"You ain't from round here,  are you boy?"

Everything is high priced now.  If you can save and wait,you’ll probably end up saving quite a bit.  Things are hyper inflated now.

Listen to me boy, you find a man in the woods you tell him quick to take them panties off.

Next step is to work at a fuckin’ Cracker Barrel and be obese.

There are some very good points made already about East TN.

The traffic in and around Gatlinburg is going to suck. There's really only one road from I-24 through Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, and Gatlinburg, and into the park and it can get backed up for miles.

The winters aren't horrible to me, but I grew up in places like Montana, Maine, Michigan, and Newfoundland, Canada. For someone from Florida, it'll be a shock and I would not advise you to try driving on some of those roads during any kind of an ice or snow storm. It may not seem like a lot of snow, but the roads are curvy and will be slick as shit.

Outside of the major metropolitan areas, Tennessee is pretty solidly red. Rural Tennessee will likely remain so at the local level for the foreseeable future. At the state level, however, there is a good chance we could have some serious blue representation before long. Two of the closest Senate races this year are Cruz vs. Beto in Texas and Blackburn vs. Bredesen here in TN. It looks like Blackburn will win, but it's not a sure bet, by any means. The governor race is also a bit of a toss up, with karl Dean, the Democrat former Mayor of Nashville looking as if he has a chance. It will only get worse, I'm afraid, as the State of Tennessee has been campaigning hard to attract retirees from high cost-of-living areas due to our relatively low taxes (more on those to follow). That means they are going to attract a lot of folks from places such as NY, NJ, MA, CT, etc. Those folks often can't help themselves but to want to change the place they moved to into the place from which they moved. (As a New England native, it pisses me off that they tend to act this way, because it gives folks the idea that all of us are like that. Fuck that, I left that shit hole for plenty of good reasons, settling on TN because it fits my ideal of a great place to live and raise my kids.)

The idea that TN has no income tax is a bit of a misconception. We do have the Hall Tax. It is an income tax imposed on interest from bonds and notes and dividends from stock. It only affects a VERY small percentage of Tennesseans (somewhere less than 1%, if I remember correctly), but it does exist. It won't likely affect you, though, unless you have a lot of investment income. (The deduction for a married couple filing jointly is high enough that all but the wealthiest end up exempt.)

On the plus side for you in moving to the Sevier County area, there are a number of knife retailers in the area, which tend to cater mostly to the tourist crowd-most notably Smokey Mountain Knife Works. If you're any good, you might be able to get them to sell your wares for you.

The gun and knife laws in Tennessee are pretty good. We do have to have a handgun carry permit in order to carry, whether openly or concealed. It is a handgun permit, so it doesn't cover the carry of other weapons on your person. There is a required 8-hour firearms safety class in order to get the permit. You have to try hard to fail, though. The quality of the class varies by instructor, of course. There are only a couple things mandated by the State, so instructors are fairly free to create their own curriculum. You might spend $100 for the class and get a dude who regales the class with his stories of daring-do as a former cop, or you can spend $35 and get a good instructor who knows his stuff and, more importantly, knows how to present to students in a manner conducive to learning. Or, you can spend $35 and get an idiot, or $100 and get a guy with all his shit in one sock. We did recently get our knife laws changed so that automatics are good-to-go, as are most fixed blades, IIRC. Carrying a knife clipped to your pocket is pretty damn common. Heck, even my daughter's assistant principal carries one while he's at school. The ladies often carry them, too. NFA firearms are good-to-go, as well. We do have a $0.10 tax per box of ammo, though, which goes to TWRA (Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency) to provide for things like conservation and hunter's safety. Speaking of hunter's safety, it is taught free-of-charge by volunteers and the guns and ammo are even provided by the State. (There are some charges if you choose to take the online classes, rather than the in-person classes, I believe.)

I live in Middle Tennessee, just across the State line from Huntsville, Alabama. I first moved to the Middle TN / Western KY area 21 years ago, when I got stationed at Fort Campbell, KY. When I left the Army, I had the opportunity to go anywhere I wanted. I couldn't imagine a better place to live than Tennessee, with the possible exception of Texas or certain parts of Arizona.

WNC, ETN, NGA are all far better places to be than Florida. Depending on your interests, consider moving to the real mountains. I went FL->NGA->CO

If they live in Dallas, Ga not sure you really have any options. North of Adairsville to Chattanooga that is still kind of remote as others have said is hyper inflated.

