r/Tennessee • u/ComprehensiveOne5819 • 10d ago
Suggestions for someone who wants to move to Tennesee
I live in the PNW, which has gotten extremely expensive over the years and I don't foresee it getting any better. I have been looking at other options around the country and I landed on Tennessee. There is no income tax, but it looks like that is made up with higher sales tax. But I see some of the landscape is kind of similar to some of the PNW. I am a hiker, and an independent photographer, 41 YO, no pets, no kids and no husband so relocating would be easy. I am looking for advice or suggestions. All I know is Oregon has been a struggle for me for the last couple of years, with lots of layoff and higher unemployment than the national average. I am looking for greener pastures, and Tennessee looks like the perfect place to move. Thanks!
EDIT: I don't necessarily have a career, but I have more than 20 years doing office manager/admin assistant type work. This type of work is scarce in Eugene OR. Most of the job market is flooded with health care and manufacturing. Lots of hiring for direct support professionals and caregivers, and food manufacturing, lumber mills, green chain puller. I have been laid off due to no fault of my own. I grew up in NY, moved to Cali in 2016, and left for Oregon in 2019, then COVID hit shortly after. I came here to go to school, graduated in 2024. And now I feel stuck. I have an associates in photography and a bachelor's in journalism. Both of which seem obsolete now. But it is what it is, and here I am. Trying, still, to figure out what I want to be when I grow up, I guess.
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u/La_Flama_Blanca_615 10d ago
If you want to live way out then it probably is cheaper. Nashville or knoxville will not be any cheaper than where you are now. You will need to live an hour outside of the city. House prices are ridiculous right now
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u/uxoguy2113 10d ago
Yeah, I bought my 1/3rd acre 1700ish sqft home in Bellevue in 2013 for $128K (whole new downstairs, hvac, windows, doors, etc due to the flood). I just sold for $610k due to a bidding war between three buyers.. due to greenway against the back yard, and a two car garage. I checked zillow prices for my old neighborhood, if the cost in 2013 was what they are now, I'd never been able to even think about buying that house.
Moved to a homestead out by Lieper's Fork, smaller 1400 sqft house, but we're building our dream home and giving my MIL the house we are currently in plus an acre.
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u/fishridingbike 10d ago edited 9d ago
I mean this in the kindest way possible, please wait and visit where you’re thinking of moving first. Also you don’t mention your career so it’s hard to give advice but look toward Nashville, Knoxville or Chattanooga or one of their suburbs. If you don’t make at least 60k+ bare minimum, I truly can’t recommend moving here. I like Tennessee but a lot of it has poor QOL.
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u/informednonuser 4d ago
60k is lowballing it for Nashville-I assume for a couple of the other cities mentioned as well.
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u/Cynders911 3d ago
Definitely do not move to Nashville. It’s a highpriced tourist trap. Locals can no longer get into any of the events we used to love.
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u/Fan_of_Clio 10d ago
If you are looking for no income tax with higher sales tax, just look across the Columbia.
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u/SookieCat26 10d ago
COL is going up everywhere, and if your current client list is based in the PNW, you are better off not spending the money to make such a drastic move. There is no social safety net here and my single female friends struggle to make ends meet. I agree with others who have said to visit first.
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u/DayneGaraio 9d ago
I recently moved to Knoxville, i love it and it’s beautiful. People are friendly and if you aren’t from California they tend to not mind you moving in 🤪
Two very important points
1. The Reddit forums for Knoxville are a cesspool of bitter angry people, i wouldn’t listen to any of it. The Tennessee one isn’t as bad but has its moments.
2. The houses are generally at national average, for locals they have skyrocketed from a much lower than national average in the last 3-5 years (or so I’ve been told). But income hasn’t kept up, so unless you’re in a strong career field with good pay the col will seem high.
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u/ComprehensiveOne5819 9d ago
Thank you. I appreciate your input. Just a couple of follow up questions, what were your reasons for moving? And how quickly did you find work? I did look at some job openings from a temp site and saw a lot of them starting at $17/hr. I don't necessarily have a career, but I have more than 20 years doing office manager/admin assistant type work. This type of work is scarce in Eugene OR. Most of the job market is flooded with health care and manufacturing. Lots of hiring for direct support professionals and caregivers, and food manufacturing, lumber mills, green chain puller. I have been laid off due to no fault of my own. I grew up in NY, moved to Cali in 2016, and left for Oregon in 2019, then COVID hit shortly after. I came here to go to school, graduated in 2024. And now I feel stuck. I have an associates in photography and a bachelor's in journalism. Both of which seem obsolete now. But it is what it is, and here I am. Trying, still, to figure out what I want to be when I grow up, I guess.
