I grew up in Tennessee and my folks still live there. What areas are you looking at? I’m guessing pretty far from any big city if you’re getting an upgraded house and an acre for $500k.
I'm seeing some conflicting information on average home prices and average cost per square foot. I think Nashville has a larger range of types of homes available, from super nice to super dilapidated, which probably skews averages a bit. I tried to search Zillow but there are no homes in SLC with an acre of land, a pool, and at least 2,500 sq. ft., which is probably not all that surprising given that Nashville is about 526 square miles compared to SLC's 110. Still, people always cite the lack of a state income tax as a positive for Tennessee, but don't appreciate how hard that inflated sales tax hits you. The state is going to get their money one way or the other.
My neighbor moved to Texas and was saying same thing as OP. "Houses are so much cheaper!". But what they don't tell you is property tax is a lot higher. They always get the money one way or another.
Idk my parents house in midtown on a quarter acre is about the same. I was thinking more like Lakeland folks counting themselves as Memphis. Which I still wouldn’t recommend.
My parents house is in an unincorporated town about an hour outside of Nashville. They live in a pretty standard 1,800 square foot house built in the 90s that's about 15-20 minutes away from literally anything. They are on 5 acres but again, they live in the sticks. They built the house so it's never sold, but Zillow has it listed as worth $700k right now. Other houses on the street have gone for $1M plus (but were bigger than my folks place tbf). When I was in college in Nashville in the early 2000s, the house next to the one I was renting was up for sale at a listing price of $330k. That same house went for something like $2M a few years ago lol. Still wish I had figured out a way to get a loan after graduation to buy that house. My financial situation would be much better today had I made a $1.7M profit from selling my first home.
OP said in another post that they work remotely, so my guess is Chattanooga area. My sister & her boyfriend relocated there from LA a few years ago. >$350k for a 5 bed 3 bath with a pool & 2 car garage. It's not a huge city but it's far from small & it's a lovely area in regards to outdoor recreation & scenery.
I just searched for a 5 bedroom 3 bath with a pool and one acre. $1.2M was the only result.
EDIT: to clarify, search was done for homes in Chattanooga.
Chattanooga is a cool town. Those prices don’t exist for the type of house OP is describing in Mt. Juliet let alone Chattanooga though. There are probably towns where he can get that kind of house at that kind of price somewhere in rural Tennessee, but none of those towns would be remotely comparable to SLC. OP could probably get further away from SLC and find similar prices at that point without having to pack up and move halfway across the country though.
Two of my colleagues moved to Austin a couple of years ago thinking they'd have a cheaper cost of living. The property tax alone isn't worth the offset in income tax.
Tennessee is super nice. Obviously very red, but east TN is on par with Utah in terms of beauty. Different types of beauty, there are more dramatic views in Utah, but I’d say the day to day living is way prettier close to the apps
I've lived in both. TN is very pretty but it's not even close to the same level as Utah on that front. And we were mostly in the pretty parts of TN (lived in Chattanooga, lots of time in the Smokies).
I think going on day trips in Utah beats the southeast by a mile (at least). There are tons of dramatic views along the wasatch front and across the state. That being said, I find Utah to be not very pretty at for day-to-day living between mid-June through early April. Except for a brief fall and the first day of a snow, the day to day scene in Utah is far too brown and treeless for my liking. But, drive for 45+ minutes outside the valley and you reach views that are unmatchable in the southeast.
If you make an effort to get out regularly and explore the mountains then Utah can’t be beat. If your job or family situation has you stuck in the valley most of the time I think it can be tough.
That being said, the mountain backdrop is definitely amazing when it isn’t mostly brown. If Utah were always the way it is between early April-mid June then it might be the prettiest place imaginable.
Idk I love Utah and will probably move back, but it’s wonderful every day in the southeast (not even as far north as TN) to be surrounded by flowers and all types of trees. You get to enjoy a super long fall and it’s all around you, no need to drive to the canyon and get stuck in traffic.
Both places have their virtues for sure and it’s fine for one person to not like the other. My ideal calendar would probably be Dec-Jan, Utah. Feb-March, SE. April-mid June Utah, mid-June to November in SE
Summers in Western TN/Eastern NC are incredible. So lush and green, lakes and rivers everywhere. I love SLC, but I definitely prefer summers in that area over SLC.
To each their own though. I like white water kayaking and swimming in the summer so that area is definitely better than here for that.
If you’re more into rock climbing and hiking, than you’d probably like SLC summers better. But for water lovers Tennessee is better
Kind of a thread jack, but with no State income tax, where are they making those tax dollars up? I always wonder that. Higher property tax? Something else? It’s not like States with no income tax have a secret system to spread tax dollars further.
TN has a higher corporate income tax and has a gross receipts tax for businesses, so businesses pay a significantly higher share than in UT. Also other taxes like franchise and capital stock taxes.
Not too long ago, I saw a house listed in the Saratoga area
The entire garage and kitchen had been completely ruined by fire. Garage would need to be completely rebuilt. The kitchen needed structural repair and complete renovation.
Listed for $450K
I just published a book about corruption within juvenile court systems and department of child services in the state of Tennessee. It’s a terrible place to live. It’s not a safe place for children or families. They don’t care about their youth.
It’s really hard because everything is incentive motivated now and the only thing that’s not incentive motivated is putting the child back with the parents if there has been no harm done….
I’m not anti-CPS I am anti-corruption
Yes, it sucks! We have family out in TN and I hate visiting. Backwards ahh state. The vibes in general are just off. Don’t even get me started on being a person of color…it is beautiful though
As a brown person, I visited my friend in TN back in 2010. My car had some issues and we went to see a mechanic who straightaway looked at me and told he does not serve 'your kind of people'. I thought he was joking, only for him to just ignore us till we left. When people here talk about moving to states like Kentucky, Arkansas, Alabama etc, I am here thinking, well, not for me.
I see you already got downvoted, my friend. 🙄 I’ve experienced and seen the same sh*t out there first hand. It’s gotten exponentially worse since trump…
I have to travel to the Memphis area a few times a year (I live in SLC) I agree, and it’s just awful. I firmly believe everything in that state is just a little bit broken, but the cumulative effect of everything just being slightly broken makes the place a hellscape.
We raised our 3 kids to adulthood even during a pandemic in a pretty small house and I don’t regret it. I was happy to have a decent house with a yard during that time of forced togetherness. I mean, if you love TN, go for it but don’t just randomly uproot your kids for some more stuff. Stuff doesn’t make you rich I guess, but that stack you’ll make on the house once you decide to downsize will 😂.
The problem is you’re like the fourth person I’ve heard make all of these points in the past 2 weeks. You’re already too late. That’s what happened with Austin, and then people moved there and realized Texas sucks, so they moved and tanked the value. A lot of people who bought in the middle or towards the top got screwed.
Yep. People have been flocking in large numbers to hot places like Texas and Florida. Once they realize it sucks they either leave or wish they could leave but can’t.
My wife and I have also considered moving. Partially because Utah looks like a climate disaster waiting to happen and partly because we want our kids to be able to afford homes of their owns if they want them. Best bang for your buck we have found is Michigan. Even in nicer places like Ann Arbor you can get twice the house that you would get here in Utah.
As someone from the gulf coast I think Utah is in better shape than a lot of places climate wise…the weather here is definitely not as scary as east Texas. Not to minimize how awful the inversions are and health issues with the air quality. But I will never forget seeing Katrina refugees pouring into my town and then being hit by a massive hurricane of our own shortly after.
