Hi Ganggreen,
Have you moved yet? I've been through Coudersport, and you are in God's country!
I grew up on Alabama, but we recently moved from 20+ years in the Lehigh Valley (Nazareth, PA) to Morristown, TN. We looked at lakefront property at Douglas and Cherokee, but decided to purchase a home in Morristown which is about 3 1/2 miles from Cherokee Lake. We got a 4,800 SF Victorian with a wraparound front porch and a full front-to-back 300' lot. Probably more "in-town" than you're looking for, but best of both worlds with city and lake life. 10 minute drive, hop on the boat and go. More house than you'd get on the lake. We did seriously look at numerous properties on both Douglas and Cherokee. Our taxes went from $6,000/yr. to $1,900 with more house! Yes, food and clothing are taxed here whereas they aren't in PA, but I'm OK with that because I view it as a fair consumption tax.
We have the boat at Hamblen County Boat Dock. This is a nice facility at the beautiful Cherokee Park......walking trails, kids playground, amphitheater, etc. I love Cherokee Lake, but Douglas is only about 1/2 hour away. Morristown has retail and restaurants. Knoxville is 45 minutes to an hour away. If you go north of the lake in Grainger county I believe you'll find more reasonable real estate prices. We didn't want the prolonged heat and humidity that comes with further south. Summers can get hot, but are many degrees cooler than deep south with less humidity due to mountains. We have four very distinct seasons (although winter is not nearly as cold or anywhere nearly as prolonged), and you can fish all year.....just dress appropriately.
I'd highly recommend the Smokey Mountain region.
Good luck to you and others looking for the right place to relocate!
