Best Tennessee County (Memphis, Knoxville, Chattanooga: homes, unemployment rate, to buy)

[youngarmywife]

My husband and I are considering different areas to buy land and build a home. We are primarily looking in Tennessee (some in northern Alabama).

We are not sure which county would be the best fit for us. We are looking for the following characteristics:

#1 Rural. We do not want to be near any major cities or living in an incorporated town.

#2 Limited Zoning Restrictions. We want to buy our land and do as we please.

#3 Adequate Medical Care. We want to have good access to decent medical care. We don't want to be in the car for more than two hours to get a broken leg set or stitches, etc.

#4 Good schools. I am a high school biology teacher and would like to work in a good school.

#5 Not racist. Everyone in entitled to their beliefs. We'd prefer to avoid those whose beliefs involve actively hating others because of the color of their skin - this goes for white people and black people.

#6 Community. While we don't want to live in a town, we want to be fairly close (under 20 minute drive) from a town where there is a good community, some shopping (groceries, hardware store, etc.), some community stuff to do (i.e. 4-H club, boy scouts, etc.), county fair, churches, etc.

Any information, advice or opinions are much appreciated. Thank you.

[2mares]

I would think your first consideration would be jobs.

#1 you can find that in any TN county
#2 you can find that in any rural area
#3 rural does not equate to the amenities of cities but in most any county you can get to a hospital within 2 hrs.
#4 again, rural does not equate to amenities of cities. Smaller, rural counties do not get the tax dollars that more populated areas do thus sometime the schools are not up to par.
#5 Im not sure what your saying. There are racists everywhere, but I know of no area where an entire county would activly be hating an entire race of people.
#6 you will find this in any county

[hiknapster]

I've never said this before but...

give me a break.

You can easily get all of those things in small town or rural areas of a state like Massachusetts but a lot of it is not going to happen in rural or small town TN, especially good schools.

And yes, worry about where you are going to work first. Knox County has an unemployment rate of about 6.8 percent but rural Scott County is near 20 percent. Backwoods down here can really be just like it sounds.

[youngarmywife]

I am not coming at this completely clueless. I lived on Lookout Mountain for four years. My family is from Cheraw, SC. We're not some random folks just trying to find "pleasantville." I used open ended questions on purpose. I don't expect to find a "perfect" place. We decided on Tennessee (and/or Alabama) because of our political/religious beliefs and climate requirements. The six points above are secondary considerations. #1 was to exclude counties attached to Chattanooga, Nashville, Knoxville and Memphis.
#4 Schools are secondary. I don't have to work and I can homeschool my kids.

2mares, Hi. I should have done a better job explaining what I meant by good schools. I am not looking for brainiacs or a high salary. I would like a safe school that is not run by idealistic liberal "do-gooders." I was at a school in FL and a "child" brought a gun to school, instead of expelling him, there was a meeting to determine if writing threatening letters and carrying a gun was a manifestation of his dyslexia and ADD. Not joking one bit. I would also appreciate it if when I call a parent to tell him/her that his son cannot read that they not say something like, "You're just saying this because my kid is black." I don't care if it's fancy or high-tech. I just want to teach children in a disciplined school that supports learning.

Yes, there are racists everywhere but when racism is the predominant sentiment, some folks think that it's ok to harass their neighbors. I want to avoid that. Also some counties tend to be very divided. The black folks live on one side of the track and hate white people and the white people live on the other side of the tracks and hate the black people. I would like to avoid that. If most of a county hates a certain type of people or if the county has a lot of hatred from both sides towards each other, it's a little difficult sometimes to get anything done.

hiknapster,
Thank you for reminding me that life costs money and I need a job. In your opinion, which counties have decent schools?

[Beretta]

OMGosh, there truly are MANY counties that are so wonderful!

[nashvols]

Originally Posted by youngarmywife

My husband and I are considering different areas to buy land and build a home. We are primarily looking in Tennessee (some in northern Alabama).

We are not sure which county would be the best fit for us. We are looking for the following characteristics:

#1 Rural. We do not want to be near any major cities or living in an incorporated town.

