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Despite what some of the other posters have said, East TN, and especially the Knoxville area, has a more robust job market with the presence of major corporations in energy, transportation, health care, finance, transportation, media, manufacturing, and R&D, among others. I visit the Asheville area often and really love the beautiful scenery there but the job market there is nowhere as comparable to East TN in terms of the variety of industries, since the economy in Western NC is largely based on tourism and travel-based services and the pandemic has definitely taken a toll on local tourism (as in other tourist-heavy cities). Plus, if you are not a fan of liberal politics and overpriced housing market, I would suggest you to stay away from Asheville and Buncombe County. E TN is still a lot more affordable in that regard. If you are going to make WNC your future home, look into surrounding counties such as Haywood, Henderson, and Madison counties. Good luck.
Never have understood why folks think that FL (or even Asheville) is all that's out there. Look at the news, forums and media and you'll see that FL in general is a dump, and AVL is quickly becoming the mountain version of it.
Not sure why anyone in the mountains would consider heading back to FL other than the temporary satisfaction of returning to their comfort zone, sorta like an abused spouse returning to the arms of their abuser.
Feels good for the short term, then quickly becomes just another bad decision.
FL is a pretty big state to call it a dump.
That said, any suggestions where you'd head off to?
Despite what some of the other posters have said, East TN, and especially the Knoxville area, has a more robust job market with the presence of major corporations in energy, transportation, health care, finance, transportation, media, manufacturing, and R&D, among others. I visit the Asheville area often and really love the beautiful scenery there but the job market there is nowhere as comparable to East TN in terms of the variety of industries, since the economy in Western NC is largely based on tourism and travel-based services and the pandemic has definitely taken a toll on local tourism (as in other tourist-heavy cities). Plus, if you are not a fan of liberal politics and overpriced housing market, I would suggest you to stay away from Asheville and Buncombe County. E TN is still a lot more affordable in that regard. If you are going to make WNC your future home, look into surrounding counties such as Haywood, Henderson, and Madison counties. Good luck.
Knoxville is a significantly larger metro than Asheville. I'd expect it to have a more diverse job market.
The rest of northeast TN - no. I live in the Tri-Cities, and aside from Eastman, the regional health system, and various government stuff you can find anywhere (ETSU, VA, state/local government jobs), the job market here is really limited. The Tri-Cities doesn't have the tourism/out of area component that WNC does.
The rural areas and small towns in east TN are basically an economic deadzone. Far worse than Asheville and probably most of WNC.
Despite what some of the other posters have said, East TN, and especially the Knoxville area, has a more robust job market with the presence of major corporations in energy, transportation, health care, finance, transportation, media, manufacturing, and R&D, among others. I visit the Asheville area often and really love the beautiful scenery there but the job market there is nowhere as comparable to East TN in terms of the variety of industries, since the economy in Western NC is largely based on tourism and travel-based services and the pandemic has definitely taken a toll on local tourism (as in other tourist-heavy cities). Plus, if you are not a fan of liberal politics and overpriced housing market, I would suggest you to stay away from Asheville and Buncombe County. E TN is still a lot more affordable in that regard. If you are going to make WNC your future home, look into surrounding counties such as Haywood, Henderson, and Madison counties. Good luck.
Never have understood why folks think that FL (or even Asheville) is all that's out there. Look at the news, forums and media and you'll see that FL in general is a dump, and AVL is quickly becoming the mountain version of it.
Not sure why anyone in the mountains would consider heading back to FL other than the temporary satisfaction of returning to their comfort zone, sorta like an abused spouse returning to the arms of their abuser.
Feels good for the short term, then quickly becomes just another bad decision.
Well, there are many things to dislike about Florida, but I was born/raised here, so if we move anywhere, it needs to be within a day's drive from Tampa. I would love to be out west, but that is too far from family/friends. So that is the draw to either outright moving somewhere not too far away, or buying a place in the mountains somewhere, keeping my primary residence in Tampa and just getting away for the summer.
