RFI: Knoxville, TN

It's taken multiple years, but finally had the right opportunity to engineer a move out of Nova, so the whole family is moving to Knoxville, TN. Looking for recommendations on the area, housing, food, school districts etc.

We have been doing a ton of research and are actually going down this weekend to look at housing options, but any and all first hand knowledge is welcome. It's a far from ideal time to get out of the mortgage I currently have and buy a new house, but it is what it is. We are planning to get a single family home in a nice neighborhood (hopefully with proximity to good schools) and then sink the remainder of my equity into a fairly significant piece of land within a 45 minute drive to fulfill all my hunting and shooting needs.

@TC215

I don’t live in Knoxville, though I have bought a lot of drugs there.

Knoxville has seen a large increase in violent crime in recent years. I believe at one point last year, it was the most violent city in the country (per capita).

I know there are nice parts of Knoxville, I’m just not familiar with them.

My recommendation would be to look for land outside the city. Maybe Blount County or Sevier County, or look at smaller cities outside of Knoxville (Alcoa, Maryville, etc). There are a LOT of people moving to East Tennessee right now from all over the country. Pretty difficult to find a house.

If you do end up in Knoxville, be extraordinarily picky about what school district you’re in. A large amount of shootings are connected to gang activity in high schools.

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Originally Posted by TC215

I don’t live in Knoxville, though I have bought a lot of drugs there.

Knoxville has seen a large increase in violent crime in recent years. I believe at one point last year, it was the most violent city in the country (per capita).

I know there are nice parts of Knoxville, I’m just not familiar with them.

My recommendation would be to look for land outside the city. Maybe Blount County or Sevier County, or look at smaller cities outside of Knoxville (Alcoa, Maryville, etc). There are a LOT of people moving to East Tennessee right now from all over the country. Pretty difficult to find a house.

If you do end up in Knoxville, be extraordinarily picky about what school district you’re in. A large amount of shootings are connected to gang activity in high schools.

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Thanks for the heads up. We are not planning on living in Knoxville, though that's where I'll be working. We are looking at houses within Knox County, or as you mentioned, adjacent counties. The quality of schools factors heavily into our decisions (though so to does the commute), so hopefully we can avoid some of the unpleasantness.

It's definitely not an ideal time to buy a house anywhere for sure, but we'll see what we can accomplish.

https://www.niche.com/site-search/?q...,%20KY&ref=k12

I hope you find that link useful, Matt.


Duces

Following for long term interest.

Eastern TN was a possible retirement location for us before we settled on the West coast of FL.

Maryville and Alcoa (Blount County) are a reasonable commute from Knoxville itself, and are the general area I recommended to my parents for retirement. Blount County checks a lot of boxes if you like the idea of living in East Tennessee, though I can’t speak to the school system.

Some friends recently moved from Farragut and liked it there a lot (they moved for work reasons, not for anything bad). The Oak Ridge area (Anderson County) is also fairly nice. They have an active action pistol community up there, if that’s something that interests you.

The further you get from Knoxville, the more culture shock you can expect.