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Wow, this thread sure went to Hades in a Handbasket in a hurry.
I have never found @Serious Conversation ‘s comments to be offensive. He merely calls things as he observes them.
16+ years ago, we chose to “retire” to 25 acres on a one lane road in Middle Tennessee. We didn’t truly retire after moving here, but COLA in this state allowed us to no longer have to beat our brains out working & driving long hours. For me it was great to only have a PT job and spend most of my time on this farmette with my horses - the horses I personally drove cross-country with me twice, BTW.
I am not originally from California but I did spend five years of what felt like a prison sentence in the Low Desert area. I could not wait to cash out and get back east of the Mississippi. While not originally from Tennessee, I knew exactly where I wanted to plant my horses and myself 25 years before I got here.
I notice the OP has not been back to comment since the original post but, if you are still reading, I will say:
1. Tennessee has three very different geographic areas and fairly different climates, study them on a rolling 12 month basis. Visit the “Tennessee” section of City Data to get some insight.
2. DH and I are in exceptionally good health but the availability of great quality health care is crucial.
“Nobody owns tomorrow” and you will find out how much of tomorrow you don’t own and how grateful you are for a nearby hospital when you have a heart attack that you had no idea anything was wrong.
DH is perfectly fine by now but my point is, look at real estate to where the distance to a good hospital is a comfortable drive for you.
3. Wherever you settle, you had better settle in an area where there are people of like interests.
My road is farming, cattle and horses - not at all different from how I was raised on the OH/PA border. Our road is so full of hairpin curves and steep hills that we don’t have winter maintenance - and that is just how I prefer it. If the road ices over for for 3-4 days, it’s no big deal because we all know how to drive.
No coffee clatching - this is farm country- everyone has work to do. If someone needs help, people “magically” arrive, do what they can do, and just as quietly go back to their own business without expecting a pat on the back.
Daily life where I live is bucolic for me but it’s likely nothing more than a nice place to drive by on a Sunday afternoon for many.
3.1. OP choose your retirement spot wisely. Take the time to visit the strong possibilities during the worst times of their weather, like high heat and humidity. This past Saturday and Sunday, for example, the dew point degree was higher than the humidity %. We hit 90 for the first time this year, so Spring is pretty much over.
If you have allergies, where you live can possibly age them worse. Middle Tennessee is one big allergy attack all year long.
Once you land in your retirement Nirvana, you may not have the energy to pull up stakes and move again if you end up not being happy, so spend some of your money to visit your serious choices for at least a week.
as mentioned... I can and do contact and stay with actual retirees from Pleasant Hill to Hampton. Greeneville retirees have lived there over 50 yrs and their experience is far different than a disgruntled local millennial.
Have frequent contact with actual retirees in Harriman, Dandridge, Elizabethton, Unicoi, JC and yes even Kingsport Their perspective as actual retirees is far different than yours (understandably).
Of course we (C-D) have retiree posters from Oakridge, Knoxville, and Mountian City.
They have reported their desires / benefits / experiences of retiring to NE TN.
Works for many.
Plenty of other C-D retiree posters like and find accommodating retirement destinations within the other (2) Tennessees
Unicoi is a community of about 3,500 people. It's a hamlet between Erwin and Johnson City. It is basically a few businesses at a crossroads. There is a Walmart at the far southern end of the community near Erwin and it's basically gotten known as the site of a very locally popular food truck and farm market stand.
I have owned property in Johnson City before. I went to college there and have worked there for a couple years. Johnson City, Jonesborough, and Abingdon, VA are the only communities here I'd recommend without reservations.
Medical here is an issue for the old or infirm. My ex had to have a hip replacement as a result of her chronic lupus treatment. The local hospitals wouldn't touch a complicated patient like her for what should be a simple joint replacement, even though she was just 25 then. Manager at a place I used to work at had to have a kidney transplant - University of Kentucky and Tennessee effort. Brother of a good friend of mine overturned an ATV and ended up burned - airlifted to a burn unit in Knoxville, no burn unit here. I could name a dozen cases personally of medical care getting bounced.
Greeneville used to have two hospitals. One is being repurposed to elder/behavioral health, the other lost its cardiac ward. Cardiac patients are bounced 45 mins away to JC or an hour plus to Knoxville for anything serious. The city is improving, but I'd never recommend it to someone from out of the area without a lot of due diligence. Yes, I've spent a lot of time down there over the past couple of years on business meetings.
If someone is coming from a middle class area around a larger city, the rural poverty and drug use here will be alarming. If you're coming from rural Mississippi, this might seem like paradise.
Mountain City is extremely isolated and has more ties to Boone, NC than it does to the rest of TN.
I might be "disgruntled," but there is no way I would give the area a blanket recommendation. There is no undiscovered paradise. TN has a lot of tax advantages, business friendly, etc., but if this place was some kind of great area, people would be beating the doors down to get here like they are around Nashville. That's not happening.
