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- [Briggs] What is going on, everyone?
Welcome back to The World According to Briggs.
Are you tired of the concrete jungle?
Do you wanna find a rural town to buy a home, settle down?
Who doesn't, right?
Today, we're looking at great rural towns in Tennessee.
We did a video a couple weeks back
about great rural towns to retire
or live as a remote worker in the United States.
We had a bunch of people ask
if we could expand this and do it by state.
So here we are.
A couple things about rural Tennessee towns.
They rarely have jobs.
Really, that kind of goes for most rural towns.
So you gotta bring one in with you, or not need one,
like you're retired.
The second thing is you gotta have good car insurance,
because if you aren't familiar with the area
you're moving to, you'll eventually run into something,
run into the ditch,
whatever, so get online, (metal thuds)
get a good auto insurance quote,
or walk into a local insurance office,
and get a quote there.
Wait, do people even do that anymore?
It's been so long.
I honestly don't think I've been in an insurance office
for over 20 years.
With the towns in this video,
we are looking for that sweet spot.
It's a decent place to live
that is isn't very close to a major city,
and it's not five hours away
from a hospital or something like that.
You also don't want it to be too far out
to where you're getting horrible internet.
Those last two things, hospital, internet,
they knocked a lot of really nice small towns off this list,
because if you're working from home,
obviously you're gonna need internet.
And if you're retired or older,
you're gonna need a hospital.
That's just a sad fact.
As we get older, we need more doctors
and gotta go see specialists, things like that.
In the last video, I explained
that not all states have 10 good rural towns,
and I don't wanna waste your time with a bunch
of just thrown-in ones that aren't worthy of this list.
Tennessee has some really great cities
and some great suburbs.
But when you look
at the rural towns that fit our requirements here,
they only got five.
Actually they have six,
but Thompson Station, Tennessee, was on our first video,
the one where we looked at the entire United States.
So yeah, we're only looking at five on this one.
Let's take a look.
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Number five: Parsons, Tennessee.
Parsons is a small town of about 2300 residents
that sits right between Nashville and Memphis.
It's like right in the middle.
If you move here and need to go to the big city,
always choose Nashville.
If someone asks you if you'd like to go
to Nashville or Memphis for the weekend,
it's about the equivalent of them asking someone.
If they'd like a hug or a punch in the junk,
Nashville being the hug.
There isn't a lot to do here.
It seems like a really quiet place to live.
So if that's what you're looking for,
Parsons may be the town for you.
You know, when I say there's not a lot to do here,
they don't have some lake or some river
in town that normally leads to crowds in the summer.
It's just a nice place to live.
While researching this one,
I found a lot of people seem
to love Bailey's Pizza in Parsons.
Parsons is the largest town
by population in Decatur County, Tennessee.
When it comes to healthcare, they're not doing that bad.
They got Decatur County General Hospital
on the south side of town.
Anything past that, you're gonna have an hour
and a half drive to Nashville.
They get a thumbs up
when it comes to healthcare.
When you're looking at internet, they have Spectrum.
That covers about 75% of the town.
That'll get you a gig.
They also have TDS, which gives you a gig,
and they cover about 80% of the town.
So they get a thumbs up for that one.
They also get a thumbs up for their crime rate.
It's actually 66% lower than the national average.
If you wanna buy a house here,
they got a couple houses for sale,
and most seem to go for under $250,000.
And I mean, they look decent.
They look like they're ready to go,
livable, nice houses to have under 250,000.
I even researched last year.
Most of the houses stay below 250,000, not bad.
So they get a thumbs up there too.
On top of cheap housing,
their overall cost living is 24% lower
than the national average.
Their only real knocks are they don't have a lot
to do around here.
I mean, the Tennessee River's not too far away, but in town,
there's really not a lot to do, and they don't have jobs,
but since we're really not focusing on that,
we're focusing on where retirees and people
that work from home can go,
Parsons is a great option.
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Number four: Collinwood, Tennessee.
Collinwood was established in 1913 as a stop
on the Tennessee Western Railroad,
a rail line that was constructed
to serve the area's iron industry.