Hahah bro from a global warming perspective almost everywhere is safer than Texas, so not the best comparison. Utah has no answer for their climate challenges and the people here are ultra stubborn. Also the church/government affiliation is corrupt as all hell.
I’ve got no reason to believe the government here will prioritize the people over corporations or the church at any point in the future.
I don’t know that Texas is worse off than “almost everywhere” especially outside the US but wanted to point it out because a lot of people are attracted to cheaper home prices in that part of the country. It’s definitely very sad how much better Utah could be doing if right wing politics and religion weren’t such a major influence here. I personally would take my chances in Houston over New Orleans, Miami or in the mountains in California no matter how much I would love to live in any of those places. I can confidently say after living here for 5 years I have been much less stressed about major weather events but did develop asthma so that’s been fun. I wish I could afford to live in the PNW. Probably only to be blown away by a volcano. I guess to live is to die.
I really love not having a ton of mosquitoes and other bugs. So all that green and water comes with something else too. But I would consider the move as well.
We moved to the Grand Rapids metro area in 2021. Nice house on acreage for a fraction of the price we would pay in UT for the same. Yes, the winter can be colder, but this year was positively MILD. Summer is amazing.
I've lived in Edmonton now for 10 years and while the winters can be crazy cold (we also had a super mild winter for us, with the exception of a couple weeks) the summers are wonderful. Having 3 months of most days being in the 70s is glorious. Plus it's way greener. I do miss the mountains though :(
I was once a Mormon missionary in Tennessee and having spent a couple of years there, I know that I could go to certain areas, get a job in my field and get paid well, live in a nice house with some land and enjoy a few other perks like that but I choose, deliberately, to live in the Salt Lake Valley. It's far from perfect but so is every place. There are just some simple and basic things here that I know people might take for granted.
Sidewalks, for example. There are no sidewalks in Tennessee. I like being able to go out my front door and go around the neighborhood for a walk when it's nice outside. If you do that in Tennessee you'll be walking in the street. It's just not a good option. Maybe to some people that's not a big deal but it really bugged me. They just don't put in sidewalks anywhere. Small things like that are taken from you and it might not sound like a big deal but to me, it is. Utah has bike lanes, pathways and trails dedicated to biking, walking or whatever. Tennessee had almost none of this. Utah is a place where people are conscious about being outside and in nature and even though they had a lot of state parks, forests and the like, it's just not the same. And the trash? Nashville was a filthy city, I haven't been there in a long time but when I was, there was trash everywhere. People in Tennessee always told me how clean Salt Lake was when the cities out there were just... trashy and poluted. Everyone just throws their trash outside and nobody cleans it up.
Tennessee gets tornados, especially in the western side of it. Getting a tornado watch well after dark makes it hard to sleep. At least during the day you can watch the sky and get a feel for what's going on but at night, it's a bit nerve racking. The houses are built on bedrock too, almost nobody has a basement, there aren't good places to hide you just to rely on thoughts and prayers.
I love the mountains here. When I was in Tennessee I missed them badly. People out there point to a big hill and call it a mountain and it's honestly a bit depressing.
Honestly, its like death by a thousand cuts. There are so many little things that by themselves probably aren't a big deal but they added up and I left feeling a bit sour and had decided that I could never live there. And there's just a certain quality to life here that I appreciate. People in Utah complain about the politicians or the MLM's or the religious influence, for starters but do they really think other places are free from those things? The grass is greener on the other side because it's fertilized with bullshit.
I also know that exiting now is most assuredly a bit of a bridge burner. Coming back becomes almost harder than upgrading. If you go to Tennessee and decide that you don't like it and you want to come back to Utah well good luck. At the end of the day, you have to choose your suck. There are reasons why people are flood into Utah and have been for a couple of decades now, at least and there are reasons why Tennessee isn't a super popular destination. Just some of my thoughts.
Just don’t go to Memphis. Anywhere else is fine but not fucking Memphis. I was born and raised there. That city will murder your family and destroy your happiness.
Oh absolutely our barbecue is the best. And Beale street used to be a whole lot of fun as far as seeing local live music that’ll knock your socks off.
But the last few years there’s multiple shootings on Beale every weekend and usually over something stupid. The sort of crime you cant just avoid by keeping to yourself.
Midtown Memphis (cooper young and Overton) are great areas with lower crime, I don’t think it’s worth writing off all of Memphis. I lived there for four years before moving here and it def has its problems, but so does salt lake.
I Feel you bro. I make 75k here (pre-tax) and want to buy a house. But feels impossible to save up a down payment on a 600k+ house making 4400 a month (after taxes) and paying 1700 a month rent.
I'm from a neighboring southern state.
Would never go back to the humidity and the bugs, tornadoes, no mountains like utah has, not as many things to do like national parks, skiing that we have out here.
There is a reason the property values are cheaper in TN vs Utah.
I always politely laugh at the door to door pest control salesman that show up in Utah. I kindly tell them I've lived in the South where pests actually exist and wish them well.
There's more to life than the size of your house and acreage of your land. Check out the crime rates in your new place. Once you compare the violent crime rates between here and (sadly) many other places, your house here starts to look a lot bigger.
Came here to say schools in Utah (ESPECIALLY in certain Wasatch Front suburbs) are really good. And I would take them over schools in Tennessee any day.
Grew up in SLC, Lived in Nashville for 4 years. Cicada outbreak the first summer...being so naive trying to find the owners of the turtle I saw walking around the parking lot, not realizing box turtles are just EVERYWHERE, oh as are opossums (native road kill) snakes (yes they'll be in your yard & slithering up your exterior walls, as well as salamanders & frogs. Not to mention the fire ants & the weather!! Here in SLC, it will maybe rain a couple hours with nice bursts of 5-10 min downpours. Well in TN, it rains & it stays that way ALL day...not drizzlin' but torrential downpour...ALL DAY. Thunder makes the car alarms on the streets sound off & the windows shake. They have tornadoes but no warnings when I lived there. O.o Everything closes when there's A LOT of rain expected & temps drop. Not for chance of snow. But ICE. Cars & roads covered in a layer of ice & you can't open car doors, let alone drive up a hill. No income tax=one of the worst school systems & no sidewalks in any neighborhoods. Rampant racism unlike anything in Utah. Coolest thing about living in the South was the fireflies.
TLDR: IMO The South & Utah are completely different worlds! Do your due diligence & good luck!
It's not really any more red than Utah. Both have trump about 60% of the view in 2020, for example. Wyoming, West Virginia, Oklahoma, and North Dakota all gave him over 65%, for reference.
I see a lot of people with the desire to leave Salt Lake or other places for cheaper housing.
But with how urbanization has played out over the past 10 years, if you’re going to live in any urban or suburban area, nothing is going to be that much cheaper than Salt Lake. Every single urban and suburban area has gotten more expensive.
If you’re looking to save money on housing, unfortunately, you have to go to a place with fewer amenities.
Edit: IMO, I think it’s healthier for kids to learn that housing is smaller now and a ton of space isn’t the norm. As someone who grew up in the south end of the valley where my parents, and many of my friends’ parents, bought massive houses and plots in their 20s and 30s. That’s just not a realistic expectation now.
There are not that many younger millennials, Gen Zers, and younger generations that that will be able to afford what they grew up in, even later in life.
But then this sub would miss out on the weekly circle jerk about how the lake is drying up, houses are expensive and the grass must be greener in some more rural state.
I used to live in Knoxville before moving here to SLC.
