Potentially moving from Sacramento, CA to Nashville area (Hendersonville, Henderson: apartment, car insurance)

[lakota1175]

HI, You will love it here in TN. The people are so friendly and helpful to the point that I thought something was wrong. I just moved here from MA and love it here. Its so much cheaper to live. No income tax no excise tax cheaper to insure you car ( I am paying 1000 less here then in MA) and the property tax here is cheap, cheap, cheap. I have 10 times the land here and I am only paying 25 percent of the taxes I was paying there. The sales tax is high at 9.25 though. I am only sorry I did not move here sooner. So much to do here also and the state is so family orientated.

[mrsmiscellanea]

My oldest will be a Jr in high school and is very resistant to the move. Does anybody have any advice? He currently wants to stay in California & finish high school while living with my folks.

[mrsmiscellanea]

Originally Posted by lakota1175

HI, You will love it here in TN. The people are so friendly and helpful to the point that I thought something was wrong. I just moved here from MA and love it here. Its so much cheaper to live. No income tax no excise tax cheaper to insure you car ( I am paying 1000 less here then in MA) and the property tax here is cheap, cheap, cheap. I have 10 times the land here and I am only paying 25 percent of the taxes I was paying there. The sales tax is high at 9.25 though. I am only sorry I did not move here sooner. So much to do here also and the state is so family orientated.

Taxes are really bad in Ca (not as bad as MA) so that is a big plus

[N.Cal]

Its so much cheaper to live.

Having moved recently from SF to Nashville, I would have to disagree with that statement. Yes, there is no income tax. Yes, if you want to buy a house, then house prices are less, but for nearly everything else, I am finding it close to the same or more expensive in Nashville. All this "oh so cheaper" is a big sham. Gas for the truck is cheaper but I have to drive a lot more in TN.

What I have found:

Rent - expensive! I'm paying more and getting half the square footage. At least it is brand new.
Food - about the same but high/funky taxes on some things in TN
Restaurants - lots of good restaurants, but they are similar in price to Nor Cal
Electricity - more expensive than SF (we didn't have an A/C and very rarely ran the heater in SF)
Cable/internet - about the same price
Auto insurance - MORE EXPENSIVE! This really shocked me. I have a 2001 truck and same coverage for a year nearly doubled in TN. At least tags are cheaper.
Wine - TOTALLY PRICE GOUGING

So I would say do your homework if costs are important. Thank god they are paying me California money. People are generally friendly. There is a lot of good music. If you want to fly back to Nor Cal, it's a pain as you can't get there without a full day of traveling. I've only thought about leaving 3x in 6 weeks, so I think that's pretty good. :-)

[Anony-Momma]

Originally Posted by mrsmiscellanea

My oldest will be a Jr in high school and is very resistant to the move. Does anybody have any advice? He currently wants to stay in California & finish high school while living with my folks.

Does he have a "thing"? A sport? Music? That's what helped my high schooler plug right in without missing a beat.

[mrsmiscellanea]

Originally Posted by Anony-Momma

Does he have a "thing"? A sport? Music? That's what helped my high schooler plug right in without missing a beat.

Unfortunately, not really. He plays bass and used to wrestle but I can't get him to pin anything down.


I have looked at houses (online) in the following areas:
Hermitage, Chapel Hill, Mt Juliet & Hendersonville.
With my main concerns being schools & crime- what would you folks say about those areas?

Thanks again for all this help!

[BlueyedCat]

Originally Posted by N.Cal

Having moved recently from SF to Nashville, I would have to disagree with that statement. Yes, there is no income tax. Yes, if you want to buy a house, then house prices are less, but for nearly everything else, I am finding it close to the same or more expensive in Nashville. All this "oh so cheaper" is a big sham. Gas for the truck is cheaper but I have to drive a lot more in TN.

What I have found:

Rent - expensive! I'm paying more and getting half the square footage. At least it is brand new.
Food - about the same but high/funky taxes on some things in TN
Restaurants - lots of good restaurants, but they are similar in price to Nor Cal
Electricity - more expensive than SF (we didn't have an A/C and very rarely ran the heater in SF)
Cable/internet - about the same price
Auto insurance - MORE EXPENSIVE! This really shocked me. I have a 2001 truck and same coverage for a year nearly doubled in TN. At least tags are cheaper.
Wine - TOTALLY PRICE GOUGING

So I would say do your homework if costs are important. Thank god they are paying me California money. People are generally friendly. There is a lot of good music. If you want to fly back to Nor Cal, it's a pain as you can't get there without a full day of traveling. I've only thought about leaving 3x in 6 weeks, so I think that's pretty good. :-)

I agree with everything in this post. My husband and I experienced the same thing. BUT we were from Southern CA. We stayed in Nashville for 4 years. 3 1/2 of those years were trying to get back to CA. Tennessee is beautiful I'll give it that. I'm originally from the south and was also told by many here in TN that it was cheaper to live here. It's not. There are some things cheaper; but we found ourselves better off financially here in CA. Our Car ins went up when we moved to TN. Our Grocery bill shot through the roof. Our health ins went up. Our utilities were crazy high for a small condo compared to a 3000 sq foot home in CA. Car tags were cheaper in TN. And Gas is cheaper; but you drive so many more miles to get to everything that your spending more on gas and wear and tear on your vehicle.

I agree also with the above post. DO YOUR HOMEWORK. Put everything on paper. Call and see what your insurance will be on your vehicles, your Health Ins. etc. Make sure what your wage will be in TN compared to where you are now. Wages are generally lower in TN than here in CA. I know my husband took a paycut of around $12,000.00 a year when we moved to TN from CA. So when we factored in everything that was more expensive in TN; we are better off financially here in CA.

Good luck to you. Hopefully if you do choose TN that it works out for you. It's a beautiful state. Also check out Cookeville. I loved it there.

[dreamofmonterey]

Food tax facts. Avg. food tax in Tenn is 7.9%.
state/local rates vary

Tennesseans for Fair Taxation

[mrsmiscellanea]

Wow, I didn't think it was possible for Nashville suburbs to be more expensive than Nor Cal.
That has me thinking. I will call our car insurance to check. Can anyone point me to grocety store with a website so i can look at the werkly add & compare that as well?
Our health insurance is over $500 per month, so that will be something my husband will ask the potential employer about, too.

[ariesjow]

Originally Posted by N.Cal

Rent - expensive! I'm paying more and getting half the square footage. At least it is brand new.

Didn't you opt for 11North in the Gulch? If so, it should go without saying that it's going to be much more expensive per sf than many other options. There is very little urbanity here so developments with amenities like those carry a hefty price tag. One could probably rent a single-family bungalow in an equally "hip" part of town or a McMansion a little further out for what one pays to live in the Gulch.