Learn me: Chattanooga, TN

So my wife and I have had enough of New Jersey and have decided to move to the Chattanooga area of Tennessee. We would like to be close to stores and dining, but want some land (tired of being on top of our neighbors in NJ). To those of you who live in the area are there any towns we should look at or avoid like the plague?

Work is not an issue for my wife as she works from home, but I will need to find something when we move.

Any other thoughts or ideas are welcome as our plans are not set in stone. Thanks for the help.

There are three states in the area to choose from, GA, TN and AL. Each its positives and negatives. I know nothing in detail about Chattanooga, but it's one of those cities I always been interested in. I will watch the comments with interest. Our company actually has an office in Chattanooga I had considered transferring to.

I'm likely moving there myself. One of VW's contractors is hiring about 1000 people like right now. The city got fed up with internet providers, and kicked them all out. Now internet services are included with your taxes-yes, really. One of the highest speeds in the country. As long as you stay out of Red Bank, Signal Mountain, etc, property is quite reasonable. Hixon, Soddy Daisy, and the like are fairly roomy on the cheap. Great town. Very progressive for the area.

Chattanooga has won Outdoor Magazines best "outdoor" towns to live two years in a row. Wasn't in the running this year, for some reason. It's got mountains, rivers, farm fields, trails, lakes and streams.

Average relative humidity, June-August Atlanta: morning 87%, afternoon 58% Chattanooga: morning 89%, afternoon 56%

Average daily maximum temperature, June-August Atlanta: 87.9 Chattanooga: 88.2

No. of days maximum temperature is 90+ Atlanta: 35 Chattanooga: 53

Read more: City Data Forums

It's a smaller city, and a bit isolated from larger job markets, which not only means trouble finding a job, but it can also mean trouble selling a house in a down market. Not a big deal if both earners have stable employment. It was however, the 2nd fastest growing city in Tennessee in 2015. Future job growth expected to be up 33% in the next 10 years.

In reply to PHeller:

I have a very hard time believing Chattanooga has that many more 90°+ days than Atlanta.

Chattanooga is also reasonably close to Knoxville, Nashville and Atlanta, so you have access to many cool things/sites/attractions.

Thanks for the feedback guys. The internet service provided by the town is awesome. Everything I have read has me very excited about moving. We will most likely rent for the first year or so then buy once we get a chance to survey the area more.

I got stuck in the middle of berkeleying nowhere Tennessee because of a blasting zone detour just outside of Chattanooga just before midnight last November. I was not impressed lol.

If what you currently do is in a technical field I would say you stand a good chance of being employable at VW or one of their suppliers in the region. How good that is will depend on the further fallout from Dieselgate.

They're always looking for raft guides on the Ocoee river...

I've done a lot of work in Chattanooga. I like the city and the surrounding area has a lot of appeal. There are some areas that are not very nice places to be. If I recall correctly a couple years ago it had the highest murder rate of any city in TN. But those are very specific areas and it's almost hard to accidentally find yourself there.

That aside, downtown is lovely. It has a very nice vibe. The big plus for me is being relatively close to Road Atlanta and Barber Motorsports park. Plus the multitude of terrific driving roads in and around the area. If it were me I would prefer to be in TN vs. GA or AL.

spitfirebill wrote: In reply to PHeller: I have a very hard time believing Chattanooga has that many more 90°+ days than Atlanta.

I have been there several times in the summer, and each time I am astonished at the heat. Only Savannah outranks it in memories of hot-as-balls places. Otherwise, love it.

Marjorie Suddard wrote:

spitfirebill wrote: In reply to PHeller: I have a very hard time believing Chattanooga has that many more 90°+ days than Atlanta.

I have been there several times in the summer, and each time I am astonished at the heat. Only Savannah outranks it in memories of hot-as-balls places. Otherwise, love it.

I would think with all the asphalt and concrete, ATL would be hotter.

I used to live in Calhoun, Georgia and worked NE Al and I don't remember it being all that hot. Well I did almost croak in a soybean field once when it was only 86 degrees.

In reply to Nick (picaso) Comstock:

Are you sure that's not Memphis?

In reply to spitfirebill:

Yes.

Edit;

"Chattanooga's 993.9 per capita violent crime rate puts it behind Memphis, Jackson and Nashville and ahead of Knoxville. But zero in on the state's four mid-sized cities -- those with populations of 100,000 to 350,000 -- and Chattanooga is the most dangerous in the state."

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2013/oct/13/were-safer-despite-tennessees-no-1-crime/121213/

I abso-berkeleying-love Chatt. Had I known how awesome it was 20 years ago, I would've moved there instead of re-establishing roots in Georgia. That said, it probably wasn't as awesome 20 years ago.