The city was actually named after W.W. Collins,
president of Collinwood Land Company,
which planted the city.
It's about midway point between Chattanooga and Memphis,
and is about 30 minutes from Insurance Bluff.
I'm not even kidding.
It's called Insurance Bluff.
If I were the people at Geico, I would jump on that,
and pay to name it like Geico Insurance Bluff.
You know, they'd get some great press out of that.
Collinwood is another quiet town with around 950 residents,
and four churches in town, and a couple outside of town.
If you ask me, I think that's overkill.
When it comes to healthcare, they have an urgent care.
That's about it in town.
If you need to go to the hospital,
Wayne Medical Center in Waynesboro, about 15 minutes north,
is right there,
and Wayne's medical center is pretty good size
for such a rural area.
And like in most towns in Tennessee,
they don't have a lot of dentists or anything.
They get a thumbs up for their healthcare.
If they didn't have the urgent care in town,
they'd probably get a faded thumbs up.
But anyway, the crime here is really low.
It's actually 68% lower than the national average,
so they get a thumbs up there.
When it comes to internet, it's not the greatest.
They have TDS and it offers one gig,
but it only covers about 74% of the town.
Spectrum's there offering one gig also,
but that's only 10% of the town,
and they have another one called JTM,
which I've never heard of.
They offer fiber one gig.
That only covers 5% of the town,
so they get a faded thumbs up for that one.
When it comes to real estate,
you don't have many options right now,
but things turn up all the time.
The ones they do have currently are over 400,000.
They look nice.
They got some property, couple acres, they're over 400,000.
But at the beginning of the month,
actually April 1st this year,
they had a few decent homes sell for about 200,000,
actually a little under 200,000.
And then back in February,
they had a few others sell for around the same area.
So I'm guessing 200,000
or less is what the average home here is going.
And like I always say, prices change all the time.
Don't gimme a bunch of grief
three years down the line when prices have jumped 40%, okay?
But the area's beautiful. It's nice.
And if you can get a home here for 200,000,
that's a solid deal.
So they get a thumbs up for real estate.
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Number three: Blaine, Tennessee.
Blaine, which used to be called Blaine's Crossroad,
is a town in Grainger County, Tennessee.
It sits about 25 minutes Northeast of Knoxville,
not too far from the Holston River, and some good fishing.
They do, they have a lot of fishing videos
for the Holston River.
Now I was reading that the North Fork in Virginia is known
for excellent small mouth bass fishing,
but due to the mercury contamination,
fish caught in the North Fork of the Holston River
below Saltville, Virginia may not be consumed.
Too much mercury, but I guess
if you catch it down near Blaine, you're good to go.
Blaine has just under 2000 residents spread out
over almost 10 square miles.
That's a lot of land between houses here.
When it comes to buying some of that land,
you wanna get a house there,
the prices are all over the map.
Currently, they only have a couple houses for sale,
and they're in the million dollar range.
But early this year and late last year, 2021,
they had a handful sell for under 250,000,
and a couple for less than 200,000.
Like I said, they're all over the map.
So they get a faded thumbs up.
The cost of living
in Blaine is 20% lower than the national average,
so that kind of makes it worth it,
even if the housing prices are a little up there,
and crime here is outstanding.
Their crime rate is 60% lower than the national average.
That's big thumbs up for that.
When it comes to internet, you got Xfinity.
That offers gig internet there
but only half the town gets it.
They got a couple other smaller internet companies
that offer decent internet,
but they only cover like 10% of the town.
So they get a faded thumbs up for internet.
When it comes to healthcare,
you got the Cumberland Gap Medical Clinic or Center
right there in town.
They got a dentist next door,
and a pharmacy on the other side.
Anything else, you gotta go to Knoxville,
and that's right down the road.
Like I said, 20, 25 minutes away.
So they get a thumbs up for healthcare too.
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Number two: Mountain City, Tennessee.
Don't let the name fool you on this one.
Mountain City should really be called Mountain Town,
because it's kind of small.
Whoever decided to call this place city
was probably suffering from some form of delusions
of grandeur or something like that.
They only got about 2,400 residents,
and their population is shrinking.