For sure, m5allen (re: more to life than location) ... and that's the reason we're moving back to FL next month. I've had the pleasure of living all over the United States, in cities both big and small (Milwaukee, Detroit, Miami, Madison when I was growing up, and Boston, Atlanta, Albuquerque, NM, Birmingham, AL, Orlando, and now Asheville as an adult with my own family). Every city has its good and bad features, but home is where the heart is. It was difficult moving away from family 4 years ago and coming to Asheville after 12 years living near them (the longest in my adult life). We took a leap of faith, and we don't regret it one bit! However, even with (what we thought were) realistic expectations of the area and my husband landing a job he loves here, it is so difficult being away from friends and family, as much as we might have thought we could make it work. We just never really felt at home here ... perhaps because we were never fully committed, I don't know? I just know that we found many aspects of life here to be VERY overrated (as well as expensive - schools were a big deal breaker for us), and are happy our time here is over. To each his own!! Asheville will always hold a special place in our hearts, but when we found ourselves venturing down to FL to hang with family and friends every opportunity we could find, we realized it was much better for us to live THERE and vacation HERE (even though I do not see us returning here nearly as much as we went there). Yes, ideally, half of the year in the mountains would work well ... maybe once our kids are in college! Good luck to you!!
For sure, m5allen (re: more to life than location) ... and that's the reason we're moving back to FL next month. I've had the pleasure of living all over the United States, in cities both big and small (Milwaukee, Detroit, Miami, Madison when I was growing up, and Boston, Atlanta, Albuquerque, NM, Birmingham, AL, Orlando, and now Asheville as an adult with my own family). Every city has its good and bad features, but home is where the heart is. It was difficult moving away from family 4 years ago and coming to Asheville after 12 years living near them (the longest in my adult life). We took a leap of faith, and we don't regret it one bit! However, even with (what we thought were) realistic expectations of the area and my husband landing a job he loves here, it is so difficult being away from friends and family, as much as we might have thought we could make it work. We just never really felt at home here ... perhaps because we were never fully committed, I don't know? I just know that we found many aspects of life here to be VERY overrated (as well as expensive - schools were a big deal breaker for us), and are happy our time here is over. To each his own!! Asheville will always hold a special place in our hearts, but when we found ourselves venturing down to FL to hang with family and friends every opportunity we could find, we realized it was much better for us to live THERE and vacation HERE (even though I do not see us returning here nearly as much as we went there). Yes, ideally, half of the year in the mountains would work well ... maybe once our kids are in college! Good luck to you!!
Which is the exact point of my response. If life's all about your “location” then why the need to move away to different cities then always fall back to your comfort zone (your hometown) when things don’t line up for you? Seems like more of a rationalization to me than reality, but paint the picture as you see fit.
Nothing to me is more pitiful then 50 year olds dreaming of a life beyond their hometowns, but not everyone commits to living a life beyond their comfort zone (despite what they want others to think).
I think you may need some help. I'm not sure why you have such a strong opinion about my decision to leave Asheville after living here four years in order to move my family closer to my aging parents (!?). As I mentioned, I've lived most of my life outside the state of Florida, so I'm hardly going back to my "hometown." Perhaps you can get in touch with a professional who might be able to help you from getting so worked up, feeling the need to criticize other people's opinions and decisions when they don't line up with what you think they should be. Good luck.
I think you may need some help. I'm not sure why you have such a strong opinion about my decision to leave Asheville after living here four years in order to move my family closer to my aging parents (!?). As I mentioned, I've lived most of my life outside the state of Florida, so I'm hardly going back to my "hometown." Perhaps you can get in touch with a professional who might be able to help you from getting so worked up, feeling the need to criticize other people's opinions and decisions when they don't line up with what you think they should be. Good luck.
You do realize that there’s opinions out there other than your own, and folks here are entitled to express them without the need to be attacked, right? No need for professional help here as I’m an adult who sees things exactly how they are. Thank you though and good luck in Asheville, Tampa or wherever you land next.
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Good luck to you!!
