From Detroit, MI to Williamson County (Knoxville, Franklin: homeowners insurance, crime, buying a home)

[Carrera4S]

My name is Kevin and I work for AT&T here in the Detroit Metro area. I intend to use the aquisition of BellSouth by AT&T as an opportunity to get out of Detroit and Michigan in general. At first I was considering the Knoxville area but now I believe that Williamson County and more specifically, Brentwood or Franklin is where I want to be and I intend to build a house. I figure I should be able to build a $200,000 house for about $150,000. Being a "city guy" I was wondering if there were any cultural venues, (museums, libraries, science centers, colleges and universities, Zoos), in the greater Nashville area. Do they have any Jazz clubs or radio stations? I guess I'll have no more need for snowmobiles but is there any place close I can jetski? How far is the nearest Porsche/Audi, Aston Martin dealer? Does the area have Sam's Club or Costco? What about Border's Books and maybe a high end home stereo place? Is there an Apple Computer store or a CompUSA? What is the nightlife like? I am 41 with no children and am looking forward to paying a lot less for things like auto/homeowners insurance and property taxes. I'm currently in my "reasearch" phase and am trying to get as much information as I can. When renewing license plates is the cost based on the weight or the price of the vehicle? I'm sure I'll have more questions to come but for right now, I'll just start with these.

Thank you in advance,

Kevin

[JMT]

Originally Posted by Carrera4S

My name is Kevin and I work for AT&T here in the Detroit Metro area. I intend to use the aquisition of BellSouth by AT&T as an opportunity to get out of Detroit and Michigan in general. At first I was considering the Knoxville area but now I believe that Williamson County and more specifically, Brentwood or Franklin is where I want to be and I intend to build a house. I figure I should be able to build a $200,000 house for about $150,000. Being a "city guy" I was wondering if there were any cultural venues, (museums, libraries, science centers, colleges and universities, Zoos), in the greater Nashville area. Do they have any Jazz clubs or radio stations? I guess I'll have no more need for snowmobiles but is there any place close I can jetski? How far is the nearest Porsche/Audi, Aston Martin dealer? Does the area have Sam's Club or Costco? What about Border's Books and maybe a high end home stereo place? Is there an Apple Computer store or a CompUSA? What is the nightlife like? I am 41 with no children and am looking forward to paying a lot less for things like auto/homeowners insurance and property taxes. I'm currently in my "reasearch" phase and am trying to get as much information as I can. When renewing license plates is the cost based on the weight or the price of the vehicle? I'm sure I'll have more questions to come but for right now, I'll just start with these.

Thank you in advance,

Kevin

I can certainly understand why you'd rather live in Nashville than Detroit. Nashville is a fantastic city that has everything you asked about, although the closest Aston Martin dealership is in Atlanta. If you want to find Costco, CompUSA, Borders, etc., have you not looked at their web sites?

And I had to chuckle at some of your questions: are there libraries in Nashville? Are you kidding? Do you think we're all a bunch of illiterate hicks down here? Nashville has one of the best library systems in the country. The main library in downtown Nashville is stunning. "A city with a great library is a great city." And you've never heard of some of the colleges and universities in Nashville, such as Vanderbilt? The city-data.com site for Nashville lists some of the colleges and universities in the city. The city of Nashville visitors bureau web site has all the info you need about museums and such.

As for building a house for $150k in Brentwood or Franklin, good luck. In 2005 there were 400+ homes built in Brentwood at an average cost of $275k. In Franklin there were 900+ homes built at an average cost of $357k. In the rest of Williamson County, there were 1,941 homes built in 2005 at an average cost of $336k. Granted, those are averages, but still it doesn't look like there are many homes built in the $150k range, particularly when you consider the cost of land in Williamson County. So if your budget is limited to $150k, you'll probably have to look elsewhere in the Nashville area such as Wilson County (1300 homes built in 2005 at an average cost of $171k), Sumner County (1700 homes built in 2005 at an average cost of $163k), or Rutherford County (4000 homes built in 2005 at an average cost of $134k). Or even the city of Nashville itself which in 2005 had 3600 homes built at an average cost of $147k. All of that info was taken from right here at city-data.com.

Anyway, good luck with your move!

[Carrera4S]

Where can I find all of this information?

