Talk to me about eastern Tennessee, Knoxville and surrounding areas. I've only driven through Tennessee and not spent much time there. A possibility, although several months out that I might be relocating there and know very little about the area.

Thanks in advance.

Well, Knoxville is in Eastern Tennessee. We owned 54 acres near Bybee and a rental cabin near Gatlinburg. My brother lives in Sevierville and owns a rental cabin in Gatlinburg. We’ve camped at a couple state parks in the area as well. I also bought my truck in Johnson City.

What we saw, as long as you stay away from the tourist areas, was great people and beautiful country. Lots of recreational activities and mild winters. I’d live there; probably on one of the lakes though.

I don’t know anything Nashville/Central Tennessee or Memphis/Western Tennessee.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
Well, Knoxville is in Eastern Tennessee.

Sorry, dyslexic moment, edited original post.

We live in Rutledge, Grainger County, and could not be happier. We found a great church right in town. We are retired so not dependent on the school system. We live next to Cherokee Lake. Knoxville is too busy for us but there are plenty of other small towns nearby that are quieter. We are about 50 min East of Knoxville.

15-20 years ago, my buddy got fed up with the high cost of living, taxes, and liberal bull in VT.
He moved to Crossville, never looked back!

No income tax so sales tax is through the roof. At least 10% I believe and even more for municipalities that tack on their own sales tax.

Aside from that it is quite nice.
We have a place about 2 miles from the Tennessee line and an hour or so from Knoxville.

Lots of Kentucky is nice as well.

Back in 1999 my wife and I moved to Florida with the intent on some day building our retirement home here. A few years after we moved we started looking for land and found out the prices had sky rocked in the few short years we had been here, so we decided to hold off buying anything.

In 2006 while visiting my in laws who had just moved to east Tennessee a few short years earlier we fell in love with the area.
We fell in love with it so much we decided to buy land there instead.
We ended up buying 3 1/2 acres on a mountain in Johnson County about 45 minutes East of Johnson City.

The area gave us the home town feeling we had when we lived in New Jersey that we lost when we move to Florida.

The area is more rural and a lot less crowed than where we currently live in central Florida.
To get to anything significant as far as shopping At places like any big box stores it is about a 45 minute drive in either direction to either Johnson City to the West or Boon North Carolina to the East. For most of your basic shopping needs it is like small town America.
The people are more friendly and it is the small town environment where and everybody knows everybody.

At the time the cost of property we very reasonable however I am not sure of the cost today. The one thing, my wife and I have been getting unsolicited offers on our property by speculators the last few years. We think it is because of the massive exit of people from the North East.
Since their is no income tax and it is still a days drive to New York and New Jersey speculators are buying property thinking this is where people are going to move as soon as Florida is full, and we are getting close at least in the area I live in.

2000Z…if you want to scout more central Tennessee, check out Cookeville. Smaller than Knoxville and seems to be less “busy”…more small town feel. Brother and s-i-l retired there to be near their daughter/s-i-l/g’kids. They seem to like it and it’s a beautiful area…I’ve enjoyed my visits there.

We lived in Knoxville for 6 years from '93-99. Love the area, people, weather, surrounding mountains etc. I had standing order after we left that if a good job ever came open there to accept immediately, call my wife and she would just meet me there that day.

So yeah, pretty big fans. If we weren't planning to retire to a lake in AL, that area would be next on list.

Ridiculously beautiful area and, thus far, a nicely red state.

Spent a fair amount of time down that way in the early 90's building out a WAN for a Govt. agency. Beautiful country, but there was a lot of poverty, and pockets of rural communities that didn't look to have changed in 100 years, and likely not that much since I was there.

Very different from the DC suburbs, appealing to some, maybe not so much to others. I would definitely consider it as a potential retirement venue.

Beautiful country, only been there once but, very much enjoyed myself. I liked Knoxville, it's a college town through and through but, there's quite a bit more to the surrounding area. Quite a bit of historical locations and sites, dating back to colonial times. Nashville is not too far away so, if you need big city services or, flying out, there's a solid amount of flights.

One area I have zero interest in ever seeing again is the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg-area. Never have I seen a longer, more pronounced stretch of man-made, low-end entertainment and places to waste your money. Located outside the entrance to Great Smokey Mtn NP, all manor of theme parks, theme'd eateries, entertainment centers and shopping along the stretch highway-441.

