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Relocation Riviera

Knoxville ranks No. 1 among midsize cities to move to

By MICHAEL SILENCE, silence@knews.com
May 19, 2007

For Jason Sprague, the numbers tell the story as to why he and his family moved from Maine to Knoxville last year.
Property taxes in Maine: $5,000 to $6,000. Property taxes in Knoxville: Slightly more than $1,200.

It doesn't stop there, and the numbers show in part why Knoxville has been ranked the number one midsize city to move to.

A 1,800 to 2,000-square-foot older cottage house in Maine would go for $250,000 to $300,000, Sprague said.

In Knoxville, a 2,500-square-foot house can be purchased for less than $190,000, he said.

"We did a lot of research on the Internet," Sprague said of when he and his family decided to leave Maine.

This week, two groups who do research on relocating ranked Knoxville number one among midsize cities.

Worldwide ERC, a trade association for work force mobility, and Primacy Relocation, a Memphis-based provider of employee relocation services, also ranked Nashville number two among large cities.

They looked at several factors: economic, education, quality of life, climate, recreation, leisure, arts and culture, air quality, watershed quality, sales tax, unemployment rates, job growth, area educational levels, school expenditures per student, students in public school, SAT/ACT percentile, and population growth.

Sprague and his wife, Gina, have a 15-month-old son, Bennett, so they looked at day care, too.

In Maine it runs about $225 a week. In Knoxville, it's about half that, Sprague said.

Cathy Ackermann of Ackermann PR, a public relations and marketing firm, does constant research on topics like this because she works with a number of real estate developers on what attracts people.

She said the number one factor is cost of living, "with a strong emphasis on the tax structure."

"When we say the (annual) tax rate they think we mean monthly," she said.

Ackermann said research shows that about 90 percent of 60-year-olds are looking at a retirement home.

Of those, she said 70 percent are looking at the Southern Highlands, such as East Tennessee, southwest Virginia, northern Georgia and western North Carolina.

"Tennessee has been a forgotten state, but we are being discovered," she said.

For Sprague and his wife, other attractions are no state income tax and the people.

"We love it here, especially the people. They are so much nicer and so much easier" to deal with, Sprague said.

Doug Kose is director of sales and marketing for the University of Tennessee athletic department.

He and his wife moved from Ypsilanti, Mich., to Knoxville almost two years ago.

It was the university that lured them here, but the quality of life and cost of living played a part, too.

"The one thing we have noticed is people are so down to earth. They are genuine. They go out of their way to help you," Kose said.

Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam said the city is starting to get known.

"I think that one of the things that has changed is the outside perception of us," he said, noting that Forbes magazine in 2006 ranked Knoxville the fifth best city for business and careers.

The city has received other national rankings, too.

CNN/Money.com in 2005 ranked Knoxville as one of the 10 best places to retire. Expansion Management magazine in 2006 ranked Knoxville as the ninth hottest city for business.

And the Economic Research Institute in 2006 ranked Knoxville as the number one in "Best Places for Recent College Graduates to Live."

Michael Silence may be reached at 865-342-6310.