...Wherever you settle, you had better settle in an area where there are people of like interests.
My road is farming, cattle and horses - not at all different from how I was raised on the OH/PA border. Our road is so full of hairpin curves and steep hills that we don’t have winter maintenance - and that is just how I prefer it. If the road ices over for for 3-4 days, it’s no big deal because we all know how to drive.
No coffee clatching - this is farm country- everyone has work to do. ...
Indeed! We relocate not only to a locale, but to join the locals. A particular place might have ideal (for us) economic situation, climate, amenities... but if we get amiably juxtapose with the locals, we'll feel isolated and misunderstood. This might sound trivial in theory, especially to introverts. But in practice, "no man is an island".
The real challenge is what happens when our interest in people/culture, is inapposite with our preferences on finances, economy, laws and the like. Example: a gun-loving, low-tax-preferring Libertarian sort, who also likes classical music, literature, museums and the like. That's when we do well to remind ourselves, that there's no paradise on earth.
My now former-locale had many fine advantages, but - to me! - four crucial negatives. These were (1) a depressed economy, including perpetually moribund real-estate market; (2) a prevailing "blue collar" culture; (3) harsh climate; and (4) relatively high taxes. Any of these individually is tolerable, but the full quartet was too much. The current locale is brutal on taxes, so it's likely not a permanent solution. But it's fine for now.
This has been a nice discussion, but I have to wonder about the OP. After three pages of responses, he has yet to return to this thread. Among his requirements are:
- Low property taxes
- Low acquisition cost for Real estate ($150-200k for 1200sqft Townhouse w/2 car garage is the criteria), plan is to spend 8 mos. here in the US, 4 mos. overseas so looking for low running costs
- Low or no tax on investment income (Qualified dividends or interest)
- Tier 1 or Tier 2 metro area
Tier 1 or Tier 2 metro area is limited to Boston, NYC, DC, Chicago, or LA. He expects these things in such a metro?
I'm a native of TN and mostly lifelong residence aside from about four years in the Midwest and roughly a year total in MA on business.
While most of TN is obviously cheaper than most coastal areas and major cities, the best areas of the state in Nashville, Williamson County, Farragut outside of Knoxville, are not exactly inexpensive. Property taxes run about 1% of the current valuation annually in the cities as a back of the napkin guess.
The rural areas and cities that are cheap are cheap for a reason. I grew up in Kingsport. Crime is much higher than average than the rest of the state, which is itself high crime compared to national averages. There are multiple polluting factories and the housing stock is dated. The town smells from the factories. Retail, restaurants, and cultural opportunities are moving elsewhere.
Sure, the housing is cheap. It's a bad place to live.
Greeneville is extremely rural and not very open to outsiders, but it does have some of the best farming land in the state.
However...in TN the tax is based upon assessed value, which is not the same as the market value of the property. The actual rate also varies by location within the state, some counties pay more than others. A home with market value of $350k in my town may be assessed at $81K and pay about $1700 annually in taxes (ask me how I know...LOL). But a house of the same price in Franklin TN could be assessed at $71K and pay $2300 annually. So it's variable, and actually cheaper than what it sounds like when you say 1% of the valuation.
An easy way to compare property taxes is to check on Zillow, or a similar site, pick a home in the desired county at your price point, and then look at the "tax history" section where it will show the annual taxes for that home. That should get you a very close estimate for that county.
as mentioned... I can and do contact and stay with actual retirees from Pleasant Hill to Hampton. Greeneville retirees have lived there over 50 yrs and their experience is far different than a disgruntled local millennial.
Have frequent contact with actual retirees in Harriman, Dandridge, Elizabethton, Unicoi, JC and yes even Kingsport Their perspective as actual retirees is far different than yours (understandably).
Of course we (C-D) have retiree posters from Oakridge, Knoxville, and Mountian City.
They have reported their desires / benefits / experiences of retiring to NE TN.
Works for many.
Plenty of other C-D retiree posters like and find accommodating retirement destinations within the other (2) Tennessees
And pretty much everyone knows how I, a native Californian and actual early retiree, feel about living in east TN. Of course certain people discount my opinion because I live in a mostly retirement community of mostly transplants. I love it here. I get along well with my transplant neighbors (well most of them...haha) as well as the locals, whom I have found to be generally kind, and generous. Are there exceptions? Sure, because people everywhere are more like a tossed salad than a bowl of peas.
I lived my last 10 years before retirement 10 minutes from a small town in the foothills of northern CA, and the distances to town and shopping and medical offices and the types of hospitals nearby are very similar here in semi-rural suburban TN It feels very much like home to me.
Last edited by TheShadow; 05-27-2020 at 08:46 AM..
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Their perspective as actual retirees is far different than yours (understandably). 
