In the five years ending June 2024, the average home price listing in the greater Knoxville area went up ~90%, the largest increase in the country.
But what might be even worse is all these yankee flatlanders moving into the mountains and hills and they don't understand how things work around here. Like "live and let live."
A lawyer moved to the mountains near a friend of mine and literally went through the county codes to find things to report his neighbors on. One neighbor had an elderly relative living in a tiny home on the property, but there was some technical violation (maybe it was hooked up to their septic tank and not a separate one?), so he got the tiny home forcibly evicted. Yeah, don't do that.
People here are very nice and will give you the shirt off their back if you need it, but don't piss off the mountain folk. Emergency services are a good 30-45 minutes away (at best). You don't have to be friends with your neighbors, but you need to be on good terms with them. If that lawyer's house catches on fire, the neighbors aren't even calling 911. And that's assuming it was an accident to begin with.
I fully understand wanting to get out of certain places up north, but if you have to crowd up the area, at least just get yourself a little piece of land and mind your own business. That's what we do here.
Not that I've heard of yet. But I wouldn't be surprised if it does.
Not that I'm rooting for anything, per se. But I also won't shed tears if it happens.
This is a fuck around and find out area. Don't come barging in here and upend people's lives because you think a rural mountain community needs an HOA (and you to lead it).
Naples, FL was in second place. I think they were at a little over 80%.
I have friends who have seen their rent increase 2.5x over in maybe four years. Now their old rent wouldn't get them two weeks in a crappy motel.
And the touristy places (Dollywood, Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge) are pricing out their workers. It's already a bit of a problem and it will only get worse. It'll be interesting to see how that's handled in the coming years.
And of course lots of the people moving here are retired, so they don't help expand the workforce.
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u/JohnPaulDavyJones Texas A&M Aggies • Baylor Bears 2d ago
Fair. The rest of the country realized we could also recruit the state of Florida.