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Old 07-18-2006, 07:41 AM
 
Location: Long Island, New York
96 posts, read 563,469 times
Reputation: 78

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Quote:
Originally Posted by LauraC
I used to live on Long Island and have lived in Maryland for the last 11 years. I also like to fish. I expect to retire at the end of 2007. I checked out Asheville, NC this past Spring as a potential retirement destination and was scared to death by the size of it (population of 72,000 and 1,668 people per square mile), so much traffic and no place to park. Asheville, however, is full of people who retired from big cities like NYC (not kidding, you'd be hard pressed to find a local accent) who probably feel that 72,000 people are small potatoes. I'm used to living in places of 30,000 or less. I like Wal-Mart, I like malls, I prefer parking lots to massive parking garages, I like to fish. I'd rather be near a lake than some chi-chi restaurants, a lot of art galleries and a couple of wine and cheese stores. Yes, the mountains are beautiful but how much of my day-to-day activity would have involved them? Asheville was just not for me.

So, I decided to check out the other side of the Smokies - Eastern Tennessee. Sight unseen, I'm plugging it.

My primary driver is finding a good a good retirement location that also offers a good continuing education program for retirees. By "good" I mean the course offerings don't contain a lot of what I like to call "The Zen of Being Me" and "Finding Your Inner Baby Boomer Child" type of classes. I think I've hit paydirt with the Oak Ridge area of Tennessee. I also don't want to just audit classes at some college/university. I want to be involved with more like minded retirees. From my Internet research it appears the town of Oak Ridge is a heavy duty science/research town (I work in a non-science government research department). The school, The Oak Ridge Institute of Continued Learning, knocked my socks off with its Summer 2006 course offerings like The Quest For Fusion Energy, Critical Issues and Choices, The Russian Revolution, etc. They have a non-fiction book group! Non-fiction? Be still my heart.

My second driver is fishing. The area is loaded with lakes, reservoirs, rolling hills.

And Tennessee won't tax my pension, the temperatures are comparable to where I live now, the rents are less than what I was paying in the 1980's, the cost of living is so good it's unbelievable. A government retiree could live well there. They've got plenty of doctors. There seems to be a number of volunteer opportunities. Their voting info indicates we're like-minded.

Now I've just got to visit the place (October) to see if the reality matches the research. I don't know if Asheville, NC just has a good PR machine or if I wanted it too badly to be THE PLACE that I missed some of the obvious incompatibility signs when I was researching it.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, how else do you (and your spouse) intend to spend your retirement time? You're not going to fish every day. Is a guy from NYC really going to be happy living in a small mountain town or would you be more happy in a small city but within a short drive of the mountains and that perfect small fishing pond? What is it about NYC that you like? What is it about NYC you want to get away from? Don't be the guy who moves to the new place and pines for the things he thought he wanted to get away from. My suggestion is to try to find a smaller version of where you live now but one that is physically close enough to the things you dream of doing.
.............I said that I worked in NYC for 30 years ; but..like you...I have also lived on Long Island for my whole life. I also will be receiving a pension shortly & also appreciatethe tax situation. If you lived on Long Island; you will understand when I tell that that I spent 30 years in Law Enforcement working Undercover in all of the worst areas of the Bronx, Harlem, Brooklyn, etc. & although many areas of NYC are magnificent ......I am tired of seeing the worst. The joke is that one way to find a good small town is to tie a NYC Felon to the Bumper of your Car...Drive cross Country...and the first small town that you come to where somebody points & says " what's that ? "........that's where you retire to........So; I am looking for a nice small friendly crime-free town in Kentucky or Tennessee that has Mountain views adjacent to the town + some fishing & shopping areas nearby ?????
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Old 07-18-2006, 08:57 AM
 
6 posts, read 20,288 times
Reputation: 11
Default Tennessee

Tennessee will save you tax dollars, one of the few states left without state income taxes.

If you like mountains look at the Tri-Cities area, Bristol, Kingsport, Johnson City.
Great prices on real estate. Low taxes, close to mountains, lakes with anythisg from bass to wallye to lake trout, trout fishing in streams.

That is where i am heading
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Old 07-18-2006, 06:12 PM
 
176 posts, read 800,055 times
Reputation: 121
Default We lived on Long Island for over fifty years,

born in NYC and moved first to Nassau then eastern Suffolk and was REALLY tired of it. I cannot imagine what you, working in law enforcement in NYC, had to put with. Congratulations on having endured what you did to help protect people there!

We used to travel around the South (except Florida) a lot on business and liked Tennessee. There are discussions on this board about this town and that town in TN but the truth is there are a great many wonderful places in this state each offering a slightly different mix of features, benefits, and drawbacks.

We absolutely love it here from every possible standpoint. I must occasionally go back to Long Island to visit family, etc. The best part of each trip is when I am again back in Tennessee. People in NY ask me if I would ever move back to Long Island. I look at them like they're crazy.

Last edited by mrradio; 07-18-2006 at 06:19 PM..
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Old 07-19-2006, 08:10 AM
 
Location: Long Island, New York
96 posts, read 563,469 times
Reputation: 78
Default What are good towns to retire to in Tri-City(Bristol,Kingsport, Jonson City) Area ?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tadfar
Tennessee will save you tax dollars, one of the few states left without state income taxes.

If you like mountains look at the Tri-Cities area, Bristol, Kingsport, Johnson City.
Great prices on real estate. Low taxes, close to mountains, lakes with anythisg from bass to wallye to lake trout, trout fishing in streams.

