Looking to move between Nashville/Knoxville (Chattanooga, Jackson: fit in, sales, how much)

[eagleriver]

We are considering moving from Oregon on the Left Coast to a nice, quiet rural area, within about 10-20 miles of a med sized (25,000) city, but would like an area with larger hills or preferrably mountains, forest, and less humidity if possible. I know that east of Knoxville would be perfect, but prefer to be within 50 miles or so of Nashville if possible.

Any suggestions?

[RS-1080]

Originally Posted by eagleriver

We are considering moving from Oregon on the Left Coast to a nice, quiet rural area, within about 10-20 miles of a med sized (25,000) city, but would like an area with larger hills or preferrably mountains, forest, and less humidity if possible. I know that east of Knoxville would be perfect, but prefer to be within 50 miles or so of Nashville if possible.

Any suggestions?

Sounds like you wanna live out my way.Can't help you with the heat though,it's hot and humid in TN about anywhere.

[eagleriver]

Originally Posted by RS-1080

Sounds like you wanna live out my way.Can't help you with the heat though,it's hot and humid in TN about anywhere.

You got mountains??

[RS-1080]

Originally Posted by eagleriver

You got mountains??

We have what y'all call hills from what a friend told me from your neck of the woods. He said they farm hills we call mountains

But yes, it's very hilly and alot of farms are pretty steep.There's not alot of flat ground here.

And you can drive anything that you can get to start and run, there is no inspections ( no marta ) on cars out here like bigger towns.Also, tags for your car is less than 27.00 a year.

[denawilliams]

While we do have nice rolling hills in Middle Tennessee, you'll need to go further East, where you'd live much closer to Knoxville (than Nashville) to find mountains. Oregon is one of the places i have not yet gotten the opportunity to visit, but it looks breathtakingly beautiful from pictures.

[yank283]

Have you thought about Cookeville? It's about an hour and 15 minute drive from Nashville. Not a lot of big hills though, like a previous poster said, you would probably need to go a little further east. Chattanooga is in between Knoxville and Nashville and has mountains and is very beautiful but it a little over two hour drive to Nashville.


Cookeville, Tennessee - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[JMT]

Originally Posted by yank283

Have you thought about Cookeville? It's about an hour and 15 minute drive from Nashville. Not a lot of big hills though, like a previous poster said, you would probably need to go a little further east. Chattanooga is in between Knoxville and Nashville and has mountains and is very beautiful but it a little over two hour drive to Nashville.


Cookeville, Tennessee - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cookeville and Crossville don't have mountains, but they are generally a bit less humid than Nashville, particularly Crossville since Crossville is on top of the Cumberland Plateau (Cookeville is about 2/3 up the plateau). In general, Cookeville and Crossville have similar temperatures as some of the towns in East Tennessee's mountains although in the dog days of summer all of Tennessee is pretty hot and muggy except way up on top of the Smoky Mountains.

Here are some pics of the "mountains" in the Cookeville area:

Poplar Grove (southeast of town)



Downtown Cookeville with Buck Mountain in the distance



Cordell Hull Lake

[TNNative]

I like Cookeville but I also like Kingston, though it's closer to Knoxville. Kingston has a nice waterfront area there.

[eagleriver]

Thanks ya'll (how do you say that, again? lol I'm tryin' to learn to fit in...hahaha) for all the input! I will check out the cities mentioned, especially cookeville and crossville (lots of '-villes' there aren't there?) Anyway, the pics were great, the rolling hills are just what I was looking for. We do farm those here!! lol I love the look of the hills with the golden wheat or oats waving in the fall. Many are cut now, and it is so pretty with the big golden patches among the green, nestled into the mountains. We do a lot of grain, grass seed, mint and many other crops here. I have hay fever bad, but wouldn't live in the city for anything!!

How are the local property taxes in the places you mentioned? Is the sales tax of 9.75% (whew!!) all over TN? We don't have sales tax here but the income tax will kill ya.

Thanks again for all your help!! You guys are great!!

[JMT]

Originally Posted by eagleriver

Thanks ya'll (how do you say that, again? lol I'm tryin' to learn to fit in...hahaha) for all the input! I will check out the cities mentioned, especially cookeville and crossville (lots of '-villes' there aren't there?) Anyway, the pics were great, the rolling hills are just what I was looking for. We do farm those here!! lol I love the look of the hills with the golden wheat or oats waving in the fall. Many are cut now, and it is so pretty with the big golden patches among the green, nestled into the mountains. We do a lot of grain, grass seed, mint and many other crops here. I have hay fever bad, but wouldn't live in the city for anything!!

How are the local property taxes in the places you mentioned? Is the sales tax of 9.75% (whew!!) all over TN? We don't have sales tax here but the income tax will kill ya.

Thanks again for all your help!! You guys are great!!

I'm glad you liked the pics! I've lived all over the world and think Tennessee has some beautiful countryside. Like you, I also like the gently rolling hills, particularly up on the Cumberland Plateau because the weather is generally a bit cooler and less humid there than in Nashville and the western half of the state.

You can look on a map and see other small towns around Cookeville and Crossville that you might want to investigate. But if you're looking to be within an hour or so of the Nashville airport, Cookeville might be about as far east as you should look. Putnam County (Cookeville) also has, by far, the best school system in that part of the state. Having a mid-major university in town is a big advantage.

Yes Tennessee has a rather high sales tax although it's slightly less for grocery items. But not having a state income tax is WONDERFUL. I'd much prefer to keep my entire paycheck and then pay a sales tax because that puts me in control of how much I pay in taxes.

At any rate, property taxes in Tennessee vary quite a bit from place to place. Here's where you can check out every property tax rate for every county and town in the state:

TN Comptroller of the Treasury - Division of Property Assessments - 2007 Property Tax Rates (http://www.comptroller1.state.tn.us/PAnew/LR.asp?W=07 - broken link)

The rates are per $100 of assessed value. The assessed value is 25% of the actual value. So let's say you paid $200,000 for land in rural Putnam County; the assessed value would be $50,000. The property tax rate is $2.57. Multiply $2.57 x $500 ($50,000 divided by $100), giving you an annual property tax of $1285.

Here are some pics from Google Images of more areas in that part of the state:

Cookeville City Lake:



A couple of Putnam County scenes:

http://www.putnamcountytn.gov/photos/albums/community2/normal_DCP_5155.jpg (broken link)





Burgess Falls (just south of Cookeville):

http://www.wadih-ghsoubi.com/Nature/1/original/Burgess%20Falls%20in%20Early%20Spring,%20Tennessee .jpg (broken link)

White Plains (just east of Cookeville):



Cumberland Cove (between Cookeville and Crossville):



Jackson County (just NW of Cookeville):



Center Hill Lake (between Cookeville and Nashville):



Fall Creek Falls (between Cookeville and Chattanooga):