Up I -575 to Blairsville,Ga/Murphy, NC seems to still have a lot of space, but no idea on prices there. But your likely best bet if you want to be able to get to Dallas with some ease.

Just south of Jasper you can cut across westerly on a state route, and get to Cartersville, and take 41 to Dallas Highway/Highway 92 without it being a I-285 level nightmare for a good five or ten more years at least.

Virginia sucks in many ways. Lived there for over a year 10 years ago (I've worked in the firearms and defense industries for over 30 years) .  Gun rights are not that great. Machine guns require state registration (within 24 hours of entering the state) and there are restrictions on using an MG for self defense - not legal and having loaded magazines next to your full auto is considered having an offensive weapon which is illegal in a gray area sort of way. I know that there are machine gun owners in Virginia and I was one of them. The law is basically ignored but that is why there are no big machine gun shoots there (or any at all). You cannot carry a handgun with a mag capacity over 18 rounds and there is gun rationing regarding purchases. Northern Virginia is loaded with liberals although the defense industry conservatives off set that a bit. Crime is very high in cities like Richmond but since you want the mountains, no worries there. Western Virginia is beautiful around Blacksburg, Radford, and even as far north west as Harrisonburg BUT taxes are high and property is very expensive. Democrats seem to get elected more often as time goes on.  Many people I know in Virginia expect it to become Maryland in 10 years. Western North Carolina is beautiful but Asheville is full of ANTIFA types and property is super high. I don't know much about Georgia but SC is loaded with nuke plants like eastern NC - cancer rates much higher in areas east of the nuke plants - parts of  GA probably gets some of their strontium 90 as well. Take a look at West Virginia. Super low taxes, beautiful state, and very low property prices for acreage. Do searches on LandAndFarm.com - best site to find rural property. I wish you the best!

The limit of one gun purchase per month was repealed in 2012.

Thanks for the info and i'm happy for the Virginians.  If someone is moving there from NY, NJ, CT, MA, or CA they will think they are in gun paradise.

I didn't know there were mountains on the East Coast.  They look like foothills.

To be fair, never lived there, but...

Mountain City is nice. Not that long to Johnson City or Abingdon. I like that drive.

Erwin isn’t bad either.

Just don’t touch the trim.

Did they ever get their crime problem under control?

We go up to Blue Ridge every year. I really like the area. I’d like to get a cabin up there eventually. There just isn’t a lot of jobs up there like in metro ATL counties. If I could find one that made what I make down here,... I’d be up there right now.

Theres a graveyard in Parrotsville TN with my last name on every grave

We have 400 acres from the good old days, the all or nothin’ days

Don’t cross me boy or them panties are coming down

Ya’ hear me boy?

A helluva a lot of secrets buried in them hills, a man can’t unsee some things boy.

Take them pants off boy, NOW BOY! KABOOM! Yea, thats right boy.......

Regardless of where you move (good luck to you on that, where ever you land) I just want to know where you get maps like this. Could be handy having that type map for travel.

@Adalebert

Where did you locate a map that shows population by ethnicity?  I could really use a tool like that in the future when it comes time to move.

What this man says is truth. NC, Tn are awash in NE locusts who've escaped the regulatory shitholes they've created. Really progressively purple these days. North GA, too. Places most consider "less desirable" may actually more desirable from your posted parameters.  Personally, I've always been more comfortable around folks who are considered "mountain trash" than I ever was around leftard citiots. I can never recall being in a tough spot (flat tire, for example) and have a the driver of a new Lexus slow down and ask: "You OK...need a hand?"  I've been in a lot sophisticated environments with with expensive NE people. I prefer knocking back a Natty Light and a good joke on the deck of a jon boat over champagne and a clever anecdote on an expensive veranda.

Personally, I’d buy a house right outside of Robbinsville NC. It’s a quiet little town that sees a lot of automotive and motorcycle traffic due to its proximity to us129.  Then again, I love all things car and motorbike, it doesn’t bother me.

You may want to look into which states have state income tax and which ones tax retirement income.

Edit:  Just looked it up.  TN is the only one of your choices that has no income tax.