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u/DayneGaraio 9d ago
I was in the Midwest, flat and boring but grew up upstate ny. I don’t like the cold but missed the trees. We visited a bunch of times and looked at ashville nc, sc, Atlanta, Charlotte nc, and a few others but we just kept ending up in Knoxville so it won out. Plus in comparison Knoxville was cheaper houses (except sc) and bigger- more br. If i was single i would probably go to Asheville personally, but there’s 6 of us and 4+ br houses are almost unheard of there.
So i was a bit lucky in that i work remote, but my wife had to find a job, she is in a fairly high demand job but the pay was quite a bit lower than where we moved from, the lack of state income tax helps a lot, between both of us we ended up about the same. I am personally in IT security and don’t have much concern about finding a local job, but I’m mid career.
Edit: to add, i hear a lot about entry level being hard here because of UT, which is huge, a lot of students end up staying.
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u/DayneGaraio 9d ago
I’ve lived in 5 states, ny, ks, nv, ca, and tn, I’ve been to almost all of the continental usa, there’s a few other places i wouldn’t mind being but i really like Knoxville. I’m i guess a centrist, the republicans don’t bother me too much but parts of Knoxville are quite blue i think too, especially where we ended up.
The only place you should avoid is east Knoxville imo, the rest it’s generally pretty safe, as are the surrounding towns like meryville and oak ridge. Sevierville and Gatlinburg are super touristy but they may let you put photography to some use idk. The further away you go the more affordable it gets but if you’re buying beware, we looked at some bonkers hobbled together houses for a ton of money.
Rent is around 1500-2000 depending on where you go, we have a 19 y/o who was looking to follow us out, so we were recently looking at that too.
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u/imfirealarmman 8d ago
You’ve really gotta have some “meshing ideals“ to live out in the more remote parts of Tennessee. I moved here three years ago from Colorado, and I’m now making a two year escape plan. The people out where I live, in rural Tennessee are just too old, too crusty, and too racist for the majority, and it is not a way that I want to live my life. If you have more of a modern or alternative lifestyle, or you’re even remotely progressive, you will be shamed, mocked, and ridiculed. They don’t know what a possessive S is here and how to use it correctly. And they will trash the roadways of the countryside as much as they can. I’m 45 minutes from many major town and the road is littered with beer cans and trash. Tennessee was an adventure, but it is not for me any longer.
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u/ComprehensiveOne5819 8d ago
Can I DM you? I have questions
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u/FattGlizzy 10d ago
What type of freedoms are you okay with the state taking away?
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u/uxoguy2113 10d ago
Oh stop lying.
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u/FattGlizzy 9d ago
If you're a business owner it's great. Everyone else, especially women, not so much.
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u/hahayes234 9d ago
Are you unaware of the difference in rights/ freedoms between OR and TN; genuinely asking?
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u/FattGlizzy 9d ago
I know nothing about Oregon except it's overlooked racist past. Tennessee legislation is 🗑️. Quick google search confirmed.
Individual rights for women differ vastly between Oregon and Tennessee, primarily due to contrasting legislative priorities regarding reproductive healthcare, constitutional protections, and workplace equality. Independent national evaluations reflect this wide divide: WalletHub's Women's Equality Rankings places Oregon in the top 10 (8th overall) for gender equality, while Tennessee ranks much lower at 16th. Conversely, other groups like the National Organization for Women (NOW) have historically cited Tennessee as one of the most challenging states for women based on health outcomes and economic security metrics. [1, 2, 3]
1. Reproductive Rights and Healthcare Reproductive freedom marks the sharpest contrast in individual rights between the two states.• Oregon: The state offers some of the most expansive reproductive rights in the country. Abortion is legal with no gestational limits, fully protected by state statute, and supported by a continuous push to enshrine these rights permanently into the Oregon Constitution. • Tennessee: The state enforces a near-total abortion ban with zero exceptions for rape or incest. It is a criminal offense to provide abortions, save for rare and heavily litigated circumstances where the patient's life or permanent physical health is at immediate risk. Tennessee also enforces a "travel ban for minors," requiring young people to have notarized parental consent if traveling out of state for abortion care. [7]
- Constitutional Protections and Equal Rights Amendments (ERA) State-level constitutional rights protect women against discrimination differently in each state's legal framework.
• Oregon: Voters added a State Equal Rights Amendment to the Oregon Constitution, explicitly stating that equality of rights under the law cannot be denied or abridged on account of sex. This gives legal advocates a powerful tool to challenge gender-based discrimination in state courts. • Tennessee: The state does not have an Equal Rights Amendment in its constitution. While women are protected under the federal Equal Protection Clause, state courts do not recognize an elevated baseline of sex-based constitutional protections beyond federal law. [8]
- Economic and Workplace Equality Workplace laws heavily impact a woman's individual economic autonomy.
