I'm moving too ... anyone near <someplace warmer>?

[W4EWH]

I have finally convinced the XYL that snow and sleet and high taxes are not for us, and I am looking for a home in the Carolinas or Tennessee.

We've been looking at online real estate listings in North and South Carolina, in Tennessee, and a little bit in Georgia and Florida, and so far I haven't found the place that we're looking for.

So, I'd appreciate your help: please refer me to locals who can help me pick a spot.

Thanks in advance.

73,

Bill, W1AC, who always wanted a "4" call

[W3GMS]

Hi Bill,

My wife is from Cookeville, Tennessee and I am always amazed at how much less expensive real estate is down in that area compared to where we live up here in S.E. Pennsylvania.  A 500K dollar home up here is almost half down in that area.  Going further west in Tennessee, Brentwood is a beautiful area as well.  Find yourself a nice lake property and get yourself a boat and operate Maritime Mobile from your boat!   

Here is a house in Brentwood selling for 350K which appears to be a bargain. 

http://www.viewbrentwoodrealestate.com/register

Good luck in looking for the right property.

Joe, W3GMS     

[N2DTS]

A few years ago, there was something in AARP or something my wife gets about great places to retire to, and one place on the list was Paris Tenn.
I looked at Bass reality at houses and was shocked, lots of VERY nice houses with lots of land for around $100,000.

One place was a 6 year old place with lots of property, 3 bedroom, 2 bath, fireplace (stone), deck, barn, woodshed, 1 block from a boat ramp on Kentucky lake, selling for $112,000.00 and taxes were $1000.00 a year.

There were places like 2 houses down town, one nice, one not as nice, next to each other, live in the nice place and rent out the other, around $100,000.00.

Or 50 acres (wooded) with house, sell the timber on part of the land and make money, $110,000.00.

On passing through Tennessee a few times, I found the people, roads and weather very nice.
Around here, the CB band is all foul mouth stuff, but there, it was very nice!


We thought hard about selling our little house, worth quite a bit then, and moving there and being retired or semi retired.
We would have spent 1/3 of the money for our house on a house there, and had a bigger house, more property, lower cost of living, and went from $7400.00 in property taxes a year to about $1000.00.

[Steve - K4HX]

Lots of places used to be like this in the south. Then too many people from the northeast moved there. Over crowding, high real estate prices and high taxes followed. Please stay where you are now. Thank you.

[W1RC]

When you've lived in the Northeast it's hard to adjust to some of the other parts of the country, particularly the more rural areas.  I know from someone close to me who moved to Tennessee and after three years was glad to move back north to Massachusetts and familiar territory despite having good reasons to flee the Commonwealth in the first place.

I hope what I am going to write next will not offend anyone; it is certainly not my intent to do so.   In certain parts of this country there exists as what are often referred to as "Bible Belts" that consist of a large majority of people who think their chosen faith is so wonderful that everyone must come to know "him" and immediately convert.  People are friendly, at least initially, and as a sign of wanting to be friends will invite newcomers to come to church with them.  Problem is that if you decline that's it.......

The Northeast has a lot of people from different countries, cultures, societies and religious backgrounds so we are used to it and think nothing of it (or at least we should).  Seeing Sikhs wearing turbans doesn't freak us out.  Peoples' faith is pretty much considered their own business and most people don't really care what others believe so long as they are a decent person.  However my friend experienced this scenario on numerous occasions and simply because she just didn't want to go to church and didn't "believe" she was unable to make any real friends in the three years she spent down there.

Something to think about......

Armored suit donned......fire away.

73,

MrMike, W1RC

[Steve - K4HX]

Yep. They are very straight laced in New Orleans, Miami, Daytona Beach, etc.   . I think your generalizations are based on 50 year old false stereotypes. I've never experienced any of what you claim.

[steve_qix]

There are places in North Carolina where there are actually no property taxes!

Wherever you go, my suggestion would be to rent first.  If you're interested, I have a friend who lives in a NICE house in TN who may rent it to you.  It is between Knoxville and Nashville, and is a reasonably new, 3br place on I think 3 acres.  My friend is young and single and is in hi tech, and drives to Knoxville, which is well over an hour one way and would like to be closer to his work, but doesn't want to sell his house (at least not right now, but may in the very near future and it would make infinite sense if he did, actually).

The house is in a neighborhood of similar homes, with mostly middle aged to older people living there, so you'd actually be in good company.

Email me if interested, and I'll contact my friend and put you two in touch if he's interested in renting.  This could be a real win-win.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Things have changed a lot in the South mainly due to those outsiders moving in! But having been in NC for going on 6 years now I find that, for the most part, it's still a basically polite and laid back culture when compared to what the northeast has become. It's a fairly religious area though not as stiff and stuffy as portrayed on TV and elsewhere. We've had zero issues with any bible thumpers, they are friendly and have no problem with you saying 'No, thanks'. I'd describe it more as 'traditional values' type of living, less of the new-age crap so long as you avoid the college towns and big cities of course where nonsense and high crime rates thrive. Durham and Fayetteville are the primary shooting galleries down here.

Bill, just to give you some idea of the difference - we bought a smaller place than the VT house, a single level ranch style with 8 rooms, 2 baths, 3 garages (2 car attached, one separate), carport or boat storage building, playhouse we use as a pool & storage building, pool, 4 pecan trees, 8 fruit trees (apples, peaches, plums, pears) all on 3 acres about a half hour north of Raleigh for well under $200K. Taxes are just over $1300, roughly a quarter of what I was paying for much less in VT. Food has gone up but still cheaper than back home. Gas is cheaper, though VA has us beat most days by a nickel to a quarter per gallon. The VA border is about a half hour due north.

