Cookeville, TN - Small town living & a low cost of living (Crossville: real estate, to rent)

[jguillot]

GreatRetirementSpots.com lists Cookeville, TN as a great retirement spot. "Retirees seeking southern hospitality, mild weather and an affordable cost-of-living might want to consider Cookeville, Tennessee as a retirement spot." "Cookeville offers low cost housing, friendly residents, an excellent quality of life and an escape from hectic city living." See their article by clicking on the link below.

Retirement and Real Estate in Cookeville, Tennessee - Community Life - Best Place to Retire

[Wendy-Margaret]

Thank you for this wonderful article, makes me want to leave this terrible heat in Florida despite the fact that its already almost the middle of Sept. I noticed that you mentioned its a wonderful place for retirees, but I would still need to work, so does this town offer jobs, guess you can tell me what link to find out about that. I'm hoping to visit next year, then my son has one more year of High School and hopefully we can move after that. Looking forward to more info. and thanks in advance.

[JMT]

Originally Posted by Wendy-Margaret

Thank you for this wonderful article, makes me want to leave this terrible heat in Florida despite the fact that its already almost the middle of Sept. I noticed that you mentioned its a wonderful place for retirees, but I would still need to work, so does this town offer jobs, guess you can tell me what link to find out about that. I'm hoping to visit next year, then my son has one more year of High School and hopefully we can move after that. Looking forward to more info. and thanks in advance.

There are thousands of jobs in Cookeville. While the town has fewer than 30,000 people, there are over 30,000 jobs in town. Keep in mind that the wages tend to be lower than in larger towns, although doctors, lawyers, and university professors seem to get paid the same no matter where they are.

What kind of job are you going to be looking for?

One thing that the article that jguillot posted didn't mention is that even though Cookeville is very popular with retirees, it's still a very young city because of the university. And, fortunately, it's not a party school, either, so while there may be 10,000 college students in town, they're generally not the drunken frat boys you see at other schools.

[Wendy-Margaret]

It's nice to hear that jobs are still available in Cookeville, my choice would be either to return to the Secretarial Field, which I know like the palm of my hand, having over 25yrs experience in that.....or to keep on in the health field which I recently started when I moved to Florida 2 and a half years ago.....I guess it might depend on which one pays more in TN. I'm longing to visit but really cannot move until my son finishes High School, as we came from Venezuela .......so uprooted the kids there, then put them in schools in New Jersey, then moved them to Florida, so now I think its crucial that my son finishes High School then we can move as the girls are in 5th & 6th grades. Can anyone direct me to the local newspaper for Cookeville, then I can see what jobs they offer and maybe an idea of wages. Also we would probably rent for a while until we decided where exactly we want to live, and I would definitely need a 3 or 4 B/R house, can anyone give me an idea of costs..... I'm sure that would change by the time I'm ready to move but it would be interesting to know.

I was a bit concerned when I noticed that most people who spoke about Cookeville were retirees because I would still have to work, hopefully for years to come God sparing life. I think this Forum is absolutely wonderful, I was so dissapointed when I could not make it to the Get-together, but maybe there's hope as it appears that they will make it an annual event. Thanks again to all for any info. sent.

[jguillot]

Originally Posted by Wendy-Margaret

Can anyone direct me to the local newspaper for Cookeville, then I can see what jobs they offer and maybe an idea of wages.

Here is a link to the on-line version of the local Cookeville newspaper.

Welcome to the Herald-Citizen Web Page!!

[JMT]

Originally Posted by Wendy-Margaret

It's nice to hear that jobs are still available in Cookeville, my choice would be either to return to the Secretarial Field, which I know like the palm of my hand, having over 25yrs experience in that.....or to keep on in the health field which I recently started when I moved to Florida 2 and a half years ago.....I guess it might depend on which one pays more in TN. I'm longing to visit but really cannot move until my son finishes High School, as we came from Venezuela .......so uprooted the kids there, then put them in schools in New Jersey, then moved them to Florida, so now I think its crucial that my son finishes High School then we can move as the girls are in 5th & 6th grades. Can anyone direct me to the local newspaper for Cookeville, then I can see what jobs they offer and maybe an idea of wages. Also we would probably rent for a while until we decided where exactly we want to live, and I would definitely need a 3 or 4 B/R house, can anyone give me an idea of costs..... I'm sure that would change by the time I'm ready to move but it would be interesting to know.