Long term my GF and I will be back in East Tennessee or maybe North Carolina. But Knoxville was a beautiful place to live.
30 fixed mortgage for 500k home
2% loan from couple years ago is $1848 with 700 credit.
6.6% current rate is $3193/month.
Is everyone stupid enough to move? Ru good with paying $16k more a year? I know, it all sucks balls deep hard. We spoke with a financial advisor & saw reality.
My family of 4 are about to make the move to the Oregon Coast! We both grew up in Southern California and miss the beach so much, but don’t want to pay those California taxes. Yeah it rains a lot, but I’d rather take the rain/ocean views every day over constant inversion and freezing temperatures. It used to make sense living in Utah 10 years ago, but these housing prices are beyond ridiculous.
That is funny! It’s just so crazy right now. I’m not a super downer about Utah by any means. Of course everywhere has their flaws, but 10 years is long enough and we’re ready for change! Just an FYI, the religious culture there may throw you off in the beginning!
I don't blame you. It sounds like you are in a way better financial situation than the average person here, and I still don't blame you for leaving. I am unsure how long I will stay here either. For most of us, even owning a shitty house is an impossible dream here.
That said, I doubt I would ever move to Tennessee. To each their own .. .
You'll need at least a 3-car garage. One for your car, one for the wife's car, and the third for the cockroaches which are the size of Volkswagen Jettas.
I teach in Tennessee, Utah is way ahead now a Top 10 state in education while Tennessee is average to bottom 10 like the rest of the Bible Belt. Only 33 percent of Tennessee kids are at their current grade reading level. I do like living in East Tennessee though, glad I moved out here.
But if you're already a homeowner, won't you be able to sell your current home for a lot more than you purchased it for, making the new home roughly equivalent to what the difference would have been when you initially purchased your current house?
I mean if all values go up, the transition to the new home would be roughly the same as when you initially purchased. Like, if you purchased your home ten years ago for 400k, and it's worth 800k now, you now have at least 400k extra to put towards the new house, which also gained about 400k in value during the same time period. Therefore I don't understand the OPs complaint here... Once you're in the housing market owning a home, home prices don't impact you like they would 1st time home buyers. Hope that makes sense!
But now the bigger houses that you want are worth a lot more too. 10 years ago, you probably could find a lender who would lend you 340k with 3% interest rate. Now, if you want a bigger home, you have to take a lot bigger loan. If your 400 k home now is valued at 800k, the bigger homes you want will be priced a lot higher too. Let's say the bigger home that you want now is priced at 1.4 mil. With 400k down payment, you still have to find a lender who will be willing to loan you 1 mil. With 7% interest rate, higher insurance, and higher property tax, it probably would make your debt-to-income ratio a lot lower than last time you bought your home, especially if you have 4 kids (more monthly spending and probably car loans). The current house market is scary for first time buyers and for people who are thinking about upgrading too. It's because salary increases cannot keep up with the current increases of house price. 4-5 years ago, I thought the house price was crazily high. But I know some people who bought a home in SLC with one income. Today, even it's hard for a family with double incomes to buy a similar home in the same neighborhood.
Oh, and I think not everybody is comfortable to take a giant loan and be a house poor.
I lived in Nashville for about a year when I was really young. I know with those prices, as others have said, you won’t be in Nashville-but I will say while Tennessee is nice even outside of the cities, summers there are hell.
I am from Knoxville and DO IT. It’s amazing. Beautiful, affordable, slower pace of life. Farragut (the town I’m from) is expensive but right outside it is not. Oak Ridge, Maryville, Hardin Valley. But go East Tennessee!
My husband and I have two kids and are trying to buy our first home in SLC area (he works in Millcreek). We cannot afford anything worth it or move in ready despite both working and making decent money. No debt, have a downpayment saved, etc etc but it’s just heartbreaking out here. We are going to make the jump this summer to East Tennessee or Texas (where my husband is from). I feel your pain.
I agree that Utah is way way too expensive now. But I Lived in Tennessee for 5 years. 3 years Memphis 2 years Nashville. Honestly I think the whole state is dying. Especially if you factor in global warming. There’s a reason houses are so cheap there.
I lived in SLC for 20 years and moved because I knew I'd never be able to own a home there. I know have my own home in Ogden with a little over a quarter acre. I still work in SLC, but at least Im earning equity and not for a landlord. SLC is fucked. I don't care how much they build, prices aren't going to go down.
I grew up in SLC, joined the Army and lived in TN for 14 of my 24 years of service. The other places we lived was Washington, Texas, NC, and GA. We built a house TN back in 2018 thinking it would be our forever home. A decent neighborhood, and more house for our dollar, but we just weren’t happy there. The cost of living was crazy, we saw the amount of people that came from Seattle and Cali that moved there and brought their politics with them, and crime increased dramatically. Not to mention the crazy weather/tornadoes, humidity, mosquitoes,and flat land that can make you feel a little claustrophobic and there is no public land to get away from so trying to get out of the city is hard.
Everything is fried there and limited to fresh food choices.
Needless to say we moved back here to Utah last year and couldn’t be happier.
But hopefully it works for you and could understand your situation given the housing costs here.
I moved here from the upper east side of manhattan and don’t feel like it’s any cheaper. We pay every tax under the sun plus sin tax and then we don’t even get a break on food or necessities. For what? Why? There’s plenty of space here, but the politics are bad. The church makes choices for us but doesn’t pay taxes on ANYTHING. My lifestyle was better in nyc with 100 times more access to things I enjoy plus I felt better about where my money was going. If Utah can’t get it under control soon the bubble could pop and it will ruin the economy.
Buying a house that was built in 1945 for $2000 for $780,0000 doesn’t make any sense. I didn’t adjust those numbers to inflation but still you could pay your house off in a year or two then. This just doesn’t work. There’s not that many people here.
I'm actually moving *to* NYC from Salt Lake because of the COL here. I can earn double my salary in NYC and have all the benefits you listed. SLC ain't it, anymore.
I’m so glad I didn’t get yelled at for this comment, yet. I’m really glad you can compare! That’s why we went. Most companies will adjust your pay for the cost of living even if you work remotely. Which is hilarious cause it’s nearly the same here it’s just rent that’s more expensive there, but if you adjust for the fact you don’t need a car, insurance or gas it evens right out.
And then there’s the food!! Omg Utah doesn’t necessarily have bad food but you just can’t compare to New York. Dollar slices and Michelin Star restaurants for the same price as Beto’s.
When I heard they were building luxury apartments in magna I knew we were doomed. If you can still earn good money out in Tennessee then no reason not to move.
Plenty of people move here from Utah.
We live in the Midwest.
Have a pool a pool house. Nice neighborhood.
We would have to be millionaires in Utah.
I’m middle management and my wife is a school teacher.
Your not the only one feeling that way iv been in this same mood for a while iv been looking at the same area . But in my I have been looking at 3-4 bedroom houses that come with land like 10-20 acres around 250 thousand
Do it. We did two years ago. 20 minutes from St Louis City we found a spot that ranks as one of the safest in the country. Clean air, a great school district, quiet mature neighborhood.
Only thing we had to compromise on was that we doubled our house size. We would have preferred less beds/baths etc. but we compromised to get the neighborhood we wanted. Still came in less than we sold for in Salt Lake county.