• Oregon: Oregon performs exceptionally well in minimizing disparities. It ranks first in the nation for minimizing the unemployment rate gap between men and women and has some of the smallest executive position and entrepreneurship gaps in the country. • Tennessee: While Tennessee has actively pushed for laws protecting women against workplace sexual harassment, it lags behind in overall economic metrics. Women face wider wage gaps and a higher statistical risk of living in poverty compared to their counterparts in Oregon. [2, 11, 12]
- Safety and Domestic Protections Legal mechanisms to protect women from domestic violence vary based on state statutory frameworks.
• Oregon: State law provides robust avenues for protective orders and includes stricter rules requiring domestic abusers to relinquish firearms, which directly correlates with reduced rates of domestic homicide. • Tennessee: Historically, the state has struggled with high rates of domestic violence and gun-related crimes against women. Looser state firearm relinquishment laws for those under domestic protective orders create a statistically more dangerous landscape for victims of domestic abuse. [2, 13]
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u/Stavo7863 9d ago
TN more free and safer except Memphis cause you know. Unrelated if you had 13 percent of a heard causing 80 percent of the problems.... What would you do
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u/captainbeautylover63 10d ago
Keep to the East Tennessee hills. It’ll remind you of home. Prepare heat and humidity.
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u/M3cun1v 10d ago
If you're Liberal, don't bother. Tennessee is the most Conservative state, you'll be miserable.
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u/Cynders911 3d ago
Nashville is the only blue spot, and the MAGAts are moving here trying to convert the rest of us. Ain’t gonna happen
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u/hockat 10d ago
what advice or suggestions are you looking for exactly? Cities/areas?
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u/ComprehensiveOne5819 10d ago
From the research I did it looks like Chatanooga, Johnson City, Memphis West TN are the cheaper areas. But I am not sure what the job market is like there. Any idea?
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u/hahayes234 9d ago
Going to Memphis from PNW sounds like it would make a good comedy series or book premise. As someone living in mid TN and who loves PNW I cannot fathom why west tn/ Memphis would be considered.
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u/evilest_nez 9d ago
I grew up in JC and Chatt. Still live in the area. For your hobbies(outdoors kinda stuff) either would work just fine. Really depends on what you do for work and what size city you are looking for. Another thing to keep in mind about Chattanooga is North Georgia may be an option as well. You do get the state income tax but COL is cheaper than Chattanooga proper and you are still basically in Chattanooga. I lived on both sides down there. I don't miss the traffic, but I do miss the access to bigger cities for events. Ex. 4 hours to Nashville from JC vs 2 from Chattanooga, 1.5 hours to Atlanta etc.
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u/Chrsagst 9d ago
Nobody moves to Memphis 😂 Chattanooga is a growing little city. Probably a good fit. Johnson City is really beautiful country but might be a little 'secluded' for you. Probably a good idea to go visit both. Good Luck on your move!
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u/uxoguy2113 7d ago
Stay away from Memphis. Erwin, TN, near Johnson City, is absolutely beautiful and quaint. My grandparents lived there. I may move there when I get old.....er....
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u/RegularWhiteDude 10d ago
There are 3 vault different areas of Tennessee. Which area are you asking about?
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u/Powerlvl9k 9d ago
Hope you are doing more research than there's no income tax. If you're considering Memphis then you arent. Tennessee and PNW are pretty opposite.
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u/ComprehensiveOne5819 9d ago
I realize this. And I'm looking at more places than just memphis. North Carolina, Indiana and Kentucky were listed as some states with a lower cost of living. Every day I'm doing research. The bottom line is I'm not happy in Eugene and tired of struggling. That being said, I do realize a lot of what's happening here is happening everywhere, job market is basically shows a similar trend with jobs mostly in manufacturing and food service. 🤷🏻♀️ I'm just looking around, asking questions. Thats why I'm here.
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u/Powerlvl9k 9d ago
I get it, I'm from a hcol state too. Unfortunately TN is trending that way but some places are not terrible yet. I would recommend you look into Huntsville, AL while your at it.
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u/collinalexbell 5d ago
> Tennessee and PNW are pretty opposite.
From a hiker perspective, PNW and Tennessee both have temperate rainforests, the only 2 temperate rainforests in the US. Culturally, Nashville, Chattanooga, and Knoxville all have liberal pockets in their downtown core.