[JMT]

Originally Posted by Carrera4S

Where can I find all of this information?

If you want to find out where CompUSA has stores, go to CompUSA's web site. Same with Borders, Costco, Porsche, etc.

The housing price info was taken from the city-data.com web site for Nashville.

For info on Nashville's libraries, museums, etc., start at the city of Nashville's web site. www.nashville.org You can do a Google search to find all that info, too.

Good luck.

[TNSoundsGood2Me]

[quote=JMT;293078]

As for building a house for $150k in Brentwood or Franklin, good luck. In 2005 there were 400+ homes built in Brentwood at an average cost of $275k. In Franklin there were 900+ homes built at an average cost of $357k. In the rest of Williamson County, there were 1,941 homes built in 2005 at an average cost of $336k. QUOTE]

JMT - Your post was very informative, but I have to question the statistics. I cannot imagine City-Data's statistics on Brentwood are right. Brentwood is the wealthiest town in Williamson County with an average household income of $119,304 (Moderator cut: linking to competitors sites is not allowed) versus the average household income in Franklin, which is $60,209. There is no way that Brentwood's housing is below the Williamson County average of $357,000 or below Franklin's average. In the Brentwood Cool Sprigns Magazine (online at imagesbrentwood.com), the average selling price of a home was listed as $523,477 and going up as many white-collar executives move to new million dollar subdivisions such as Princeton Hills, Governors Club, Annandale, McGavock Farms, Magnolia Vale, Hampton Reserve, etc. To be sure, I went on realtor.com and looked at Brentwood, Williamson County, TN homes under $275,000 and there were only 5 homes, while when I looked at homes over $1 million, there were 97 homes.

[hiknapster]

I think the statistics are hard to keep up with on any of those sites, including Best Places.

When we were researching a move in 2005, statistics on Best Places said that Cape Coral and Fort Myers, Florida were still very affordable. I think it said the average price of a home was $90,000. We, of course, knew better because we lived there and the prices had gone through the roof. That $90,000 may have bought a lot!

I think getting on the MLS and looking at actual real-time prices is the best way to go, which is what we did. We were renters, but it gave us an idea of what to expect when buying a home later. Also, getting the newspapers online to see jobs and rents was invaluable. It isn't a bad idea to actually read the news, too. It gives you a great idea of crime and other issues.

[TNSoundsGood2Me]

Now to answer the original poster's questions! JMT covered most points, but I'll try to finish. There is a Costco and a Sam's Club in the Cool Springs area. There are two Borders I know of in Williamson County. One is in Cool Springs (Franklin area) and another in Brentwood. There is a CompUSA in Cool Springs, and an Apple store in Green Hills (Davidson County). The closest Porsche or Audi dealer is Thoroughbred Motorcars in Nashville, I believe, sells Jaguars and Saabs as well. The first high end electronics store that comes to mind is Tweeter, which is in Cool Springs. The closest lakes for jetskiing are Old Hickory Lake (Davidson County), Percy Priest Lake (Davidon County), Center Hill Lake (DeKalb County), and Tim's Ford Lake (Franklin County).

Nashville has a ton of colleges. Off the top of my head there's Vanderbilt, Belmont, Fisk, TSU, Lipscomb, Trevecca Nazarene, and a whole lot more. As for science centers, there is the Adventure Science Center. Museums I can think of are the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Fisk Center for the Arts, Tennessee State Museum, and a whole lot more, especially for art and historical stuff (especially Civil War type things). There are a lot of old antebellum houses around Nashville, too, that have there own tours and exhibits. As for zoos, there is the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere. As for nightlife, most of that will be in Nashville, and Nashville also has a ton of clubs with covering just about every music genre.

Good luck with your move!

[akm4]

There's an Apple store in the Cool Springs Galleria now too.

[Carrera4S]

Thanks so much to all who responded. Sounds like you guys/gals have a great state in Tennessee and I can't wait to get there.
Kevin D. Caldwell

[akm4]

Kevin-

Let us know how it goes. If you're like me, you may narrow it down to a couple houses before pulling the trigger. I was lucky to meet a local during a lunchbreak who had info my realtor did not. It made my choice much clearer, and I've been grateful ever since.

If you find yourself in the eeny-meeny-miney-mo position, consider asking here. You never know.....

Best of luck!