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Tennessee's statewide crime rate may skew high because it includes the far-away Memphis and Nashville metro areas, ....but I suspect that Eastern TN's rate would be comparable to the Appalachian region of neighboring states. And TN also has one of the lowest tax rates, especially for retirees.
While Memphis has a well-known crime issue, rural east TN is not the Mayberry a lot of people think it is. What's different here is that the more rural you go, the worse it gets usually.
There is a lot of pill/meth/opoid abuse here, a lot of property crime (usually related to drug addicts or people looking for drugs/money to buy drugs), and a lot of domestic violence. Random violent crime is low. I'm sure a lot of the domestic issues never get reported. A woman's corpse was found in a "septic overflow" pond in a trailer park in a rural, high crime county just west of me a few days ago. No idea who she was or why the corpse was there. There is always some incident going on in these backward rural counties. A good rule of thumb in east TN is if the county doesn't have an interstate running through it, it is going to be backward and screwed up.
TN reports each crime an arrestee is charged with a separate incident. Most states do not. If someone robs a pharmacy with an illegal gun, they're going to get charged with robbery, the illegal gun, possibly assault with a deadly weapon - each thing is reported separately. That makes the crime rate seem higher than it truly is.
I've talked to numerous people on the TN boards who think rural TN is something like you'd see in a Gatlinburg brochure, then get down here and realize a lot of areas don't have cell service, broadband internet, only have well water, etc. Then the neighbors are insular and their families have been here for generations and don't want newcomers moving in. A good portion of the community is either drug-addled or a family member of someone who is.
I don't know how we compare to rural western NC, etc., but people relocating to some very rural area in Appalachia from outside the area really need to be careful.
Youve been making these same posts for nearly 3 years, and have been given hundreds of responses. The bottom line is, you cant make an important move based on anonymous internet posts. What one person likes about an area, another person will have a totally different view. The bottom line is, you just have to visit these places yourself. Renting is an excellent idea, even renting an RV to travel to different areas. You have to decide what YOU like.
Might need to get a little aggressive to sell you own place first. You've had it for sale for over 2 years.
Exactly. My wife and I have gone around and around about where we want to move in NC: Asheville, Charlotte, or Wilmington, over and over. The solution is to make the trip and we're going for two weeks in the summer. Google images only goes so far in helping people make relocation decisions. You have to go there, drive around, look at housing and the job market (if applicable,) meet the people, check out the amenities, and get a feel for the place, and the longer you can stay, the better. We can't stay longer than two weeks because we still work unfortunately, but we've been to parts of it before so that should help.
Florida definitely has couple weather bands. Northern FL gets colder in the winter then Southern FL you need almost
need to get far south as Fort Myers to get consistently warm winters. Obviously you can do lots of research on the internet if weather is a factor for you. Everywhere in Florida has high humidity in the summer.
Before renting take trips. You need to really experience July in Florida, I think this will make your decision easier. I have focused my research on the Asheville, Hendersonville, Tennessee, SW VA area and that will be our spot. Very mild winters for us coming from Maryland, way different in a good way from where you are coming from. If you can afford it Hendersonville/Asheville would be the place to look at first. As for the crime in Tennessee it's not that bad and limited to certain areas which throws off the stats.
Florida is a long state and the climate is different in different parts of the state so when evaluating the state you might need to test a norther and southern location. My preference is central Fl toward the north. Remember no state income tax. Sales tax 6 or 7%.
For Central FL try Ocala and look at On Top of The World. You can go from older resales to smart homes depending on your budget. The HOA fees vary a lot as some includes outside maintenance and other trash pick up at your home and mail delivered t your home vs central pick up areas.
You should be able to go to the voter registration sites for the county you are interested in and get an idea of race and party.
What about the Southwest? Arizona, etc.? No winter, and no humidity.
That was my thought, but it seems like the OP is east-coast centric?
AZ is pretty friendly on homeowners insurance (not a lot of natural disasters) and property tax. It's not a liberal state, but one can certainly find leftish pockets if that's important.
Is there some reason Georgia is off the list? Seems to me south and coastal Georgia might fit your bill. Although parts are about as religious as South Carolina.
The area around Oak Ridge,TN is pretty cosmopolitan, as the South goes. I am not sure if it's warm enough for you year-round or not.
