General Differences Between Relocating To Tennessee Versus North Carolina? (sales, real estate)

[itsme2]

We live in Florida now and have decided to leave, it's not a good place to live anymore, wife is from Florida.

I work out of the house so can live anywhere, wife is a healthcare professional and can work anywhere there are significant medical facilities.

We would like to live on a nice sized lake or river where we can use our 26' power boat and enjoy a laid back way of life.

We can pay up to $1M for a place to live (we are forutnate and know it). We don't want to be in a snobby place or sub division with a lot of silly rules.

We have done a lot of research on moving to North Carolina and that looks interesting to us.

The four seasons around Charlotte look good to us climate wise. Are there any places in Tennessee that have a comprable climate?

Can anyone comment on the general differences between living in Tennessee and North Carolina?

Can anyone here suggest places in Tennessee that we might consider?


Thank you.

[SPLIT]

i-2: Like the rest of us just drive that baby up I-75 and launch in downtown Chattanooga, Heaven on earth. No state income tax. Many med HQ here. $20 million med ind park in newspaper today(Hixon). Great people, great churches.
. Many fireworks festivals right over the Chat river and cabin cruisers. Corp of Eng with locks have 652 miles of river, great fishing, clean swimming. Many coves. Grand Canyon of the East just west of city and Oct JASPER for Outboard Boat Drags.
I would say it is slightly warmer here than in N.C. . Someone else mentioned a $2,000 impact fee in N. C. for out of state vehicles.??? I paid Fla $250 per car in 1993.

[Cameron Cayman]

I would look into Chattanooga or the outlying areas of Knoxville. University of Tennessee in Knoxville may have many medical opportunities with their med. school and other things. Just a little ways out of town from Knoxville is Tellico plains with the lake, plenty of great golf courses and, of course, the wide open Tennessee River nearby. Do a search for "Tellico" and see what all comes up. It's a fairly nice area and may be right up your alley.

As SPLIT mentioned, the Chattanooga area is also nice. We have plenty of medical facilities here as well, but we don't have the advantage of the UT medical school and facilities like Knoxville has (or like Nashville does with Vanderbilt). We also have the Tennessee river that flows right through our downtown. Additionally, we have the Chicamauga Lake with some very, very nice neighborhoods (and plenty of golf) in that area. Plenty of room for the use of your boat. Nickajack lake in Marion county is also nice, but I'm not as familar with that area (just outside of Chattanooga).

Climate should be relatively similar to Charlotte since our latitudes are very much the same. I've had some work assignments in Charlotte in past summers and I can say that Chattanooga summer and charlotte summer are very close. Knoxville may be just a tad bit cooler, more pleasant in the summer.

Tennessee has no state income tax, so that is something to keep in mind. Our utilities are very reasonable, although our sales tax is 9.25%. Property is very reasonable as well, which you'll notice immediately in comparison to Fla. To combat the high sales tax, we just drive 5 minutes over into Georgia to do our shopping. Hope this helps you a little bit.........

[JMT]

I agree with the previous posts, Chattanooga is an absolutely lovely area with a couple of giant hospitals and some incredibly beautiful lakes. If I'm not mistaken, I think Lake Chickamauga is particularly known for some very upscale neighborhoods.

However, if you have your heart set on a larger city that's comparable to Charlotte, you might want to consider Nashville. Nashville has gobs of hospitals and has two medical schools. Vanderbilt Medical Center is the largest, and of course HCA has its HQ in Nashville with a bunch of sleek, large hospitals. There are also a couple of large man-made lakes around Nashville.

Both Chattanooga and Nashville have climates that are similar to Charlotte's. Nashville also has a large airport, whereas people who live in Chattanooga often end up driving to Nashville or Atlanta to catch flights. You didn't mention that in your initial post, but I thought I'd throw that in anyway. I happen to love traveling, and that's my only gripe about living in Knoxville--not many air options out of Knoxville or Chattanooga.

[itsme2]

Can anyone here commment generally on what the differences might be in real estate/home prices and real estate taxes between North Carolina and Tennessee? Do you get more or less for your money in Tennessee?

Thank you.

[JMT]

Originally Posted by itsme2

Can anyone here commment generally on what the differences might be in real estate/home prices and real estate taxes between North Carolina and Tennessee? Do you get more or less for your money in Tennessee?

Thank you.