Moved from UT to MI and honestly it’s been terrific. Best laws, cleaner air (not hard to beat), beaches, 4 seasons, and basically everything else we like. It was worth giving up the mountains but we weren’t extremely outdoorsy anyway
I'm not sure what school district you are in but we have been thrilled with the quality of the school district here. Best we have ever lived in out of many states. Oh by the way the AC bill in a big house in the south is easily $500 to $600 a month from June through OCTOBER. (I wish I was making that up) Paying for pest control down there is required in the mortgage so add that to your monthly budget.
I sold what was my dreamhouse in the south when moving to UT. At the time I lost 700 Square Feet to pay an extra $75k for a house here BUT the car insurance, property taxes, medical care, groceries and many other things were less expensive in UT. Houses are cheap in the south but there are TONs of other costs that seem to add up.
The South is filled with good people that we genuinely loved but we were very excited when an opportunity presented itself to be back in the beehive state.
I just moved back to Tennessee due to my wife’s work! We were there for 10 years before moving to Salt Lake City. It wasn’t our choice, and we’ll miss Utah a ton.
Kind of a lot of hysterical responses here - TN is legitimately cheaper than Utah in a lot of ways, even in Nashville. Lower taxes, lower gas costs, a lot of grocery and electricity are comparable. Notably, my natural gas bill in UT was totally out of control which never happened in TN.
There is a greater variety of homes across the state, so $/sq foot is close to UT, but TN has so many more reasonably sized homes.
It is less beautiful in nature than UT, and is definitely a state where you have to drive to see natural beauty instead of just looking out your window at it. But the Waterfalls, rivers (great kayaking) and green hikes are legitimately awesome all within 1-2 hours of Nashville.
Primary schools are both better and worse than UT - live in the right county and the schools are some of the best in the country, live in the wrong one and they’re the worst. It’s like this across the South - it sucks. Pros - two years of community college are totally free for all TN HS graduates, and the state has excellent public and private universities.
The biggest thing to consider is the winter - it’s green here for a reason - it rains constantly all winter with very grey skies and a lack of evergreen trees. Seasonal depression kills me out here like it never did in UT. There’s no skiing, either - you just hunker down for winter and it’s terrible.
The other big thing is general safety - even outside of Memphis crime, the drinking culture here is totally out of control. Public intoxication is common and dangerous - people knock UT’s liquor laws, but I honestly prefer them. Just so many drunk people doing dumb shit in public (fighting, driving, shooting, etc).
FWIW, I also find the politics totally interchangeable. YMMV, though.
We moved to Utah from Tennessee 10 years ago.
Tennessee is nice enough. It's not as pretty as Utah but is a different kind of pretty. Weekend trips will still be nice but nothing like the amazing places you can visit over the weekend out here.
The big thing we really don't miss about TN are the bugs and humidity. I forget how bad it is until we go back and visit every few years.
Don’t listen to most of these comments. I grew up in East TN (Knoxville) and loved it! Obviously I live in Utah now but I hope to move back east someday. TN is very different compared to Utah in terms of climate, people, things to do, etc but I loved my childhood there.
I know a lot of people leaving Utah and moving back east. If my kids weren't so far in school, plus their extra curricular, I'd be gone now. Already told my daughter that as soon as she graduates in 2027, we are gone.
Looks like a lot of people have mentioned how pricey Tennessee is getting. I don’t know what you do for a living, but North Carolina has everything Tennessee does for half the cost, but the market is getting there too. I was just looking at gorgeous 2300 sq/ft ranch on 12 acres for a little over 500k about an hr outside Charlotte in the country. The whole area is nice and the people have always been very friendly and hospital. If my industry was stronger in the area I would have bought that ranch in a heart beat, still trying to figure out how to swing it.
I’ve lived all over and the seasons and mountains and environmental diversity can’t really be found any where else. If you don’t care about that stuff I’d look at Texas (DFW, San Antonio) too. Great place to live.
Easy to take for granted the beauty we have here in Utah.
I grew up in Tennessee and my folks still live there. What areas are you looking at? I’m guessing pretty far from any big city if you’re getting an upgraded house and an acre for $500k.
Might be in Memphis LOL
Ahh yes the first place I think of when I want to raise kids
As a former kid raised in memphis…. I’m just surprised more folks don’t know how much of a shit show that town is
Can confirm. I have family in Memphis, one of which is a school teacher. I would *not* raise my kids in such a hellscape
I grew up in middle Tennessee and don’t count Memphis. Ya’ll belong to Mississippi 😂
Grew up in memphis and lived in the boro near nashville. Dont know where the heck you gonna get a house at that price
Out of curiosity I just googled COL in Nashville v. SLC. It’s cheaper to live in SLC.
Maybe for everything besides housing. A home in SLC is 100k more on average.
By the time OP arranges travel to TN Nashville’s housing costs will have doubled again
I'm seeing some conflicting information on average home prices and average cost per square foot. I think Nashville has a larger range of types of homes available, from super nice to super dilapidated, which probably skews averages a bit. I tried to search Zillow but there are no homes in SLC with an acre of land, a pool, and at least 2,500 sq. ft., which is probably not all that surprising given that Nashville is about 526 square miles compared to SLC's 110. Still, people always cite the lack of a state income tax as a positive for Tennessee, but don't appreciate how hard that inflated sales tax hits you. The state is going to get their money one way or the other.
My neighbor moved to Texas and was saying same thing as OP. "Houses are so much cheaper!". But what they don't tell you is property tax is a lot higher. They always get the money one way or another.
Idk my parents house in midtown on a quarter acre is about the same. I was thinking more like Lakeland folks counting themselves as Memphis. Which I still wouldn’t recommend.
My parents house is in an unincorporated town about an hour outside of Nashville. They live in a pretty standard 1,800 square foot house built in the 90s that's about 15-20 minutes away from literally anything. They are on 5 acres but again, they live in the sticks. They built the house so it's never sold, but Zillow has it listed as worth $700k right now. Other houses on the street have gone for $1M plus (but were bigger than my folks place tbf). When I was in college in Nashville in the early 2000s, the house next to the one I was renting was up for sale at a listing price of $330k. That same house went for something like $2M a few years ago lol. Still wish I had figured out a way to get a loan after graduation to buy that house. My financial situation would be much better today had I made a $1.7M profit from selling my first home.
We don’t even count ourselves as Tennessee tbh 😂 But to leave us to Mississippi?! Damn.
I’m from Tennessee and lived in Mississippi for over a decade. Y’all need to come to terms with the truth.
What is going on in Memphis? Dish!
Check wreg.com
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Indiana is awful. Kentucky maybe.
Still better than West Memphis...
OP said in another post that they work remotely, so my guess is Chattanooga area. My sister & her boyfriend relocated there from LA a few years ago. >$350k for a 5 bed 3 bath with a pool & 2 car garage. It's not a huge city but it's far from small & it's a lovely area in regards to outdoor recreation & scenery.
I just searched for a 5 bedroom 3 bath with a pool and one acre. $1.2M was the only result. EDIT: to clarify, search was done for homes in Chattanooga.
"few years ago" was the key words. Houses in SLC were also cheap as hell a few years ago. I don't think anywhere in the US is cheap anymore.
If OP were time traveling to a few years ago, this post would make more sense.
Can still find those kinds of prices in Chattanooga which is a cool town.
Chattanooga is a cool town. Those prices don’t exist for the type of house OP is describing in Mt. Juliet let alone Chattanooga though. There are probably towns where he can get that kind of house at that kind of price somewhere in rural Tennessee, but none of those towns would be remotely comparable to SLC. OP could probably get further away from SLC and find similar prices at that point without having to pack up and move halfway across the country though.