NO! If there's one spot to survive the zombie apocalypse east of the Mississippi Robbinsville/Graham County would be it. Only a couple roads in and out, middle of nowhere next to nothing. That being said, thats the biggest issue there's nothing there. I live in WNC and love being in the middle of nowhere but I also enjoy going out and finding a decent meal and having a beer. That aint happening there, because the county is Dry! Except the meadery.

I live in SW Virginia. My closest real towns are Kingsport and Johnson city TN. I would not hesitate to say either could be a good place.

Virginia is still a good place here but we are going to lose our state to four counties full of federal workers if we don’t start pulling off some miracles.

I live in a place where no one thinks anything of you walking out into the back yard and shooting. If the cops come it’s only to see what you are shooting and if they can join in. The kind of place where you won’t spend more than ten minutes broken down on the side of the road before someone stops to help. Where my guys need off early to put up hay. It’s great in all of those respects.

But there is a lot of dope and FSA. They don’t really affect honest people but it’s a mess.

Maryville is awesome. I have a 5 acre property for sale with house and barn here currently. I just moved to Townsend, and I love it too. A little off the beaten path, but close enough to town for essentials.

Mountains are nice to visit, but as others have mentioned you’ll have snow to deal with in the winter. Always sounds like a great thing until you have to drive in it on a twisting road. I live at about 1500-1600 ft elevation on the Cumberland Plateau and the winters are very mild.  Lot of public land within short driving distance and solidly conservative.

Attached File

Get outside your bubble once in a while.    A little travel ain’t gonna kill ye.   The mountains are quite real, and you don’t have to worry about them exploding.

I went through the same decision making process when I got out of the military in 2015. Like you, I had children to consider and in my line of work could have lived anywhere. Several years before I got out I zeroed in on western North Carolina, north Georgia, and northeast Tennessee as places to settle down. I had been stationed in eastern North Carolina and south Georgia so I had some familiarity with those states.  All would be good places to live.  GA has the best gun laws.  In the end we decided on northeast Tennessee.  We love it here.  Mountains, rolling farmland, conservative people, no state income tax, and very good school systems.  Probably some of the best public schools in the region.  We're never moving again.

By the way,  I grew up in Eastern KY.  I don't particularly recommend that area.

It’s strange that you’re factoring in those elevation differentials. They’re negligible.

Your property’s exposure (NSE  or W) will have much more of an impact. If you don’t get sun, it will be like being thousands of feet higher

And Florida isn't? I lived there for 18 years and escaped to a mountainous free state as quickly as I could!

I know nothing about TN, but I grew up in N GA and now live in WNC. If gun laws matter GA is best. Taxes looks like TN wins. Amount to do, most towns and mountains WNC wins.

Depending how much snow, cool weather you want you can look at the Boone area and Highland Plateau, which is Highlands, Cashiers (pronounced Cashers), Glenville, Sapphire. Ive got a little farm by Highlands which is about 1.25 hours from Asheville and 2 from the Atlanta area, it never really gets above 80* and we got a little over 2' of snow last year, sometimes we'll get three. There's a lot of money around downtown Highlands and Cashiers, but if you get a couple miles outside of the towns prices drop significantly. Glenville (Lake Glennville) is the highest lake east of the Mississippi. The area offers awesome outdoor activities and has a pretty good restaurants and nightlife, if thats important. Close to there is Sylva and Franklin, both nice mountain towns, Sylva has the college there and a little more to do.

Other areas in WNC is like you said Boone, Waynesville is a awesome little town. Its about 20 miles from Asheville, sits at almost 3k in elevation. The downtown is great and the county its in, has the most peaks above 5k feet in the Appalachian Mountains. Murphy, Bryson City, Brevard and West Jefferson all are towns to look at.

In GA, Clayton (Rabun County) is awesome. Blairsville and Blue Ridge are other options.

On edit...
The amount of people worried about snow. Go back to Florida. That's one thing that makes this place awesome. I wish I could post pictures, Ive got a couple amazing ones from last years storm.

Shady Valley is tiny and has TONS of motorcycle traffic... Hot spot for riders all over the nation.

I second this. I live on Lewis Chapel mountain east of Dunlap, TN. and the Sequatchie Valley. This is about 35 minutes NW of Chattanooga. I have lived all over the US and this is where i’m staying. I have 15 acres, a 4 acre pond, and my own range. My money goes a lot farther here. People are friendly and very conservative for the most part. I have run in to some Liberals, but they keep their goofy politics to themselves, unlike elsewhere, and we all get along.