#2 Limited Zoning Restrictions. We want to buy our land and do as we please.

#3 Adequate Medical Care. We want to have good access to decent medical care. We don't want to be in the car for more than two hours to get a broken leg set or stitches, etc.

#4 Good schools. I am a high school biology teacher and would like to work in a good school.

#5 Not racist. Everyone in entitled to their beliefs. We'd prefer to avoid those whose beliefs involve actively hating others because of the color of their skin - this goes for white people and black people.

#6 Community. While we don't want to live in a town, we want to be fairly close (under 20 minute drive) from a town where there is a good community, some shopping (groceries, hardware store, etc.), some community stuff to do (i.e. 4-H club, boy scouts, etc.), county fair, churches, etc.

Any information, advice or opinions are much appreciated. Thank you.

#1 pretty much eliminates Shelby, Davidson, Knox, and Hamilton Counties, and probably a dozen more are major suburban counties of those cities, but with some pretty rural areas. So the question is...you want rural (which, by definition, could be found in all 95 counties), but you don't want to be near a major city. How close would you be willing to be? 20 miles? 50 miles?

#2 if you live in an unincorporated part of a county, you're probably not going to have a lot of zoning restrictions, unless you live near some federal or state land (like forests or parks).

#3 I can't think of any place that would be 2 hours from decent medical care (saying decent = regional medical center in a town of 20-30,000 or so). You'd pretty well have to be distilling moonshine in the hills and hollers to not meet that criteria.

#4 As the posters above stated, this is probably your most unreasonable criterion. You might find good schools in some select small towns, but I know of no "good" school that is in a rural area, save for a private boarding school in Bell Buckle.

#5 There are racists everywhere, and I'm sure where you currently live is no different. I don't think racism is the problem in Tennessee it once was. I don't think any rural area is overwhelmingly better or worse than another. Some advice for dealing with those who are racist: ignore them. Don't be bothered by them.

#6 What do you mean by "a good community"? You could probably get opinions for probably 100 places being "good communities" in the state, that all have some sort of grocery, hardware store, etc.


Also, Tennessee varies quite a bit from West to Middle to East. Do you have any ideas about the physical, topographic, or demographic preferences you would want?

Would you be willing to live in the outskirts of a suburban county, or 10 miles or so from a mid sized city (30-60,000)?

Why I ask this is that with the "good schools" criterion, the best options will actually be in the suburban school districts, as well as some around some of the larger towns. You probably wouldn't want to commute 30+ miles just to go to work every day. I would personally start looking about 10 miles outside of some of these places. Also, suburban districts are probably going to pay more on average than their rural counterparts. Many areas of rural Tennessee have a higher poverty rate and very high unemployment.

[kingchef]

choose north east madison county, and be done w/ it. that region can provide you w/ all the things necessary for a decent life.

[jabogitlu]

YoungArmyWife, check out Johnson county. Rural, within an hour (mostly) to Johnson City, Bristol and Boone NC. Most of the schools are old fashioned and good; the one I'm most familiar with is Shady Valley Elementary in Shady Valley.

Warning that it may be cooler and snowier than the southern middle counties that you're looking into now.

[shinestx]

Look at northern Maury and western Rutherford Counties. For good public schools, look at western Sumner and Wilson Counties. I think you'll find exactly what you're looking for in Wilson County. Good luck!

[nashvols]

Originally Posted by shinestx

Look at northern Maury and western Rutherford Counties. For good public schools, look at western Sumner and Wilson Counties. I think you'll find exactly what you're looking for in Wilson County. Good luck!

I thought Maury county might be a decent suggestion...but away from Spring Hill to keep with the "rural" nature. Williamson County still has some quite rural areas...but with any of the counties that ring around Nashville, you don't know exactly what it will look like 10-20 years from now. Western Wilson and northern Sumner Counties could be decent options, too.

Some of the better places "away" from big cities might be Putnam County, Coffee County, Monroe County, and areas around the Tri Cities.