tax instead. Good luck with your decision!

[broll20]

Comfortable is a understatement. You'll be just fine.

[HamburgerSV]

About 2-3 years in a big4 firm and around 5 years in an insurance company and international banks. She also has MBA degree.

Originally Posted by Sunflower_gal

You didn't mention how many years of experience your wife has in the accounting field. Entry-level accountants are making $45-55k in this area. So unless she is straight out of school with her CPA, she should be able to do better than 50% of her East Coast salary. I think on $170k per year in suburban Nashville would be very comfortable, especially with no state income tax. TN does Hall tax instead. Good luck with your decision!

Thanks everyone for your replies.

[Willie1212]

My friend, even if your wife took a 30k haircut, your combined gross income will likely give you the purchasing power here of someone making somewhere between $500k-1mm in NYC. You'll be A-OK...nice home, safe neighborhood, friendly people, lots to do, etc. Nashville has long been a regional banking center. Fifth Third, Regions, Pinnacle & First TN. The new UBS operation is big. As mentioned, Deloitte has multiple operations here, as does other large consulting houses: Earnst & Young, BDO, KPMG, etc. with some pretty big mid-sized regional consulting/CPA firms: LBMC, Kraft, etc. Come on down.

[El Passeaux]

Just remember that Nashville isn't NYC. Public transportation is not very good. You will need a car. Pizza and cannoli's won't be as good or readily available. As long as you come with an open mind and not want to turn Nashville into NYC, it can be an enjoyable place to live.

[bspray]

I disagree with all the people saying you will be comfortable at $170k. Without knowing your debt to income ratio, there is no way to know. We also don't know your lifestyle expectations. If you are planning to live in Franklin or Brentwood and you have any kind of significant school loans, $170k is not necessarily going to go all that far, especially with the ever increasing price of homes here.

You can almost certainly expect to take a pay cut, whether or not you will have a better standard of living is impossible to tell.

One thing you will enjoy is no state income tax and substantially lower property taxes. If you enjoy the culture of the northeast and, in particular Manhattan, you will probably find Nashville lacking. If you're looking for a great place for your family and to raise children, you will probably love it here.

[sucrose]

Williamson county, the wealthiest in the state, has a median income of 90k. Student loans or not, to quote a previous poster, if you're not comfortable at $170k you've got a spending problem. Wondering how insensitive this comes across to the vast majority who make do with much less.