Best Retirement Lake In Tennessee, Kentucky Or Virginia.....

[LAKESUNONE]

Did you ever find a nice Lake?  I'm looking to move to TN and I'm researching the lakes. 

Thanks!

[Mitchell@Cherokee]

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!

[Choporoz]

I miss Al.

 

I'd forgotten about this thread.   Soon after I last posted on this topic, my wife and I went and spent a long weekend in Dandridge.  Was only our third or fourth retirement spot investigation/visit.  Before the weekend was over we both decided we are going to live on Douglas.  Absolutely loved the towns, the lake, and especially the people.  It's still a few years off ....we've been back to visit a couple times.  We haven't changed our minds.  

[bird-dog]

Ganggreen, did you ever make a decision on where you were planning to move? 

 

I too have begun to look at Tennessee. In 2016 I purchased a house on Currituck Sound in NC as a retirement home. Shortly after I found out that NC changed its tax laws and taxes retirement. My wife and I have decided to turn the NC home into an Airbnb and use it as income and a free vacation home. 

 

Recently, I have begun researching the Cherokee Reservoir area. It seems like a nice area. My wife and I will need to plan a trip to check it out. One of my prerequisites is that I would like to be around a ½ from a hospital since as we get older we will become more dependent on medical services. We would like to get a house in the $300 to $350 range that has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. Is there anything that anyone can add as either Pros or Cons for the area?

 

Appreciate it.
Jay
 

[Rumjacker]

I've lived at SML all my life. I'll admit that it can be a tough lake to fish at times because A.E.P. does not allow any grass to grow. The shoreline is also kept fairly free of laydowns as well. That said, I've had some amazing days on the lake catching largemouth and stripers. I also have had some success with smallmouths at the base of the mountains that border the lake. There are many marinas and boat launches in the area as well as an awesome state park. A.E.P. also has some weird restrictions when it comes to building docks and maintaining trees above the 800ft line so make sure you do your homework if you look at property on the lake.

[GANGGREEN]

Have to admit that I haven't visited this topic even though I created it.  I did post an inquiry about campgrounds on Douglas Lake and general info, but I'm still searching.  As it happens, I'll likely be retiring in September of this year.  Sadly, my wife will probably continue to work for several years, so outside of a vacation rental or a condo, I'm not sure it makes a ton of sense for us to purchase a home in the area.  That Douglas/Cherokee Lake area is still pretty high on my list though.  I just returned from a trip to the Norfork/Bull Shoals area in northern Arkansas.  I liked it reasonably well, but my wife wasn't super impressed.  The Taneycomo/Table Rock areas might make more sense for us since there are more rental units, condos and vacation rental management agencies, but I'm not sure I could put up with the traffic and commotion in that area, even during the wintertime when I'd be most likely to use visit.  Because we're now leaning towards keeping our farm in northern PA, our budget for a vacation/seasonal home, cottage, camper is somewhat limited, but it's still definitely a consideration and I greatly appreciate everyone's input on the topic.

 

On 10/16/2018 at 12:45 PM, Mitchell@Cherokee said:

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!

After living there for a while, what are your thoughts about Morristown?  We drove through/around it on a previous trip down and I wouldn't completely rule it out, although you're right, I'd probably prefer a bit more privacy.  Like I said in my previous post, we're probably not ready to spend a ton of time down that way because my wife will continue to work for a few more years, so I'm trying to decide what makes the most sense, purchasing a rental and using it a few times a year myself, staying in a campground for a week or two at a time or just renting once or twice a year until we're both completely retired.

 

[Sam]

On 2/26/2015 at 6:02 PM, Darren. said:

Well, there are some lovely places in 

Virginia, too.

 

Have a look at Smith Mountain Lake.

 

We've vacationed there, and it is a haven

for a number of fish species, and there

are beautiful spots to retire.

X2.

[Hyrule Bass]

Smith Mountain Lake is a beautiful place. Lots of boat traffic in the summer, especially holiday weekends. The fishing can be real tough at times, but when its on fire its on fire.

[GreenGhostMan]

Hello Gangreen,

If you are still looking, I think you should consider living in between Lake Cumberland and Dale Hollow.  Both are large lakes with several creek arms.  Both have largemouth, smallmouth, spots, crappie, walleye and of course sunfish and catfish.  Cumberland is also world class for landlocked striper.  I believe Dale Hollow claims to hold the top 3 heaviest smallmouth on record and something like 10 of the top 25.  The trade off would be living in a very rural area as there are only small towns in between the lakes.  Good Luck!!

 

[BassNJake]

For the folks looking at the lakes near Knoxville

The Knoxville assoc of realtors has a search page

 

http://distil.flexmls.com/cgi-bin/mainmenu.cgi?cmd=url+other/createlink/link_receiver.html&no_html_header=true&i=zs6d64si90i,16

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, BassNJake said:

For the folks looking at the lakes near Knoxville

The Knoxville assoc of realtors has a search page

 

http://distil.flexmls.com/cgi-bin/mainmenu.cgi?cmd=url+other/createlink/link_receiver.html&no_html_header=true&i=zs6d64si90i,16

Also if any of the forum members children are good athletes, please by all means move to Knoxville and convince them to attend UT on a football scholarship 

[VolFan]

Not sure they need to be good athletes....