Lived there for four years. Smokies are close by and Oak Ridge National labs and the University of Tennessee. Folks cannot drive in snow. Fall colors are beautiful. Surrounded by rural southern Appalachia. Religion is big in some areas.

Beautiful area where you have a city for the resources and conveniences you need, but small enough that you can get outside easily to the rural areas.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
No income tax so sales tax is through the roof. At least 10% I believe and even more for municipalities that tack on their own sales tax.

Just a quick bit of clarification: The state sales tax rate is 7%. Local areas may charge up to 2.75% for a total of 9.75%. Knoxville is currently at 9.25%.

Food is taxed at 5% plus local taxes.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
No income tax so sales tax is through the roof. At least 10% I believe and even more for municipalities that tack on their own sales tax.
.

Sales tax is my preferred tax method, in my opinion the most fair. Everybody pays it.

But “at least 10%” is a bit of exaggeration.


The state sales tax rate in Tennessee is 7.000%

Food in Tennessee is taxed at 5.000% (plus any local taxes).

With local taxes, the total sales tax rate is between 9.250% and 9.750%.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
No income tax so sales tax is through the roof. At least 10% I believe and even more for municipalities that tack on their own sales tax.

Aside from that it is quite nice.
We have a place about 2 miles from the Tennessee line and an hour or so from Knoxville.

Lots of Kentucky is nice as well.

But....the cost of living is much lower than most everywhere else too. Gas is at least a dollar cheaper a gallon at our place near Knoxville than it is at our place in Northern Utah.

To the OP, we're building a homestead on 34 acres 30 minutes North East of Knoxville near Norris Lake. I have to say, green is the predominant color out there. We bought there because it averages 3" rain per month. Having lived in Utah for these decades, we are traumatized by the lack of water here. That, and the migration of people to the Wasatch Front is poised to stress the water services to a fault. So we are moving where the water is.

A few weeks ago we went to our temporary property in Tazewell, TN. While there I built some grow boxes in the hugel culture style. I intentionally didn't provide for water when we planted some test seeds. I wanted to see if rainfall would be sufficient. It has been. We have a web cam trained on the boxes and they are over-flowing with foliage. So as I hoped, the rain patterns appear to be enough to sustain food production.

As to the culture, let's just say the people are golden. I could bore the whole membership with anecdotes of our interactions, but maybe just one for fun. I had the occasion to need a tow. I called a service and the gentleman showed promptly and was very friendly. I hopped in the cab with him to leave and began putting my seat belt on. He got quiet so I looked up to see him looking at me.

"what are you doing?"
"I'm putting my seat belt on"
"Why? I'm not going to wreck this thing"
"There's a seat belt law"
"Do you know how much the fine for a seat belt infraction is?"
"No"
"It's five bucks. Ain't no sheriff gonna stop you for a five dollar ticket around here....."
I still put my belt on and he shook his head chuckling.

"Suitcherself...."

Great guy too. Cut me a break on the tow because I let him take the truck to his brother-in-law's shop.

The scenery is beautiful.

Being some 100 miles to the northeast, I can't tell you much about Knoxville proper. I mainly go to the Expo Center, occasionally to Chilhowee Park (which is near a large zoo), for gun shows. Like any large city, it has good and bad areas. Some of the surrounding cities and towns look nice, for example, Maryville (to the southwest) and Farragut (to the west, home to a large collection of retail stores known as Turkey Creek). One thing I'm sure of is that you won't have any trouble finding employment in your business. It may not pay as much as you've been making, but the tax burden and overall cost of living is much lower than where you've been.

If a little more rural-feel living and scenery is more your style, try looking around the Tri-Cities (main cities Johnson City, Kingsport and Bristol), to the northeast. I'm planning to stay here in my soon-to-be retirement.

Tri-Cities - 1st District
Republican Congressman since 1881
Highist Democratic Presidential % since 2000 - Al Gore 39%
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...ngressional_district

Knoxville Area - 2nd District
Republican Congressman since 1867
Highist Democratic Presidential % since 2000 - Al Gore 39%
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...ngressional_district

The Lovely Girlfriend (a Carolina girl) doesn't like hearing me say this: If I weren't where I am now, I'd be in eastern TN.