That's a pretty vague request since just about every town in either state has its own property tax rates. In Tennessee, they range from a low of $1.34 in rural Sevier County to a high of $7.4732 in the city of Memphis.

You can look up all the property tax rates for every county and community in Tennessee at the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury web site:
http://www.comptroller1.state.tn.us/PAnew/LR.asp?W=06 (broken link)

As for the real estate prices, all of that is available here at city-data.com. Of note: In 2005 there were 3681 new homes built in the city of Nashville, and the average value was $147,400. In the posh suburb of Forest Hills there were 26 homes built in 2005, and the average value was $1.248 million. In old-money Belle Meade the average home has a value of $743,500.

[momto3girls]

I currently live in NC and considering a move to TN. From all the research I have done, TN is cheaper than NC. NC home prices have gone up in the last few years and state income tax is high here, compared to some other states. Property taxes can get high too depending on where you are in NC. Gas is more expensive and as well as groceries. The job market isn't great in NC either. Unless you are in Charlotte or Raleigh areas. The rest of the state has little to offer in jobs. I have lived here in NC for 7yrs and it keeps getting more expensive. I am not sure if this is because of everyone moving to NC or what. But cost of living and job opportunities are two of the reasons we are considering a move to middle TN.

[Jon F Moss]

I lived briefly in Charlotte, NC back in the mid 80's. After living 20+ years in South Florida have decided on a change....didn't even consider NC. Been trekking through TN (Chattanooga & Knoxville) and really liking what I see. A quick calculation reveals we can cut living costs by 35-50% and did I mention how much nicer it is in TN?

[Angelrocks]

Originally Posted by itsme2

Can anyone here commment generally on what the differences might be in real estate/home prices and real estate taxes between North Carolina and Tennessee? Do you get more or less for your money in Tennessee?

Thank you.

I don't really know that much about North Carolina, but I did do some research on the homes in Brentwood/Franklin Tennessee area. It seems like a good investment if your planning on living there for a while. As far as property taxes goes, every area seemed very inexpensive when compared to Florida. It didn't even matter if Belle Meade was a little more than Franklin...either way you look at it...it's a huge difference in price when compare it to anything in S. Florida.

Generally, if I was looking into an area, I would want to live in an area where the value of the homes will go up! I don't think Antioch, Tennessee is a desirable area, as far as resale value goes. I would always look at the appreciation statistics first, and take that into consideration moreso than property taxes alone. If you buy a 100k home in N. Carolina and you buy a 100k home in Tenn...and the area in Tenn actually appreciates more...it usually makes more sense to purchase in the area where the homes typically go up in value. (Unless the property taxes are just outta control as in some states I can think of.)

I think Belle Meade, Brentwood and Franklin seems the safest in terms of knowing the home values are going to go up. Obviously I would check out each sub-division as well. A home is always going to be a huge investment. Nobody wants to purchase a home in a city where a home doesn't appreciate very much. I also heard that Tenn. doesn't have a state tax, which is great if you are still working.

Here is a perfect example of what I am talking about:

My grandmother insisted that her and my grandfather move to a certain area in Upstate NY. My Grandfather begged my Grandmother not to move. He was right, but she didn't want to listen. I checked the value of our old home in NYC. They sold it for 130k in 1983. 25 yrs. later the home is valued at over 1.1 million. My grandmother moved to upstate NY and she paid 130k for her last home that my grandfather begged her not to buy...but the resale value I believe is possibly at 500k? (I think it might even be a little lower) right now. I don't have the heart to tell my Grandmother this, but my Grandfather was right. They should have stayed in NYC.

[sliverbox]

NC and TN are considered sister states. They both share the smoky mountains. They both have similar histories and culture. They both offer similarities in choices of available geographic diversity and choice.

To me the big difference is that NC seems to have a better grasp of conservation in terms of their artistic heritage. The Blue Ridge Parkway is in my opinion about eh prettiest area in the Southeast. The other difference is also perhaps somewhat negative. Raleigh, Durahm, Asheville... the Triangle is considered ultra-hot for many out-of-staters. So the cost of living has gone up somewhat in those areas. But the economic opportunities at the moment seem more promising. Not sure if that matter to you since it sounds like you're just going to retire and boat around.

If you have a cool million to spend on a house, then you can live anywhere in either of these states, on just about any piece of property, in any area deemed highly desirable. For that matter, you could move to coastal California and have an ocean to plop your boat down on and still have money leftover. So... you have quite a few options to consider.