They went down by almost 4% in the last census.
After doing some good gains.
I mean, they had a long run there
where they were gaining population.
Mountain City is tucked up in the northeast corner
of Tennessee near the West Virginia,
the Virginia, and North Carolina border.
This is a beautiful part of the country,
and there's a ton of stuff to do outdoors here.
When it comes to housing, like most places in Tennessee,
it's all over the map.
I mean, right now, they got a place going for $140,000.
Looks like it needs a little work.
Then they got some that are going for 300,000,
one for 440,000, and late last year and early this year,
they sold a few older homes for under 200,000.
So it's all over the map here.
When it comes to real estate,
Mountain City gets a thumbs up.
When it comes to healthcare in town, the south side of town,
they got Johnson County Community Hospital,
which is pretty good sized for such a small town.
Obviously it covers a lot of the county,
but it's right here for you.
Anything beyond what they can offer,
you gotta go up to Bristol, which is about an hour away.
If it's serious, they got a heli pad,
so you don't have to worry about too much there.
So they get a thumbs up when it comes to healthcare.
They get a big thumbs up when it comes to internet.
They got Spectrum here,
offers gig internet to 99% of the city.
Now keep in mind, this is a rural town.
I wouldn't say out in the middle of nowhere,
but it's kind of far from big cities,
and they're offering Spectrum at one gig.
The crime rate in Mountain City is 58% lower
than the national average.
That is not bad.
The only real knocks to Mountain City
are that they don't really have any jobs.
So I mean, you're retired or you're working from home,
this is a great place for you to move to.
It can get a little cold.
You're kind of up in the hills here of Tennessee.
All right, before we get to number one, don't forget,
we have another channel called On This Day.
There is a link down below.
We'd love it if you went over there and subscribe.
All right, on to number one.
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And number one: Byrdstown, Tennessee.
Byrdstown, Tennessee is right
between Nashville and Knoxville,
to the north, right there on the border with Kentucky,
not too far from Dale Hollow Lake.
This is sort of a lake town.
It's just not on the lake.
Byrdstown was established in 1879
as the county seat for the newly formed Pickett County.
The town was named after Colonel K. Byrd,
a senator whose district included the new county.
If you're looking for a small town, this is it.
Not a lot of people live here.
They have just under 800 residents as of the 2020 census.
And it's got great stats across the board,
until you get to employment, like so many other small towns.
The crime rate here is 33% lower than the national average,
so they get a thumbs up for that.
When it comes to things to do here, this place has it all.
I mean, they have skydiving,
they have fishing, they have boating.
Anything you can think of, this area has it,
including really good internet.
They got a company called Twin Lakes
which offers 10 gigs, fiber internet,
and it's a hundred percent of the town is covered by it.
Now I should tell you,
whenever I tell you the speed that they're hosting
that they can get you, that's not for everyone.
That's what they can get up to.
But most homes in any given area usually see
about 80% of what they are advertising as their top speed.
But they got a company out there
called Twin Lakes Telephone,
and they claim they can get 10 gigs,
which is blazing fast, in the outback of Tennessee.
Who saw that one coming?
So they get a big thumbs up for that.
When it comes to buying a home here,
like everyone on this list, it is all over the place.
Right now, they have a few homes for about 200,000,
and they're usually down by the lake.
They have very few things for sale in the town itself.
But down by the lake, you have a bunch of different things,
from a million dollar homes to 200,000.
And it looks like a really great place to live.
So their real estate gets a big thumbs up as well.
When it comes to healthcare,
they do have a family practice in town,
along with looks like a couple doctors,
and a small medical center.
None of them are open on the weekend.
If you need anything big, you got about a 30 minute drive
at least to get to another hospital.
So they just get a faded one.
They got medical care.
It's just, they don't have any big hospital here,
or anything like that.
Not saying anything bad
about what they got going on in town.
I'm sure it's decent.
I'm sure they do a wonderful job.
They just don't have any big hospitals there.
All right. That's today's video.
Hope you guys enjoyed it.
Hope you got some information of it.
Now go out, have a great day.
Be nice to each other.