I don't know E36 M3 about where to be looking for property (aside from AVOID SODDY DAISY...YES. THAT IS AN ACTUAL PLACE,) but I do know all the best (E36 M3tiest) watering holes. Holler when you get down this way.

I've lived in the area for 10 years now. I work in Chattanooga and live north of the city. Some thoughts:

TN has no state income tax, which is a bonus over living in GA/AL and commuting here.

Chattanooga is in Hamilton County, which has emissions testing and high (by regional standards) property taxes. Bradley County is just north, with lower taxes and no smog testing.

Most of the violent crime is localized to a few places. If you do want to live in Chattanooga, avoid most places south of 24, especially anywhere near Rossville. The Southside can be sketchy--there are a lot of really bad areas, but it's got some spots that aren't bad at all. Avoid anything near Holtzclaw. Brainerd can be iffy.

North Chatt and Red Bank are good areas, as are Hixson and Ooltewah, for the most part. Tell me what you're into (rural, downtown, etc.) and I can maybe refine neighborhood recommendations a bit.

I'm active in our local SCCA chapter, but unfortunately, the chapter itself has been rather inactive for the last year after losing our autoX venue. It looks as if we finally have a new one lined up, though. Plenty of car culture, cruise-ins, etc. if you're into the hot rod scene. There's also an 1/8 mile strip in town.

If you have any specific questions, let me know.

Awesome responses, that is exactly what I needed to know. We are looking north of Chattanooga in Signal Mtn and Red Bank. We are going to rent first them buy. We want to look at suburbs and rural areas, we just don't want to be the only house for miles (ok, my wife does not want to be the only house for miles). Ideally we would like to stay within about 45 mins of the city and the airport. I absolutely want to live in a county that does not have emissions testing.

Thanks again for all the help, I need all I can get.

Check out Dayton just N of Chattanooga on highway 27. Rhea County would be much cheaper on your budget and no emission checks. You might also look up I-24 into Marion County ie Jasper(home to Lodge Cast Iron skillets) but access is limited. Downtown has a great vibe for food and drinks.

How bad is the traffic in that area? I am used to Jersey traffic which is stop and go during rush hour, otherwise on the highways I can cruise 75-80 mph with little issue from the cops.

In reply to spear322:

It's been a couple years since I was there. Once they finished the construction on 75 for the VW plant it seemed to smooth out. Coming in on 24 though can be an issue. Especially during rush hour. There is a decent grade that slows tractor trailers to a crawl and just at the top of the hill it goes down to two lanes, it can get very stop with little go from there until you get to 75.

My wife and I have said for years that Chattanooga is one of the few cities we'd move to if given a good opportunity. Coker Tire is up there but they don't need my services currently, and I don't want to assemble VWs.

Every few years someone throws out a plan for high speed rail between Atlanta and Chattanooga. If they did that you'd see Chattanooga's population explode with people commuting to Atlanta jobs.

Red Bank is in Hamilton County, so if you live there you'll have to pass emissions. I don't believe Signal Mountain is in Hamilton, but it starts to get pricy.

I lived in Dayton for several years. I didn't care for it--/Rhea county is semi-dry county (no wine/liquor by the drink), very small town, nothing there. Not for me. Depending on where you work in Chattanooga, Dayton could be quite a drive, like 45-75 minutes. IMO if you want to live outside Hamilton County, Bradley County is a better choice. It has Cleveland, a small city, but with alcohol and many more restaurants, stores, etc.

Traffic in town gets bad in a few places. I24 runs into the West of the city, across the bottom of town and connects to I75 on the East end of town. In between is a section called the Ridge Cut, and it's every bit as bad as the 405/101 interchange in LA (and I lived out there for a long time, so that's not a guess). I avoid it at all costs, but I had to take it a while back and at 5pm it took me an hour to go 7 miles.

153 runs along the North of the city, below Hixson, and traffic can get bad there at rush hour.

A word on emissions testing: it's not completely awful. It's $10; the test uses an OBD2 scan for 96-up and a tailpipe sniffer for pre-96. They do a visual check to make sure you have converters, but it's nothing like the silly CA visual testing.

I like the Aquarium there. Other than that I've only passed through on the way to somewhere else.

My wife is from there, as well as most of my in-laws.

The job market is not good. I tried finding engineering work there back when our intentions were to live there. VW is there yes, but not much else. Housing is way more expensive than where I live (south of Atlanta). I live near Atlanta, and I cannot handle Chattanooga traffic. Not all of it is bad, but 75 at rush hour is horrible. The worst is east Brainard. The parks are absolutely beautiful, but everyone I know leaves Coolidge park by dark.

It's a beautiful place. So much to do outdoors, downtown is amazing, the aquarium is awesome. Tbh, i probably wouldn't move there at this point. If the industry I was in was more prevalent, I'd consider it more.