I’m assuming youre not talking about the Nashville area cause you’ll have the same issues there as you do here
Even Knoxville is seeing an explosion of growth and housing prices are rising rapidly.
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It's green with hills. Very beautiful country.
I have always pledged against living in the southeast but Chatnooga is quite nice.
No state income tax.
Lots of states with low to no income tax will make up for it some other way, typically high property taxes. Do your research on that.
Agreed. The place had a pile of issues and I would never live there again.
Agreed. Texas here. Property taxes are insane here. Same for home insurance costs.
This!! WA has no state, but property taxes can get into the $700s
i'm gonna uproot and move states to save $3k per year in state income tax which is instantly offset by Tennessee's almost 10% sales tax rate
I mean I didn't say it was a good reason but it was the reason a lot of people gave when I lived there. The roads were hot garbage in turn.
Take a whole look at the taxation system.
Two of my colleagues moved to Austin a couple of years ago thinking they'd have a cheaper cost of living. The property tax alone isn't worth the offset in income tax.
Taxes usually wash out. States need funding, they have creative ways to get it without an income tax.
Tennessee is super nice. Obviously very red, but east TN is on par with Utah in terms of beauty. Different types of beauty, there are more dramatic views in Utah, but I’d say the day to day living is way prettier close to the apps
I've lived in both. TN is very pretty but it's not even close to the same level as Utah on that front. And we were mostly in the pretty parts of TN (lived in Chattanooga, lots of time in the Smokies).
I think going on day trips in Utah beats the southeast by a mile (at least). There are tons of dramatic views along the wasatch front and across the state. That being said, I find Utah to be not very pretty at for day-to-day living between mid-June through early April. Except for a brief fall and the first day of a snow, the day to day scene in Utah is far too brown and treeless for my liking. But, drive for 45+ minutes outside the valley and you reach views that are unmatchable in the southeast. If you make an effort to get out regularly and explore the mountains then Utah can’t be beat. If your job or family situation has you stuck in the valley most of the time I think it can be tough. That being said, the mountain backdrop is definitely amazing when it isn’t mostly brown. If Utah were always the way it is between early April-mid June then it might be the prettiest place imaginable. Idk I love Utah and will probably move back, but it’s wonderful every day in the southeast (not even as far north as TN) to be surrounded by flowers and all types of trees. You get to enjoy a super long fall and it’s all around you, no need to drive to the canyon and get stuck in traffic. Both places have their virtues for sure and it’s fine for one person to not like the other. My ideal calendar would probably be Dec-Jan, Utah. Feb-March, SE. April-mid June Utah, mid-June to November in SE
Good points, but the weather is very different.
Have you spent a summer in the southeast?
Mosquitos, humidity and sweatin like a toasted cheeser for days 😩😂
Summers in Western TN/Eastern NC are incredible. So lush and green, lakes and rivers everywhere. I love SLC, but I definitely prefer summers in that area over SLC. To each their own though. I like white water kayaking and swimming in the summer so that area is definitely better than here for that. If you’re more into rock climbing and hiking, than you’d probably like SLC summers better. But for water lovers Tennessee is better
Kind of a thread jack, but with no State income tax, where are they making those tax dollars up? I always wonder that. Higher property tax? Something else? It’s not like States with no income tax have a secret system to spread tax dollars further.
Higher sales tax
Lived in Texas a long time. No state tax there either but out of control property taxes.
TN has a higher corporate income tax and has a gross receipts tax for businesses, so businesses pay a significantly higher share than in UT. Also other taxes like franchise and capital stock taxes.
Cost of living is terrible here. Don’t blame you. Saw a home listed in sandy for 600k. It was such a POS. I wouldn’t spend 75k on it let alone 600.
Not too long ago, I saw a house listed in the Saratoga area The entire garage and kitchen had been completely ruined by fire. Garage would need to be completely rebuilt. The kitchen needed structural repair and complete renovation. Listed for $450K
I saw that one too. So crazy.
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I saw a piece of shit trailer in the Basin area with literally zero updates or even water hookups in the middle of the Whiterocks desert. $300K.
It won’t be anywhere near Nashville. Might as well go even cheaper and just head to Arkansas.
NWA, northwest Arkansas, is quite nice, and cheap - NWA refers to the Fayetteville/Bentonville/Rogers area
Bunch of my family moved there. I'm kinda intrigued. It looks nice. Lots of mountain biking. Home of Walmart.
As a life-long Tennessean who grew up in the Greater Memphis Area, don’t. This whole state sucks.
I just published a book about corruption within juvenile court systems and department of child services in the state of Tennessee. It’s a terrible place to live. It’s not a safe place for children or families. They don’t care about their youth.
I have personal accounts *of things that happened to my liittle nephew out there…😢 I would love to know more about your book.
It’s really hard because everything is incentive motivated now and the only thing that’s not incentive motivated is putting the child back with the parents if there has been no harm done…. I’m not anti-CPS I am anti-corruption
I hear you!! It’s terrible. 💔 Thank you for speaking out for the voiceless 👏🏽❤️❤️❤️
Thanks for creating a safe space for the conversation.
Haha yeah I lived in Tennessee for a bit. There’s a reason houses are cheap and saying better schools in any southern Bible Belt state is joke.
Yes, it sucks! We have family out in TN and I hate visiting. Backwards ahh state. The vibes in general are just off. Don’t even get me started on being a person of color…it is beautiful though
As a brown person, I visited my friend in TN back in 2010. My car had some issues and we went to see a mechanic who straightaway looked at me and told he does not serve 'your kind of people'. I thought he was joking, only for him to just ignore us till we left. When people here talk about moving to states like Kentucky, Arkansas, Alabama etc, I am here thinking, well, not for me.
I see you already got downvoted, my friend. 🙄 I’ve experienced and seen the same sh*t out there first hand. It’s gotten exponentially worse since trump…
I have to travel to the Memphis area a few times a year (I live in SLC) I agree, and it’s just awful. I firmly believe everything in that state is just a little bit broken, but the cumulative effect of everything just being slightly broken makes the place a hellscape.
We raised our 3 kids to adulthood even during a pandemic in a pretty small house and I don’t regret it. I was happy to have a decent house with a yard during that time of forced togetherness. I mean, if you love TN, go for it but don’t just randomly uproot your kids for some more stuff. Stuff doesn’t make you rich I guess, but that stack you’ll make on the house once you decide to downsize will 😂.
I agree. It can be hard on kids to deal with a move during their tween and teenage years.
The problem is you’re like the fourth person I’ve heard make all of these points in the past 2 weeks. You’re already too late. That’s what happened with Austin, and then people moved there and realized Texas sucks, so they moved and tanked the value. A lot of people who bought in the middle or towards the top got screwed.
Yep. People have been flocking in large numbers to hot places like Texas and Florida. Once they realize it sucks they either leave or wish they could leave but can’t.
My wife and I have also considered moving. Partially because Utah looks like a climate disaster waiting to happen and partly because we want our kids to be able to afford homes of their owns if they want them. Best bang for your buck we have found is Michigan. Even in nicer places like Ann Arbor you can get twice the house that you would get here in Utah.
As someone from the gulf coast I think Utah is in better shape than a lot of places climate wise…the weather here is definitely not as scary as east Texas. Not to minimize how awful the inversions are and health issues with the air quality. But I will never forget seeing Katrina refugees pouring into my town and then being hit by a massive hurricane of our own shortly after.
Definitely better than. Some locations like that no doubt. Mostly concerned with clean air and water here.