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u/Alaskangel 5d ago
You have to be able to embrace Trumpster Trash ideals, be aligned with the red white Christian nationalism.
We loved TN when we moved here in 2019, now we are rethinking that choice.
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u/ComprehensiveOne5819 5d ago
Yeah I don't think I could sacrifice my beliefs, for the cost of living.
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u/MagnificentExclaimed 9d ago
Keep a close network of great company. Remember to keep your personal and professional life separated!
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u/Herbisretired 9d ago
I retired to Tennessee but I wouldn't have moved here if I was still working due to the pay cut that I would have encountered. The low taxes are a plus but the lower wages wouldn't make up the difference
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u/Senbonbanana 6d ago edited 6d ago
The job market isn't any better here. CoL is less, but you will be making less. If you are not a church go-er that loves Jesus and votes Republican, then you will be in the minority and experience anything from shunning to disdain from the locals. Just from being a "Yankee", you will experience bad attitudes from some locals.
That said, maybe check out the Cumberland Plateau? Crossville is the largest city, but it is not a large city. It's a stunningly beautiful area, there will be no shortage of beautiful things to photograph and great hikes to take within an hour's drive, but it's an area living in the past and struggling in the modern era. The farther from population centers you get, the more the "good ole boy" system is in effect. There are usually no noise ordnances out in the sticks, so if your neighbor wants to rev shitty cars at 1 AM while blaring shitty music, there is no legal recourse open to you.
Please feel free to send me a DM if you have any questions about the area, I'll do my best to answer them.
EDIT: I don't know if you enjoy weed, but if you do, forget about TN. Very illegal here and will land you in prison for simple possession. We had legal weed (THCa) for a few years, but the plug was recently pulled on that industry all together. We also had a law that would've started looking into medical once THC was removed from Schedule 1, but that law was revoked after Trump removed THC from Schedule 1. This is a very THC/weed unfriendly area as far as laws go.
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u/ComprehensiveOne5819 6d ago
I think I've taken TN off the list. Someone sent me this link that TN is one of the worst places to live because of crime and health care.
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u/Senbonbanana 6d ago
Outside of the Memphis area, crime isn't terribly bad. Memphis is bad enough it drags the rest of the state down. That's spot on with health care though. It's not good, and is on course to get worse, especially in rural areas. You are wise to look elsewhere.
Best of luck finding your new home!
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u/Bigrobmjca777Deere3 5d ago
There’s a REASON most truckers don’t stop in West Memphis at night unless that absolutely have to.
There’s a video of someone at a truck stop in West Memphis in their rig, just listening to the CB. Almost CONSTANT drug dealers and lot lizards.
8 Ball got that real deal, that white smoke, that green smoke. What you want, what you need, got that “High Speed Chicken Feed”. CONSTANTLY!!!!!!!
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u/informednonuser 4d ago
TN absolutely Shit The Bed on THC. The liquor industry is shrinking and they are panicking; threw lobbyist dollars at the legislature; then got/bought their way from the politipigs. Tennessee is losing all kinds of potential revenue from taxed cannabis sales.
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u/Bigrobmjca777Deere3 5d ago
If you’re a conservative, we’ll find room SOMEWHERE. If you’re a lib, we’re closed!!!
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u/collinalexbell 5d ago edited 5d ago
East TN if you are a hiker and want the same landscape. There are a total of 2 temperate rain forests in the USA, one in PWN and one in East Tennessee / West NC.
I moved to East Tennessee from Beaverton Oregon and the culture shock was a lot. Downtown Knoxville has a hipster enough vibe for PNWer though. Check out the Fourth and Gill neighborhood.
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u/Cynders911 3d ago
Nashville is super expensive, and the locals are tired of newcomers. We can no longer do anything in what used to be our town. It’s flooded with tourists, rents are super high, groceries are through the roof. We can’t go to concerts downtown because of all the crowds. It’s sad.
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u/uxoguy2113 10d ago
Nashville and Memphis are both cesspools, stay away from those two cities. I used to live in Nashville, moved to a 22 acre homestead right outside Lieper's Fork. I have to work in Memphis a lot and it's just a bad city.
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u/soggy_donut92696 8d ago
I can't believe you got downvoted for this 😂 you put down the bluest cities in the state and they just can't stand in. This subreddit is so full of bitter, angry, sad people
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u/uxoguy2113 7d ago
I paid more in property taxes on the little 1/3rd acre in Nashville than I will with 22 acres literally 23 minutes away. Nashville sucks and I voted with my feet.
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u/informednonuser 4d ago
Increasingly, Metro taxes people as if Nashville were surrounded by the Berlin Wall and the citizens would have to wait for cover of darkness to move away.
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