Google Sequatchie Valley and look at images.

They don't welcome, it's still small town/who you know in a lot of places
 They'll tolerate you, but you and your kids will always be immigrants.  Maybe even your grandkids.

They have mountains east of the Mississippi River?  Just kidding.  Being from SW Missouri I prefer the Ozarks to anything mentioned.

Look harder at WV. I'm living well on less than $100k a year. 3 bedroom 2 bath house on 5 acres is paid for. 130+ acres of undeveloped property paid for. Newer vehicles in the driveway. I can walk out the back door and hike for 20 miles and probably not see another human being if I so desire. Just depends on your interests. Pics are all on my property.



There is a downside though

Well said-and true.

Of the states you've mentioned TN is my favorite. Johnson City might be worth a look.

I'm not a world traveler, but in my 66 yrs I've been in 42 of the lower 48 on a motorcycle and/or family road trip vacations.  From where you are now, and the places you are considering, I would choose E TN for myself.  I love W NC, especially the Robbinsville area, but I'd choose E TN due to taxes and gun laws.  Just for me, I'd find a small town on the TN side of the TN/NC state line.  Best wishes on your search and journey!

HA! I wish I had a nickle for every time I heard that when we lived in TN.  My family is traditionally from TN South of Nashville and I talk pretty "crackerfied", no yankee talk for me, so I guess it's because they didn't know me.

Everyone talking about no state income tax in TN should check out the high sales tax.  We found that it just about compensates for what you would pay for state income tax.

If Gillum gets in as Governor of FL, the wife has already said we are moving, so I need to figure out where we are going too.  I'm thinking probably SC.

I kind of have the same interest. I am retired in Colorado and like it here except that the politics and too many of the people are turning California. But my wife is from North Alabama and wants to go back near her home country when she retires. She makes the point that Alabama will likely never go liberal, at least from outsiders. The liberal mind seems to hate the idea of Alabama. She says Roy Moore probably did more to save Alabama in that regard than anything could.

So if a person on ARF is willing to have just hills and not actual mountains the northern third of Alabama is a pretty nice place. For my part, if I agree to leave Colorado it will have to be for somewhere the hills at least can imitate mountains, so I too am wondering about east Tennessee somewhere-- not so sure of the NC and GA politics.

I don’t see how that would be possible.    Even if it’s 4% more, $100,000 worth of purchases would only be $4000(additional).

Do you pay sales tax on Land purchases?

Buying (or building) a house?

I've motorcycled the Tellico Plains, TN area numerous times and absolutely love the area. Check it out. Just over the N.C. line.

Highlands and neighboring Cashiers is where people with some real money retire. All gated communities rife with Beamers and Mercedes.

TN sales tax isn't really that bad. It has two portions: a State imposed 7% and an additional amount of up to 2.75% set by the county. So, the highest it can be is 9.75%. In my county, it's 9.5%, which seems about average.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is the lack of a personal property tax related to vehicle registrations in TN. A lot of states, to include FL, if I recall correctly, charge an amount to register your vehicle each year based on the value of the car. The more the State says the car should be worth, the more you pay-every year. It's not that way in TN. Here, we pay a fairly low registration fee and county wheel tax. For example, in my county, it costs $104 each year to renew my tags, with vanity tags being more. Most counties are less expensive to register your car. A small handful of counties in the mid state do have emissions inspections, but the majority do not.

Check out the Tri-Cities area of NE TN (Bristol, Kingsport, Johnson City). It's deep red with a mild climate and as long as you stay down in the valleys, the snow's (usually) not too bad. The main roads are cleared quickly and most of the snow is gone in a few days. Unless you're willing to hunker down for 2-3 days after a snow, 4WD is highly recommended.

TN does have an income tax, but it's on stock dividends and some interest. Click here.

Last time I looked, sales tax is around 9.75% vs. our 6% in FL.  The Property tax also looks fairly high compared to the low rate we pay in Collier Co, FL, which is about $2,700 per year on a $500,000 house.

I guess it also varies from County to County both in TN and FL depending on where you live.

Agreed, true of most areas though....

Former coworker of mine retired there, bought a nice house on 100 acres.

Have no clue, as you know meth and meth-billies are a major problem.