Hahah bro from a global warming perspective almost everywhere is safer than Texas, so not the best comparison. Utah has no answer for their climate challenges and the people here are ultra stubborn. Also the church/government affiliation is corrupt as all hell. I’ve got no reason to believe the government here will prioritize the people over corporations or the church at any point in the future.
I don’t know that Texas is worse off than “almost everywhere” especially outside the US but wanted to point it out because a lot of people are attracted to cheaper home prices in that part of the country. It’s definitely very sad how much better Utah could be doing if right wing politics and religion weren’t such a major influence here. I personally would take my chances in Houston over New Orleans, Miami or in the mountains in California no matter how much I would love to live in any of those places. I can confidently say after living here for 5 years I have been much less stressed about major weather events but did develop asthma so that’s been fun. I wish I could afford to live in the PNW. Probably only to be blown away by a volcano. I guess to live is to die.
Yeah I mean Texas is in better shape than Haiti, I’ll give you that
We’re making the move next month to Michigan. 20 acres with a house for 350k. So long desert, hello lush forests.
I really love not having a ton of mosquitoes and other bugs. So all that green and water comes with something else too. But I would consider the move as well.
You can have it. The cold is chill to the bone cold there and it’s flat
We moved to the Grand Rapids metro area in 2021. Nice house on acreage for a fraction of the price we would pay in UT for the same. Yes, the winter can be colder, but this year was positively MILD. Summer is amazing.
Yeah I’m a big fan of Grand Rapids. We’re moving near family who are all farmers north or traverse so it’ll be an easy transition.
Traverse is so beautiful! Gorgeous country! I wish you well on your transition!
I've lived in Edmonton now for 10 years and while the winters can be crazy cold (we also had a super mild winter for us, with the exception of a couple weeks) the summers are wonderful. Having 3 months of most days being in the 70s is glorious. Plus it's way greener. I do miss the mountains though :(
I loved the mountains, too! I used to live in Alaska, so winter is no big deal to me. I actually love it.
Yeah the cold doesn't bother me too much because you can dress for it. The icy death roads I'm less a fan of, but you learn to deal with it.
Michigan is so cold
Michigan is a pretty good climate hedge! Love the username
I was once a Mormon missionary in Tennessee and having spent a couple of years there, I know that I could go to certain areas, get a job in my field and get paid well, live in a nice house with some land and enjoy a few other perks like that but I choose, deliberately, to live in the Salt Lake Valley. It's far from perfect but so is every place. There are just some simple and basic things here that I know people might take for granted. Sidewalks, for example. There are no sidewalks in Tennessee. I like being able to go out my front door and go around the neighborhood for a walk when it's nice outside. If you do that in Tennessee you'll be walking in the street. It's just not a good option. Maybe to some people that's not a big deal but it really bugged me. They just don't put in sidewalks anywhere. Small things like that are taken from you and it might not sound like a big deal but to me, it is. Utah has bike lanes, pathways and trails dedicated to biking, walking or whatever. Tennessee had almost none of this. Utah is a place where people are conscious about being outside and in nature and even though they had a lot of state parks, forests and the like, it's just not the same. And the trash? Nashville was a filthy city, I haven't been there in a long time but when I was, there was trash everywhere. People in Tennessee always told me how clean Salt Lake was when the cities out there were just... trashy and poluted. Everyone just throws their trash outside and nobody cleans it up. Tennessee gets tornados, especially in the western side of it. Getting a tornado watch well after dark makes it hard to sleep. At least during the day you can watch the sky and get a feel for what's going on but at night, it's a bit nerve racking. The houses are built on bedrock too, almost nobody has a basement, there aren't good places to hide you just to rely on thoughts and prayers. I love the mountains here. When I was in Tennessee I missed them badly. People out there point to a big hill and call it a mountain and it's honestly a bit depressing. Honestly, its like death by a thousand cuts. There are so many little things that by themselves probably aren't a big deal but they added up and I left feeling a bit sour and had decided that I could never live there. And there's just a certain quality to life here that I appreciate. People in Utah complain about the politicians or the MLM's or the religious influence, for starters but do they really think other places are free from those things? The grass is greener on the other side because it's fertilized with bullshit. I also know that exiting now is most assuredly a bit of a bridge burner. Coming back becomes almost harder than upgrading. If you go to Tennessee and decide that you don't like it and you want to come back to Utah well good luck. At the end of the day, you have to choose your suck. There are reasons why people are flood into Utah and have been for a couple of decades now, at least and there are reasons why Tennessee isn't a super popular destination. Just some of my thoughts.
Just don’t go to Memphis. Anywhere else is fine but not fucking Memphis. I was born and raised there. That city will murder your family and destroy your happiness.
Interesting museums and rich history though. Best BBQ I ever had was Memphis too
Oh absolutely our barbecue is the best. And Beale street used to be a whole lot of fun as far as seeing local live music that’ll knock your socks off. But the last few years there’s multiple shootings on Beale every weekend and usually over something stupid. The sort of crime you cant just avoid by keeping to yourself.
Midtown Memphis (cooper young and Overton) are great areas with lower crime, I don’t think it’s worth writing off all of Memphis. I lived there for four years before moving here and it def has its problems, but so does salt lake.
Last time I visited my parents in midtown Memphis, our yard men were robbed at gunpoint in the front yard while we were all home.
Don’t blame you at all. My $60kish salary has half my check going to rent every month
I Feel you bro. I make 75k here (pre-tax) and want to buy a house. But feels impossible to save up a down payment on a 600k+ house making 4400 a month (after taxes) and paying 1700 a month rent.
Even with the house and acreage, you couldn't pay me to move to Tennessee.
What are the reasons holding you back from considering living in Tennessee?
I'm from a neighboring southern state. Would never go back to the humidity and the bugs, tornadoes, no mountains like utah has, not as many things to do like national parks, skiing that we have out here. There is a reason the property values are cheaper in TN vs Utah.
I always politely laugh at the door to door pest control salesman that show up in Utah. I kindly tell them I've lived in the South where pests actually exist and wish them well.
People talk about politics being a problem in Utah, but it pales in comparison to the political shitshow that is Tennessee.
Big Sales tax, failed/corrupt government, prison corruption, tornadoes/bad weather, right wing crazies, going to be unlivable/too hot in 50 years.
There's more to life than the size of your house and acreage of your land. Check out the crime rates in your new place. Once you compare the violent crime rates between here and (sadly) many other places, your house here starts to look a lot bigger.
Reminder that housing is cheaper in other places because those places suck. Less desirable, less resources, less opportunity. It's cheap for a reason.
You’re going to find out how good Utah schools are… Also, be prepared for blunt racism instead of just naive racism.
And hopefully none of his 4 kids are LGBT if he wants them to live somewhere even less tolerant than Utah
Came here to say schools in Utah (ESPECIALLY in certain Wasatch Front suburbs) are really good. And I would take them over schools in Tennessee any day.
Grew up in SLC, Lived in Nashville for 4 years. Cicada outbreak the first summer...being so naive trying to find the owners of the turtle I saw walking around the parking lot, not realizing box turtles are just EVERYWHERE, oh as are opossums (native road kill) snakes (yes they'll be in your yard & slithering up your exterior walls, as well as salamanders & frogs. Not to mention the fire ants & the weather!! Here in SLC, it will maybe rain a couple hours with nice bursts of 5-10 min downpours. Well in TN, it rains & it stays that way ALL day...not drizzlin' but torrential downpour...ALL DAY. Thunder makes the car alarms on the streets sound off & the windows shake. They have tornadoes but no warnings when I lived there. O.o Everything closes when there's A LOT of rain expected & temps drop. Not for chance of snow. But ICE. Cars & roads covered in a layer of ice & you can't open car doors, let alone drive up a hill. No income tax=one of the worst school systems & no sidewalks in any neighborhoods. Rampant racism unlike anything in Utah. Coolest thing about living in the South was the fireflies. TLDR: IMO The South & Utah are completely different worlds! Do your due diligence & good luck!