I was a bit concerned when I noticed that most people who spoke about Cookeville were retirees because I would still have to work, hopefully for years to come God sparing life. I think this Forum is absolutely wonderful, I was so dissapointed when I could not make it to the Get-together, but maybe there's hope as it appears that they will make it an annual event. Thanks again to all for any info. sent.

It makes perfect sense to wait until your son finishes high school before moving again. While kids are pretty resilient, it's sometimes tough on a teenager to leave his friends behind for his senior year of high school.

When you look at the online edition of the Herald-Citizen newspaper, you can view their help wanted ads as well as the real estate listings. The Sunday edition has a larger classifieds section than during the week.

If you want to return to the secretarial field, there are plenty of things like that in Cookeville. For a small town with a few factories, it's a very white-collar town. The university is the largest employer:
Tennessee Tech University

If you want to return to the medical field, you shouldn't have any problems with that, either. The hospital in Cookeville is fairly large (247 beds) and is undergoing an $80 million expansion right now. Its web site:
Welcome to Cookeville Regional Medical Center — Growing for you.

There are dozens of other clinics as well as a women's medical center in Cookeville.

I would imagine that wages are higher in the medical field than in the secretarial field.

Are you originally from Venezuala? There's always been a fairly large Hispanic community in Cookeville because of the university and its ESL program. I would think that if you are bilingual you wouldn't have any problems at all getting a job in Cookeville, particularly in the medical field.

Good luck! I hope to get back over to Cookeville sometime soon and take some more pictures to post on here.

[Wendy-Margaret]

Thanks JMT for your info., .......although I am still interested in purchasing some land for the future even if we do decide to rent for a while in the Cookeville area, could you maybe e-mail me with suggestions of where to purchase because I know if I stay away from those big developments I could get land at a lower cost, my e-mail address is:-
w2rona@aol.com

Thanks to all for info. provided.

[jguillot]

Originally Posted by Wendy-Margaret

Thanks JMT for your info., .......although I am still interested in purchasing some land for the future even if we do decide to rent for a while in the Cookeville area, could you maybe e-mail me with suggestions of where to purchase because I know if I stay away from those big developments I could get land at a lower cost, my e-mail address is:-
w2rona@aol.com

Thanks to all for info. provided.

Hi Wendy-Margaret,

I don't know what your situation will be and what you had in mind for your land once you settle there, but you should consider the fact that big developments might have some restrictions in place that could later help to maintain the value of your property. If that is what you are looking for, it might be worthwhile paying a little more for those restrictions. For instance, I would not want my neighbor to start a pig farm next door. Most developments would not allow this to happen. Just something to consider. The best of luck to you in finding that special place in the Cookeville area.

[JMT]

Originally Posted by Wendy-Margaret

Thanks JMT for your info., .......although I am still interested in purchasing some land for the future even if we do decide to rent for a while in the Cookeville area, could you maybe e-mail me with suggestions of where to purchase because I know if I stay away from those big developments I could get land at a lower cost, my e-mail address is:-
w2rona@aol.com

Thanks to all for info. provided.

Hey I'll go ahead and answer here in case anyone else is interested in the same kind of information.

There are no big developments in the Cookeville area. The big housing developments that target retirees are in the Crossville area. Cumberland Cover straddles the Putnam / Cumberland county line a few miles east of Monterey.

If you're looking for acreage, you'll probably get some better deals in the western part of Putnam County: Baxter, Bloomington Springs, Buffalo Valley, and Silver Point are the post offices. But be careful, some of those areas spill into neighboring counties where the schools aren't very good.

Algood is a very popular, very desirable area next to Cookeville. You can also find acreage there although it'll be more expensive because it's closer to Cookeville and has a couple of golf courses.

Let me know how else we can help!

[Barbiego]

We retired here a year ago and love it. But my concern is that as more retirees come in, costs are going up. Three years ago when we started looking for a town to live in, Cookeville was the #1 most affordable town in the U.S. By the time we moved here two years later, it was in #2 spot. Now in today's paper I see it has dropped down to #4. Retirees with lots of money (especially from Florida) are moving here and buying huge houses and expensive cars and I think people are seeing $$$ signs and costs are going up. I sure hate to see it (by the way, we're not one of the rich retirees). It's still quite affordable (at this time) and we are happy we came.