Differences between retiring to Crossville or Greeneville ? (Murfreesboro, Johnson City: for sale, real estate)

[DADDYO49]

.........Having decided that I would like to retire to Tennessee.........I was wondering what are the differences between and/or pros & cons of retiring to Crossville vs. Greeneville ??.....Other than the fact that I understand that , geographically, Crossville is " Cumberland Gap- MiddleTennessee " and Greeneville is " Mountain Town - East Tennessee "-------I was wondering what, if anything, makes each town good or bad for retirement ?---For reason(s) unknown to me----When I compare the internet real estate/ housing offerings between each Town-----------Crossville appears to have many more houses that are being offered for sale than the number of houses that are being offered for sale in Greeneville ??---And the Crossvile houses also appear to be offered at prices well below that of similar Greeneville houses ???

[Tek_Freek]

for the number of houses being higher in Crossville is that you may be picking up houses in Fairfield Glade, which is just north. I know that when I search FFG that the houses/lots are often shown as being in Crossville.

[DADDYO49]

.........As I have been researching internet " statistics " re: Greeneville vs. Crossville.........I have observed that Crossville has a substantially higher crime rate than Greeneville has ? Could this be because the rate reflects a greater number of houses ( that you refer to ) within the area of Crossville ? Or could the rate be effected by virtue of one town ( Greeneville or Crossville ) having a larger population than the other ??---I find it unusual that Crossville would have a higher crime rate than Greeneville & have no clue as to what may cause this higher crime rate ? Does anyone know anything about the Crime rate in either of these towns ?

[mbmouse]

I don't know much about Crossville, but as far as Greeneville, most of the "crime" seems to be domestic. Most crimes are committed with a personal reason attached. If a car gets vandalized, it usually comes out that the owner of the car did something to the one who vandalized the car first and such. There have been a few shootings in the past few years in Greeneville, one I heard of was a woman that was sick of her husband beating her and shot him. Another was two brothers who were drinking, got into an argument, guns were brought out.
I have yet to hear of such things as "A rash of home burglaries" or car jackings or other such crimes that would make me worried about driving into or around Greeneville, locking my car to go in a store, letting my boys go into one store while I go into another. Again, not sure about Crossville, but I feel very safe when I go to Greeneville.
Just my opinion.

[DADDYO49]

........As a native new Yorker; I have ALWAYS locked my car in the driveway or to go in a store & have ALWAYS locked my house whether or not I am home. I presume that you must feel that both you and your car are safe and secure in Greeneville ? I wonder if residents of or visitors to Crossville also feel that it is not necessary to lock their cars or houses ?? Is it a common practice in Tennessee that most or many people don't feel it necessary to lock their cars or houses ???....I am posing these questions because I sincerely am not familiar with crime rates and/ or what is considered to be " common-sense " lifestyles in Tennessee ( are there " neighborhood watch " programs in Tennessee ? )

[mbmouse]

It all depends on where you live and are. There are many towns, outskirts of Downtown Greeneville being some (such as Moshiem, baylington, Afton, Midway etc,) that everyone basically knows everyone else. If I see someone getting into Mr. Smiths car that is not Mr. Smith, well, I would say something and so would 3 people around me. I guess you could call that a neighborhood watch? I do lock my car at the mall in Johnson City for example, but not if I run into the local hometown grocery store. Sure, of course I use common sense with my personal property but if in the middle of summer I don't want to roll up the windows to cause an oven in my car, I feel it is rather safe to leave it open while I run in to get a few groceries. As for the house, na rarely lock it, but I also have a very large dog inside of it to greet anyone who would want to venture in, and she knows who lives here and who doesn't Also only a few hours a day when no one is home, so that makes a difference. And we live in a development where someone is always home. Again, can be a neighborhood watch...is it organized? No, it is just common courtesy of neighbors, if something is going on at your house that looks fishy or wrong, you bet your neighbors are going to check for you.

[Jhubtin]

We are not far from Crossville. We don't live up there full time but I do keep up on the news almost daily. I see very little crime. When shopping we do lock the car but that is just habit. But the home is most always unlocked. That is probably habit also seeing that we rarely lock the doors at home in FL either. Lived in the same town all my life and have never been broken into. There has actually been a time or two when the home in TN has been unlocked for weeks at a time even though we have been out of town for whatever reason. We are secluded up on the mountain so most don't know that there is even a home up there, but then again that could be a bad thing. Our closest neighbor is about a 1/4 mile away but you have to drive right by their home to get to ours so that is a good thing. When we built in TN we had an alarm system installed. When talking to the alarm company the guy laughed at me when I asked about the crime in our area. He said it just does'nt happen and not to worry about it. I feel very safe there. Something I found very funny the other day in the local newspaper up there in Overton County. A guy was stopped for a traffic violation in our county, the officer found that he had a warrant for another traffic violation in the next county over (Fentress). He loaded him up and dropped him off at the county line. I've only seen that in old movies.

[Tek_Freek]

On another thread it was mentioned that Crossville is on I40 and the crime stats reflect arrests on the highway. That would certainly skew the numbers compared a town of the same size that's not on an interstate.

[insanesmooch]

I can't really speak for the areas mentioned in the thread, but I can speak for other areas of TN. Personally, I lock my car and my house up- if nothing else out of habit. I'm also the type that wears a seatbelt just to back up the car or move it slightly so I am really a creature of habit.
Where I am at now, I feel pretty safe. When my husband and I went to pick up the stuff in storage in Murfreesboro, we accidently left the front door not only unlocked but cracked open. He thought we were going out that way and opened it, but we left through the garage. The driving part of the trip is 10 hours, let alone all the other hours of packing the truck and all. Everything was still here. Even now, a few months later, I have plastic containers of items out on the deck that no one has ever bothered.
A certain relative of mine, who shall remain unidentified, lives in a larger East TN city and this person does not lock his/her doors to the house ever. This person does not even have keys to some of the doors so locking them would mean the person would be locked out of the home as well as anyone else with ill intentions.
Pretty much every town has a place where you would want to lock up and be more aware of your surroundings. Overall, I would say that especially the places you are interested in would be pretty safe.