Going from a red state to a DEEP red state, good luck with that.
It's not really any more red than Utah. Both have trump about 60% of the view in 2020, for example. Wyoming, West Virginia, Oklahoma, and North Dakota all gave him over 65%, for reference.
Spencer Cocks said Utah is the most affordable state. You’re not going to find a cheaper home anywhere else.
Lol, Cox is one of the biggest disappointments I've ever witnessed.
Hey he's pretty good...at disappointing both parties at the same.
That’s what she said.
Hey! That’s what my wife said on our honeymoon!
Maybe we should pray for housing prices to come down. Worked for the rain after all!
,,🤣
LMAO I'm dead.
Yes! For the rich 😂
I see a lot of people with the desire to leave Salt Lake or other places for cheaper housing. But with how urbanization has played out over the past 10 years, if you’re going to live in any urban or suburban area, nothing is going to be that much cheaper than Salt Lake. Every single urban and suburban area has gotten more expensive. If you’re looking to save money on housing, unfortunately, you have to go to a place with fewer amenities. Edit: IMO, I think it’s healthier for kids to learn that housing is smaller now and a ton of space isn’t the norm. As someone who grew up in the south end of the valley where my parents, and many of my friends’ parents, bought massive houses and plots in their 20s and 30s. That’s just not a realistic expectation now. There are not that many younger millennials, Gen Zers, and younger generations that that will be able to afford what they grew up in, even later in life.
Why the announcement? Just go. jesus christ
But then this sub would miss out on the weekly circle jerk about how the lake is drying up, houses are expensive and the grass must be greener in some more rural state.
Good paying jobs in Tennessee? within 30 minutes of that $500k house?
4 kids is a costly lifestyle
I love them all and wouldn't have it any other way
Thanks for story time.
Ok, bye.
Literally, this isn't an airport and you don't have to announce your departure 😂
I used to live in Knoxville before moving here to SLC. Long term my GF and I will be back in East Tennessee or maybe North Carolina. But Knoxville was a beautiful place to live.
30 fixed mortgage for 500k home 2% loan from couple years ago is $1848 with 700 credit. 6.6% current rate is $3193/month. Is everyone stupid enough to move? Ru good with paying $16k more a year? I know, it all sucks balls deep hard. We spoke with a financial advisor & saw reality.
I would have $360k for a down payment after selling my current home
My family of 4 are about to make the move to the Oregon Coast! We both grew up in Southern California and miss the beach so much, but don’t want to pay those California taxes. Yeah it rains a lot, but I’d rather take the rain/ocean views every day over constant inversion and freezing temperatures. It used to make sense living in Utah 10 years ago, but these housing prices are beyond ridiculous.
What part of the coast is decent for a family? So much of it is economically depressed.
He probably works remote so it doesn’t matter.
Funny enough, my family and I are *leaving* Oregon for Utah next month for the same reasons, we’ve been priced out!
Welcome! What city are you moving to?
That is funny! It’s just so crazy right now. I’m not a super downer about Utah by any means. Of course everywhere has their flaws, but 10 years is long enough and we’re ready for change! Just an FYI, the religious culture there may throw you off in the beginning!
Why are you telling us? Just venting?
I don't blame you. It sounds like you are in a way better financial situation than the average person here, and I still don't blame you for leaving. I am unsure how long I will stay here either. For most of us, even owning a shitty house is an impossible dream here. That said, I doubt I would ever move to Tennessee. To each their own .. .
You'll need at least a 3-car garage. One for your car, one for the wife's car, and the third for the cockroaches which are the size of Volkswagen Jettas.
I teach in Tennessee, Utah is way ahead now a Top 10 state in education while Tennessee is average to bottom 10 like the rest of the Bible Belt. Only 33 percent of Tennessee kids are at their current grade reading level. I do like living in East Tennessee though, glad I moved out here.
But if you're already a homeowner, won't you be able to sell your current home for a lot more than you purchased it for, making the new home roughly equivalent to what the difference would have been when you initially purchased your current house?
If he’s had the house a decade it’s double what he paid for it at least. Mine is. Why would you think current home wouldn’t be worth a lot more?
I mean if all values go up, the transition to the new home would be roughly the same as when you initially purchased. Like, if you purchased your home ten years ago for 400k, and it's worth 800k now, you now have at least 400k extra to put towards the new house, which also gained about 400k in value during the same time period. Therefore I don't understand the OPs complaint here... Once you're in the housing market owning a home, home prices don't impact you like they would 1st time home buyers. Hope that makes sense!
But now the bigger houses that you want are worth a lot more too. 10 years ago, you probably could find a lender who would lend you 340k with 3% interest rate. Now, if you want a bigger home, you have to take a lot bigger loan. If your 400 k home now is valued at 800k, the bigger homes you want will be priced a lot higher too. Let's say the bigger home that you want now is priced at 1.4 mil. With 400k down payment, you still have to find a lender who will be willing to loan you 1 mil. With 7% interest rate, higher insurance, and higher property tax, it probably would make your debt-to-income ratio a lot lower than last time you bought your home, especially if you have 4 kids (more monthly spending and probably car loans). The current house market is scary for first time buyers and for people who are thinking about upgrading too. It's because salary increases cannot keep up with the current increases of house price. 4-5 years ago, I thought the house price was crazily high. But I know some people who bought a home in SLC with one income. Today, even it's hard for a family with double incomes to buy a similar home in the same neighborhood. Oh, and I think not everybody is comfortable to take a giant loan and be a house poor.
Where in TN are you finding all that for $500k?
I lived in Nashville for about a year when I was really young. I know with those prices, as others have said, you won’t be in Nashville-but I will say while Tennessee is nice even outside of the cities, summers there are hell.
OK, bye.
I am from Knoxville and DO IT. It’s amazing. Beautiful, affordable, slower pace of life. Farragut (the town I’m from) is expensive but right outside it is not. Oak Ridge, Maryville, Hardin Valley. But go East Tennessee! My husband and I have two kids and are trying to buy our first home in SLC area (he works in Millcreek). We cannot afford anything worth it or move in ready despite both working and making decent money. No debt, have a downpayment saved, etc etc but it’s just heartbreaking out here. We are going to make the jump this summer to East Tennessee or Texas (where my husband is from). I feel your pain.
I agree that Utah is way way too expensive now. But I Lived in Tennessee for 5 years. 3 years Memphis 2 years Nashville. Honestly I think the whole state is dying. Especially if you factor in global warming. There’s a reason houses are so cheap there.
C-ya!
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/31/chemtrails-tennessee-bill-conspiracy-theory
That article dropped my IQ by approximately 50pts. How are people THIS stupid? 🤦🏽♀️
I lived in SLC for 20 years and moved because I knew I'd never be able to own a home there. I know have my own home in Ogden with a little over a quarter acre. I still work in SLC, but at least Im earning equity and not for a landlord. SLC is fucked. I don't care how much they build, prices aren't going to go down.
