Re: Anyone living in Tennessee?
Nashville's OK but for quality of life I'd prefer to be just southeast of there in the Sequatchie Valley, or even on over towards the NC border. Settle west of Nashville and you might as well be living in Arkansas.
My wife and I moved from Chattanooga to Boston about seven years ago to chase jobs, and now that we're verging on ER we're planning to move back sometime next year.
The basis between the Boston-New York-Philly-DC corridor and Appalachia is incredible; we just bought a 2200 square foot log home on seven acres of land outside Chattanooga for $220K. That's less than the capital gain on the house we bought 3 years ago in Boston. Blows my mind.
Anyway, it's not just the cost of living. We'll be about twenty minutes from world-class trout fishing, whitewater kayaking (my passion; there we go with the kayaks again), mountain biking, and rock climbing. Anyone who says there's nothing to do in Tennessee has missed a few things (like Vol football, good moonshine, etc.)
And I've got family down there, which makes up the rest of the difference.
On costs: the sales tax rate in the county we're moving to is about 1% higher than the Boston rate. Property taxes are MUCH lower. Staples like food and gasoline and rum are cheaper. State tuition is cheaper, which may help when our daughter hits college. I've never had a Tennessee building inspector ask me for a bribe. You don't have to buy a gun license. Auto and homeowner's insurance are cheaper.
About the only cost we expect to increase will be the DSS bill so we can get NESN and the Red Sox.
Ed