Need current info on Owensboro KY please!

[Peter1948]

Originally Posted by cchip55

Hello Peter,

During the week I spent in Louisville checking that city out, I spent a day over in New Albany being shown a few houses by a realtor I liked that the houses had not all been flipped and I found the downtown area of New Albany charming and it has a surprising variety of restaurants for the size town, i even ate at a tapas place that was great! I didn't know that taxes were lower, were you referring to property tax or sales tax?

Also, although I liked the few streets of the old downtown area, the rest of the town there wasn't much to....but maybe I just didn't see enough as my realtor was doing the driving and showing. I think the other reason I didn't keep it on my list is if I want big city amenities like museums, the flea market etc I would have to drive to Louisville and they just put up a new bridge and all the bridges were going to be tolled. That could start to add up if every time I wanted a bit of big city fun I would have to pay a toll just to be over in Louisville for a few hours...

So where does your knowledge of New Albany come from if you don't mind me asking?

Few things....the bridge from New Albany to Louisville has been and will ALWAYS be FREE. You must be thinking of Jeffersonville, IN?

Collectively, even as suburbs, Clark and Floyd County IN offer more (and are larger) than Owensboro KY as far as shopping, culture, even museums and amenities. When you throw in Louisville? It's no contest.

New Albany is a very big suburb. My guess is you missed 75% of it if you only saw the old homes.

Yes, Income and property taxes in Indiana are much lower than KY. Your tax burden will be lower in Indiana no matter where you live, even if in Indianapolis vs anywhere in KY. IN sales tax is 7% vs 6% in KY, the only advantage KY has. This only comes into play if you are buying a car or something big every year.

Owensboro isn't a bad town, but culturally, it's extremely devoid. Based on your description of wanting culture, you are going to be best in a small town within striking distance of Louisville, Lexington, or Cincinnati.

If it is cheap historic homes you like that resemble New Orleans a cheap price, I am not sure there is a better place than the Louisville area (which now has more shotgun historic homes than New Orleans itself). PM me and I will be happy to help. But certainly check out Owensboro too....what festivals, restaurants, and museums there are not too impressive IMO....and if you poll locals there they will agree that they travel to Evansville (closer) if not Louisville for a lot. Even not having a major airport is a huge hassle.

[TedH71]

I've been wanting to move to Kentucky. Been doing my research and surprisingly enough Owensboro fits the bill. Owensboro is one of the very few cities in the USA that has not had massive layoffs or anything. They've had pretty good economy activity ongoing due to the fact that there are more job openings than warm bodies to fill it. I have good friends who live 20-30 mins from Owensboro and they love the town. My brother and his wife live maybe 50 miles away. They all have good things to say about Owensboro. My brother's wife said that the car registration taxes are quite high considering both of us came from Texas where the registration tax is like $28 plus the other fee for inspection. I told her I found out that Kansas has high car registration fees every year. The newer the auto you have the higher the fee is so I'm used to that. I did do engine searches for houses for sale in Owensboro and they're pretty much not within my range. I have had some job offers for me in Owensboro so I'll eventually go check the town out after driving 14 hours one way.

Owensboro is or was commented on at CNN.com if you want to check it out. Just type in Owensboro, KY in the search engine on that website and you'll see the posts.

As for Louisville, it's MUCH bigger than Owensboro and has a good job outlook for people who want to move there BUT the town has good and bad areas from what I've read. East side is where new buildings are going up and nicer. West side not so good and has higher crime. I'm not sure about the south part but the north part is a mixed bag. I've not been to Louisville so I don't know if that'll be on my agenda.

I've wanted to check out Paducah but that town is so small that it doesn't have many job openings. I've been told that Kentucky on the whole has a low crime rate as a state so that's nice to hear.

[TedH71]

Let me try to post this about Owensboro from CNN. You have to just type the city name. https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/30/busin...oro/index.html