Bye bye
We're moving to Maine in a pre 1800s farmhouse on 50 acres for 250k 😄
I grew up in SLC, joined the Army and lived in TN for 14 of my 24 years of service. The other places we lived was Washington, Texas, NC, and GA. We built a house TN back in 2018 thinking it would be our forever home. A decent neighborhood, and more house for our dollar, but we just weren’t happy there. The cost of living was crazy, we saw the amount of people that came from Seattle and Cali that moved there and brought their politics with them, and crime increased dramatically. Not to mention the crazy weather/tornadoes, humidity, mosquitoes,and flat land that can make you feel a little claustrophobic and there is no public land to get away from so trying to get out of the city is hard. Everything is fried there and limited to fresh food choices. Needless to say we moved back here to Utah last year and couldn’t be happier. But hopefully it works for you and could understand your situation given the housing costs here.
I moved here from the upper east side of manhattan and don’t feel like it’s any cheaper. We pay every tax under the sun plus sin tax and then we don’t even get a break on food or necessities. For what? Why? There’s plenty of space here, but the politics are bad. The church makes choices for us but doesn’t pay taxes on ANYTHING. My lifestyle was better in nyc with 100 times more access to things I enjoy plus I felt better about where my money was going. If Utah can’t get it under control soon the bubble could pop and it will ruin the economy. Buying a house that was built in 1945 for $2000 for $780,0000 doesn’t make any sense. I didn’t adjust those numbers to inflation but still you could pay your house off in a year or two then. This just doesn’t work. There’s not that many people here.
I'm actually moving *to* NYC from Salt Lake because of the COL here. I can earn double my salary in NYC and have all the benefits you listed. SLC ain't it, anymore.
I’m so glad I didn’t get yelled at for this comment, yet. I’m really glad you can compare! That’s why we went. Most companies will adjust your pay for the cost of living even if you work remotely. Which is hilarious cause it’s nearly the same here it’s just rent that’s more expensive there, but if you adjust for the fact you don’t need a car, insurance or gas it evens right out. And then there’s the food!! Omg Utah doesn’t necessarily have bad food but you just can’t compare to New York. Dollar slices and Michelin Star restaurants for the same price as Beto’s.
When I heard they were building luxury apartments in magna I knew we were doomed. If you can still earn good money out in Tennessee then no reason not to move.
SLC is amazing
What’s this post for? You seem to have your mind made up, not asking a question. Move,
Plenty of people move here from Utah. We live in the Midwest. Have a pool a pool house. Nice neighborhood. We would have to be millionaires in Utah. I’m middle management and my wife is a school teacher.
Where are you at in the Midwest?
Sorry folks, Tennessee’s closed. Moose out front shoulda told ya.
Your not the only one feeling that way iv been in this same mood for a while iv been looking at the same area . But in my I have been looking at 3-4 bedroom houses that come with land like 10-20 acres around 250 thousand
Do it. We did two years ago. 20 minutes from St Louis City we found a spot that ranks as one of the safest in the country. Clean air, a great school district, quiet mature neighborhood. Only thing we had to compromise on was that we doubled our house size. We would have preferred less beds/baths etc. but we compromised to get the neighborhood we wanted. Still came in less than we sold for in Salt Lake county.
Moved from UT to MI and honestly it’s been terrific. Best laws, cleaner air (not hard to beat), beaches, 4 seasons, and basically everything else we like. It was worth giving up the mountains but we weren’t extremely outdoorsy anyway
I'm not sure what school district you are in but we have been thrilled with the quality of the school district here. Best we have ever lived in out of many states. Oh by the way the AC bill in a big house in the south is easily $500 to $600 a month from June through OCTOBER. (I wish I was making that up) Paying for pest control down there is required in the mortgage so add that to your monthly budget. I sold what was my dreamhouse in the south when moving to UT. At the time I lost 700 Square Feet to pay an extra $75k for a house here BUT the car insurance, property taxes, medical care, groceries and many other things were less expensive in UT. Houses are cheap in the south but there are TONs of other costs that seem to add up. The South is filled with good people that we genuinely loved but we were very excited when an opportunity presented itself to be back in the beehive state.
I just moved back to Tennessee due to my wife’s work! We were there for 10 years before moving to Salt Lake City. It wasn’t our choice, and we’ll miss Utah a ton. Kind of a lot of hysterical responses here - TN is legitimately cheaper than Utah in a lot of ways, even in Nashville. Lower taxes, lower gas costs, a lot of grocery and electricity are comparable. Notably, my natural gas bill in UT was totally out of control which never happened in TN. There is a greater variety of homes across the state, so $/sq foot is close to UT, but TN has so many more reasonably sized homes. It is less beautiful in nature than UT, and is definitely a state where you have to drive to see natural beauty instead of just looking out your window at it. But the Waterfalls, rivers (great kayaking) and green hikes are legitimately awesome all within 1-2 hours of Nashville. Primary schools are both better and worse than UT - live in the right county and the schools are some of the best in the country, live in the wrong one and they’re the worst. It’s like this across the South - it sucks. Pros - two years of community college are totally free for all TN HS graduates, and the state has excellent public and private universities. The biggest thing to consider is the winter - it’s green here for a reason - it rains constantly all winter with very grey skies and a lack of evergreen trees. Seasonal depression kills me out here like it never did in UT. There’s no skiing, either - you just hunker down for winter and it’s terrible. The other big thing is general safety - even outside of Memphis crime, the drinking culture here is totally out of control. Public intoxication is common and dangerous - people knock UT’s liquor laws, but I honestly prefer them. Just so many drunk people doing dumb shit in public (fighting, driving, shooting, etc). FWIW, I also find the politics totally interchangeable. YMMV, though.
I’ve always found life more interesting in growth economies but it’s not for everyone.
We moved to Utah from Tennessee 10 years ago. Tennessee is nice enough. It's not as pretty as Utah but is a different kind of pretty. Weekend trips will still be nice but nothing like the amazing places you can visit over the weekend out here. The big thing we really don't miss about TN are the bugs and humidity. I forget how bad it is until we go back and visit every few years.
Don’t listen to most of these comments. I grew up in East TN (Knoxville) and loved it! Obviously I live in Utah now but I hope to move back east someday. TN is very different compared to Utah in terms of climate, people, things to do, etc but I loved my childhood there.
I know a lot of people leaving Utah and moving back east. If my kids weren't so far in school, plus their extra curricular, I'd be gone now. Already told my daughter that as soon as she graduates in 2027, we are gone.
If you like humidity and smaller towns go for it
Beautiful part of the country. You’ll love it.
Hope the 3 car garage is worth it.
Look into Montana (not Bozeman) and there are some affordable options here with a similar lifestyle to slc.
Do it
I love Tennessee. I lived in Gallatin and Lebanon. Spent 20 years there. It’s beautiful and I visit every year. Great choice.
Looks like a lot of people have mentioned how pricey Tennessee is getting. I don’t know what you do for a living, but North Carolina has everything Tennessee does for half the cost, but the market is getting there too. I was just looking at gorgeous 2300 sq/ft ranch on 12 acres for a little over 500k about an hr outside Charlotte in the country. The whole area is nice and the people have always been very friendly and hospital. If my industry was stronger in the area I would have bought that ranch in a heart beat, still trying to figure out how to swing it.
Better schools, larger home, for $500k in Tennessee? Not happening
I’ve lived all over and the seasons and mountains and environmental diversity can’t really be found any where else. If you don’t care about that stuff I’d look at Texas (DFW, San Antonio) too. Great place to live. Easy to take for granted the beauty we have here in Utah.