WX is much less severe than the north, if you don't count the occasional hurricane or tornado.  Winter is pretty much Jan-Feb where you have some nights that get down into the teens or twenties and days in the thirties-fifties. It has been colder and snowed more in recent years, but still nothing like up there. No fear, there's still plenty about the weather to complain about!

IMO, you can't go wrong down here. I bet it's added ten years to my life getting out of the cesspool up north. This place will be on the market within the next year +/- as with three of us now we need more space. And Jen wants to be a bit closer to school. It's a radio-friendly place as far as noise, zoning, etc, and I've got a good start on a station on the back side of the garage including a 100 amp service, 240 outlet for a big rig, and feedline access from outside. Country living with the convenience of civilization not far away.

[K1JJ]

OK, venting time...

Huzman and I have had this conversation before....  For the life of me, I can't understand why the property taxes in the northeast can be 5,6 7 times or more than they are in many areas in the south!

Are we THAT inefficient up here running the government?  Why do we need to build Taj Mahal  schools and then convert them to unused senior centers after the precious little juniors grow up?  (And these same families later move away to avoid the same taxes they created)

The school budget in this town is $80 million / year, far outweighing everything else.  They keep coming up with new projects to blow $ on.

I admire people from the towns and districts of the south who live well within their means and egos.


* Actually, I like New England weather with the extreme seasonal changes from hot to cold.  Each season is fun - spring, summer, fall, winter all have their moments. Just got in from an hour winter hike in the snow and woods. Mix it up, baby!  

T

[W5CEM]

I dunno Mike, we have the Buckle of the Bible Belt over here in TX and I have never had a problem.  Nor my children or spouse or really anyone I know.  Yea you can pick 'em out at a party or Field Day.  Grace before the burger and no 807 in their hand.  But really they don't bite and it seems once they realize my soul is not redeemable, they leave us alone.  

My son is contemplating a move to the Raleigh area, as his work will move him there if he commits to 5 years with the company.  We have all been looking at real estate and I am impressed.  What I wouldn't give for tall pine trees to host the dipoles and a 75mtr inverted L!  If he goes thru with it, I may just follow.  I so like the idea of renting first, good recommendation.

Hmmm...not so sure about the 4 call, though

[WA2ROC]

Y'all can keep your call if you move to 4 Land.

I did, more than 40 years ago, and I love it down here.

A few weeks ago I even had to shovel a full half inch of rain off my driveway!

[W1RKW]

A friend of mine from Salem is moving to northern GA. He's retired Navy. He's already move his family south.  His current place is 2000 sq. ft on 15 acres and valued a $400K with taxes up the wazoo.  His new place is twice the size on the same foot print. He bought it for $250k and is 5 years old. It has several out buildings and places to store his Army vehicles. It comes with backup power, a radio tower, and much more open space he can do what he wants unlike back in Salem. Taxes are a fraction of what they are here. The place was on the market for a few years at over $500K. How can his new town and state function on less money and offer similar services? Good question. It seems prevalent nationwide. Tom, CT is crooked and inefficient. That's about all I can come up with.  

The XYL and I will be moving south and west when I retire. That's about 10 years from now. I don't see CT changing any time soon as long as the crooks that run CT continue to reign. And money is not the only issue with CT.  Stupid reactionary laws play another part where the rest of the country isn't wrapped up with the law du jour.

[W6TOM]

  Even those who live in areas of gentler climate are considering fleeing the hostile climate created by the Peoples Republik that rules the locality, I have NOT been a happy Peoples Republik of Kalifornia camper for some time.

[WBear2GCR]

A lot depends on who you are, and how you come across.

In most places that are not in a big or big-ish metro area, if you were not born there and/or went to school there (as in grade school) and/or your family isn't from there, then you are a permanent "outsider". No matter what you do.

I'm in what is now semi-suburban/semi-rural community, and the folks who are "natives" still don't see me as "one of them". There are more "transplants" than before, so this is less of an issue. I'm in upstate NY! I've been personally here since about 1985 and this was my grandparent's summer home starting in 1929!

Didn't go to school here - not an "insider".

The more rural, and the fewer "transplants" in place, the less likely that anyone, no matter who they are will be treated as "equals". There may be some exceptions, but not many.

If you don't need to be accepted socially in all regards, active politically, or *depend* in any way on "equal" treatment (like in a court, or by the constabulary) in the event of some sort of contested situation, then ur "safe" I guess.

I have a friend who bought land in rural Tennessee and lived there for more than a decade, he ran into exactly this. And he's not a "city slicker" type at all, he's more of a mechanic and DIY type, so a pretty good "fit" you'd think. He left. Sold the land, got out.

Otoh one might find a good spot where one fits in... dip toe in waters gently, beware of man-eating fish. The veneer always looks good. Below the surface takes time to discover.

That's one thing that is the best about AM hams, generally speaking I've found only really good folks who are warm and welcoming, no matter where they live. But that the rest of the country was the same...

                      _-_-

[flintstone mop]

We can not afford to move. We're stuck in the freezer...a weird quirk of an "old fashioned winter" Western Pa. style.
For possibly $50K we could build a VERY nice vacation house in the Philippines and stay there 4 mos out of the year...but we have an 8 yr old and the USA educational system is a lot better than the Philippines.
Our school district is very good. They do not tolerate the bad behavior. Our son is around a 90 average grade and he is getting tooooo smart.