That is where i am heading
..............Sounds perfect; but can anyone identify some good afforable towns in this Area ?? I presume thatTri-City is the name of the area which is probably comprised of Bristol, Kingsport & Johnson City; however; since I'm not familiar with the area........Can anyone recommend some names of good mountain towns to retire to in the area ??
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Old 07-20-2006, 11:30 AM
 
Location: Ducktown, TN
3 posts, read 9,689 times
Reputation: 11
You might consider the Ducktown, Tennessee area. There's lots of good fishing; fresh water trout in the Ocoee River and surrounding waters for one or find some property with a pond - there's plenty around. Property taxes are low, so is crime. The roads are very good and hardly any traffic; a one stop light town. We're 1.5 hr. from Atlanta, Ga., 30 mins. to Murphy, N.C., and 1 hr. from Chattanooga, TN. Shopping is good if you like antiques, but malls haven't reached us, yet. Well, good luck.
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Old 07-21-2006, 05:09 AM
 
Location: Tennessee
37,803 posts, read 41,019,978 times
Reputation: 62204
Quote:
Originally Posted by MRDOOWOP
.............I said that I worked in NYC for 30 years ; but..like you...I have also lived on Long Island for my whole life. I also will be receiving a pension shortly & also appreciatethe tax situation. If you lived on Long Island; you will understand when I tell that that I spent 30 years in Law Enforcement working Undercover in all of the worst areas of the Bronx, Harlem, Brooklyn, etc. & although many areas of NYC are magnificent ......I am tired of seeing the worst. The joke is that one way to find a good small town is to tie a NYC Felon to the Bumper of your Car...Drive cross Country...and the first small town that you come to where somebody points & says " what's that ? "........that's where you retire to........So; I am looking for a nice small friendly crime-free town in Kentucky or Tennessee that has Mountain views adjacent to the town + some fishing & shopping areas nearby ?????
I have cobbled together some information and photos of the cities/towns of Oak Ridge, Farragut and Clinton. Farragut and Clinton border Oak Ridge and the nearest big city is Knoxville. The 3 files (Word files) give you a pretty good idea of the 3 locations, and because I, like you, want to fish, many of the images I put in the files are water-related. Send me a private message to give me your e-mail address, if you want them.

I also did a City Compare on the Sperling's Best Places website to compare cost of living, crime, weather, people, voting, health, etc. on these places. If you tell me your LI town in the private message, I'll plug in a column for your town so you can get an idea how these places compare to where you live now.

I used to live in Manorville. I grew up in Brentwood.

Laura
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Old 07-22-2006, 09:27 AM
 
6 posts, read 20,288 times
Reputation: 11
Default Mountain Towns

My suggestion is to try Johnson City for a while, rent for a year and explore before you nuy. The mountain towns of Hampton, Mountain City, Rogersville,
Greeneville, erwin, Etc. Etc will fot the bill.
If you do a search all of the toens have Chamber Of Commerce websites. They are full of information and most will mail you "Relocation Packets" for free or some nominal fee.
The whole area is inexspensive to "cheap" to live. Tn itself is #48 as far as tax burden per capita. The housing taxes even in the most expensive cities(nashville,Knoxville) still only average 1% of value. Some counties are .25% of value. If you live in a city you pay both city and county.
I visited Johnson City about 2 years ago. It is a beautiful area, the mountains will remind you of the catskills or vermont.
the best website i have found for real estate is crye-leike.com. a realtor with whom i have no affiliation. however they seem to tie all MLS systems together so you can search entire regions of the state.

I will be relocating to Johnson City in March. They have one of the best V.A. hospitals in the nation and i am a Disabled Vet.

Tim
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Old 07-23-2006, 02:18 AM
 
1 posts, read 4,469 times
Reputation: 10
Default Don't listen to what you hear about Greeneville

Quote:
Originally Posted by MRDOOWOP
........Thanks for all of the info.---My wife & I are still trying to decide between Kentucky & Tennessee for retirement ??......Both my wife & I like Mountain scenery ( don't want to live on one though ) & don't want a lot of property. In NY we had 1/3 acre ( corner lot ) & that was considered large property. My wife is leaning toward Kentucky " Horse Country " ( Berea, Murray & Versailles )but we both were also considering Greeneville, TN & McMinnville, TN until the Greeneville native posted a bad review of Greeneville......so; we would like to hear more about McMinnville, TN and Franlin, TN ???
I use to live in Greeneville and :I love the people there. IT is also close to the birthplace of Davy Crockett, and where Andrew Johnson had his home. Greenevile also has outstanding hospitals among other things.It is close to Kingsport and Johnson City. The people will go out of their way to help anyone they meet. It is one of the friendliest cities in America.
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Old 07-25-2006, 07:45 AM
 
3 posts, read 10,631 times
Reputation: 12
You do not want to live in Monteagle or that area....trust me!
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Old 07-25-2006, 08:15 AM
 
13 posts, read 37,329 times
Reputation: 25
Default Try Fall Branch

Hi, Have u considered the Fall Branch area. It has everything your looking for. There are plenty of pond, creeks, and mountains. Chimney Top Mountain overlooks the town. It stands over 3000 ft tall. Fall Branch is very close to Kingsport. About 10-15 minutes to downtown. 8-10 minutes to a Walmart. Also try Church Hill and Allandale.
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