Moving - Long Island to Nashville? (Franklin, Green Hill: transplants, for sale, real estate)

[JmacNY]

Hi all,


Apologies in advance if this thread or similar threads exist already in the forum, I did a quick cursory glance through and did not find many.


My wife (attorney) and myself (CPA), along with our two little girls (3yrs and 7mo) are looking to relocate to somewhere that isn't Long Island. Due to high state taxes, a terrible commute (roughly 1hr 45 each way) and the general cost to live in the area we are ready to give somewhere else a try. My wife went to Vanderbilt for her undergrad and was recently in town this past weekend and came home and literally said to me "we have to move to Nashville."


I would love to get some opinions on where (suburbs) we should be looking and researching. Budget wise we would like to be around 500k, not to exceed 600k and schools would need to be a top priority. Also, if any suburbs have a great restaurant/bar scene that may move them to the top of the list.


Any help/insight would be greatly appreciated.

[Kluch]

I would think 500-600k would give you a pretty good list of neighborhood options. Definitely visit if you can before moving here to get a feel for each area. I would recommend brentwood, franklin, bellvue (those three have quite a spread of housing area) or the 12 south area if you're looking for somewhere with a younger vibe closer to downtown. School wise though you'll probably get quite a few people that say you should look further south (franklin, spring hill) area as williamson county is known for their school district. Check out realtracs.com to look at housing prices.

[septimus]

$500-600k isn't going to go as far as it once wood. I have a good friend looking in Nashville (Green Hills, Melrose, Hillwood, West End,12S, Forest Hills) and the stuff that doesn't need work is $$$.

[CountryGirl2b=]

If you use the SEARCH THIS FORUM option and type in "Long Island" - it is mentioned in 165 posts. Not all will be helpful but I would think maybe 1/4 of them might? Lots of people moving here from Long Island or Westchester County.

I looked on RealTracs and using the $450,000 - $550,000 (don't use a comma on realtracs) there are 198 houses for sale. If you don't need much of a yard, you might want to check out Westhaven. Schools are good and you can walk to a grocery store, I think a couple of restaurants. In general, Nashville is not very walkable and most houses are part of an HOA.

If you need a real estate agent, I'd be happy to recommend the woman who helped me move from CT. She was great at doing things long distance.

I do think it's cool that your wife simply said "We have to move to Nashville" . . . I said that after my first visit, too!

Best of luck!

PS. Here is the link for Westhaven. It's in Franklin. Pretty houses, but kinda squished for my taste. But very popular place for families.

http://westhaventn.com/#/gallery/rec

[JmacNY]

Originally Posted by CountryGirl2b=

If you use the SEARCH THIS FORUM option and type in "Long Island" - it is mentioned in 165 posts. Not all will be helpful but I would think maybe 1/4 of them might? Lots of people moving here from Long Island or Westchester County.

I looked on RealTracs and using the $450,000 - $550,000 (don't use a comma on realtracs) there are 198 houses for sale. If you don't need much of a yard, you might want to check out Westhaven. Schools are good and you can walk to a grocery store, I think a couple of restaurants. In general, Nashville is not very walkable and most houses are part of an HOA.

If you need a real estate agent, I'd be happy to recommend the woman who helped me move from CT. She was great at doing things long distance.

I do think it's cool that your wife simply said "We have to move to Nashville" . . . I said that after my first visit, too!

Best of luck!

PS. Here is the link for Westhaven. It's in Franklin. Pretty houses, but kinda squished for my taste. But very popular place for families.

Westhaven | Franklin, TN Real Estate

Thank you. I did search the forum prior to my post but most of the long island/Westchester related posts didn't necessarily apply to our situation.


I will check out Realtracs, I think neighborhood wise we definitely prefer a more well established neighborhood and not the new developments where you pick from 1 of 3 different housing models.


With your move from CT, how have you found the people in Nashville as far as accepting "Northerners"?

[artemis]

A lot of us are Northerners, you'll be in good company here.

[Kluch]

I'm from Ohio and my wife is from Illinois and we haven't moved in the 5+ years we've been here so I think you'll be ok

[CountryGirl2b=]

OP . .

There are a LOT of housing developments here. It's just the way the area grew up. And many of those housing developments ARE 'established' and have been around for a while. I live in Fieldstone Farms and it's been around for 20 years. I found it very different than CT where I bought an individual house which was not part of any HOA.

Hard to find a native Nashvillian . . lots of transplants. You just have to be open to living in the South!

All the best!

[septimus]

OP- In defense of Westhaven the whole point of the neighborhood aesthetic is that it isn't a subdivision with 3 floor plans the 5 elevations to choose from. My house in Westhaven is the only house with its floor plan in the neighborhood and my house was a "spec" back when it was built.

We are moving to Davidson because of the traffic and the "established" neighborhoods in Metro are changing. Personally I had no interest in parts of Green Hills partly because they are tearing down the older homes and throwing up 2-4 "tall skinnies" on the lot and changing the character of Green Hills without consideration to traffic flow. Estes Rd was designed for houses with 1 acre lots.. not what is replacing existing homes now. The traffic volume on Estes has change dramatically since we first moved here 10 years ago and it wasn't full of teardown replacements.

We came from the northeast were subdivisions were rare. Subdivisions are everywhere here. They are practically impossible to avoid. You may want to make the best of it. I'm not an HOA type but I have appreciated our community pool, tennis courts and parks.

[GWoodle]

With a 3yr & 1yr old you have plenty of time to find a location for school. I'd start with work (downtown?) then look from there. When you drive you have options for dining downtown, west end, Charlotte, 12 south, etc. Plenty of northeastern Yankees here.