I tend to agree with the post that if cold means pain, probably southern Florida is where it's at for you, warts and all.
Florida is a long state and the climate is different in different parts of the state so when evaluating the state you might need to test a norther and southern location. My preference is central Fl toward the north. Remember no state income tax. Sales tax 6 or 7%.
For Central FL try Ocala and look at On Top of The World. You can go from older resales to smart homes depending on your budget. The HOA fees vary a lot as some includes outside maintenance and other trash pick up at your home and mail delivered t your home vs central pick up areas.
You should be able to go to the voter registration sites for the county you are interested in and get an idea of race and party.
I don't mean to get you defensive but the northern most part of Florida is still south of Georgia and that's the deep south and very very hot, especially for someone coming from New York. Of course the trade off is you have 9 months of great weather.
Hubbie and I will be retiring when our house sells in NY. We are in our early 60's, liberal, and atheists. Except for our age, no one would know: that is, we get along with everyone and are very friendly and respect everyone's opinion and beliefs.
I have fibromyalgia and during the long, cold NY winters, I'm usually in pain 24/7. But feel good in the summer. Because of that, we were thinking of retirement in Florida.
However, Florida isn't cheap-in desirable places anyway- plus the hurricanes, sinkholes, high insurance, over-crowding, etc.
Plus the heat, humidity and bugs, but there will be gulf breezes.
We were considering Dunedin, Florida (north of Clearwater on the Gulf).
Then we thought of NC, possibly Hendersonville, Waynesville, or Brevard. Didn't research any where out of the mountains yet, but those areas have old fashioned, "main street", real town appeal.
Altho we would have a milder winter with snow in NC- I don't know if that would bother me or not (tho it can't be any worse than I have now), whereas, Florida would be warm (tho very hot in summer and I don't know if THAT would bother me).
Then I keep reading about ppl who retire to Florida and hate it, so they move to the Carolinas.
I'm so depressed, this will be our last chance to move and it has to be the right one. We will be taking a road trip this summer, but that's still not the same as living there.
Kindly give me any info about either state, and those-or other-town ideas.
We ruled out Tennessee because of the high crime rates (that also has a winter and snow, and told that ice storms were a big issue there). Not sure about SC, but that just never appealed to us. Ga is too rural except in the Atlanta area, and never appealed to us.
I'm willing to read the good, bad, and ugly. Especially those from ppl who moved to these states, or moved to Florida, and then moved out.
Thanks.
I've been to all of those towns in NC. They're gorgeous! However, they are tourist central and NOT cheap places to live. Yes, they do get snow. Not nearly as much as we do in NY. However, they don't have equipment to deal with it like we do and people have no idea how to drive in it like us. When I lived in SC, we stayed home when there was the threat of flakes. Same when we visit our NC family.
You can't shop for a place to live online really. You have to go and visit. More than once is best. Go at different times of the year. Especially if you're looking in the mountain towns in NC. The tourism traffic can be absolutely insane. Some people can't deal with it.
Southern humidity is much longer and higher than it is here. I couldn't take the heat and humidity when I lived in SC. It literally made me physically ill. People would say oh just stay home....ummmm it's in the 90s - 110s for like 8 or more months of the year! Yes, there's air conditioning, but you still have to go outside to the car! I do need groceries. And staying home all the time does get old and boring. I've never been in such hot movie theaters in my life until I moved there.
We ran our air conditioner year round in SC. Yes, there were a few days during the winter we would switch it to heat, but most of those days the central air would be back on in the afternoon. We weren't anywhere near the coast. We were further south than Atlanta....and it's called Hotlanta for a reason!
Good luck in your search! But seriously visit and visit during different times of year wherever you're really considering retiring to.
What about the Southwest? Arizona, etc.? No winter, and no humidity.
Arizona is so dry that dust is a constant irritation. We lived in the Phoenix area for 14 years after 28 years in Florida. We had some good times there, but found the winters much more chilly than the Tampa Bay area. The AZ summer you presume that it will be over 100 every day. The local newspaper runs a contest on who can guess the day it will first reach 100 every year. We did see 115 a few times. Elevation makes a huge difference, Flagstaff at 7000' gets 5' of snow a year, up in northern AZ. I have only seen 100 once in FL in a total of 30 years living here.
We returned to FL 2 years ago to stay.
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