Living in Tennessee vs Georgia

[bigbassin]

So clearly on the wrong side of the Mississippi for this forum, but for those of you with experience living in either state which would you chose?

I believe in the next 6 months or so I’ll be moving somewhere along 75 from Atlanta to Chattanooga, with the exact location/state being my choice. Travel a good bit for work and each job could be anywhere across the Southeast, but the bulk of the work would be between those two cities making them a reasonable home base imo.

From a cost of living perspective, Chattanooga slightly edges out Atlanta. No income tax, food/rent being marginally cheaper.

Obviously beyond cost of living, hunting and fishing is the biggest driving factor on which side of the line I live on. I’m very comfortable saying I’ll get more bang for my buck on the fishing license in tennessee, having been in both states tennessee offers a much wider variety of fishing within a closer distance.

How do y’all compare the hunting between the two states? I’ve only deer hunted tennessee, much better than what I’m used to currently living in Florida. Just going off the internet, it seems tennessee has the better turkey hunting.

Being an hour and a half apart, weather is a non factor comparing Chattanooga vs Atlanta.

Any pros/cons of being a resident in one state vs the other I’m not thinking of?

 

[Ferrulewax]

Georgia resident here- I’d choose Chattanooga over Atlanta in a heartbeat. Both are pretty close in terms of fishing/hunting opportunities but Chattanooga having less population density helps a ton, also within a few hours of some really cool fisheries.

 

[FLATHEAD]

TN, simply because it's farther from Atlanta.
You can always travel down into N.Ga.

 

[ethan]

I rank Atlanta right along with Memphis. As in the rear view mirror is still a terrible view because you’re in proximity! North Georgia and East Tennessee are great places to live. Population densities aren’t high, good fishing, pretty country, and lots of public land. Chattanooga is a very ”outdoorsy” city, tons of caving, rock climbing, hiking, etc….. I’m about an hour north of Chattanooga but work in there usually 4 days a week at least. It’s a cool town.

 

[FLATHEAD]

Chattanooga,,,,cool aquarium, trout fishing, lots of NF nearby, hogs, bears,
deer.

 

[fwafwow]

From a cost of living perspective, Chattanooga slightly edges out Atlanta. No income tax, food/rent being marginally cheaper.

I live in the Metro Atlanta area. I would expect the cost of living to be considerably worse here, but I guess it depends on what parts you are comparing.

Any pros/cons of being a resident in one state vs the other I’m not thinking of?

Traffic in Atlanta.

If you are comparing GA vs TN, I think Atlanta isn’t a good city to compare to Chattanooga.

 

[Sherman]

Georgia football is superior.

 

[Loper]

There’s no way I’d intentionally move to Atlanta.

 

[jayhawk]

Where are you moving from?

 

[jimh406]

Atlanta airport is South of downtown. Chattanooga airport is East of downtown. So, with that considered, that's a pretty large distance between them.

I don't personally care for Chattanooga, but as noted, you wouldn't have to live in the downtown to have access to the airport. Obviously, a small airport is easier to get on a plane and fly, but less places they fly to compared to Atlanta. There will be a lot of flights that connect in Atlanta.

For either location, consider the availability of land to hunt as well. There are some times of year that the weather is similar, but do take a look at the Climate Data for year round. You'll notice a significant difference. I think you probably can get by in either state, but probably need a drive to get to better hunting.

If you fish, consider that as well.

Finally, you may find that the pay will be better in the Atlanta area which makes up for more taxes.

 

[Carr5vols]

Lived in Tennessee first 26 years of life and georgia last 19. I wouldn't live in either of those towns. GA may have better hunting due to abundance of bear tags but also has state income tax and taxes in general are higher in ga. Look at greenville sc very nice town.

 

[Carpet Capital Shyster]

So clearly on the wrong side of the Mississippi for this forum, but for those of you with experience living in either state which would you chose?

I believe in the next 6 months or so I’ll be moving somewhere along 75 from Atlanta to Chattanooga, with the exact location/state being my choice. Travel a good bit for work and each job could be anywhere across the Southeast, but the bulk of the work would be between those two cities making them a reasonable home base imo.

From a cost of living perspective, Chattanooga slightly edges out Atlanta. No income tax, food/rent being marginally cheaper.

Obviously beyond cost of living, hunting and fishing is the biggest driving factor on which side of the line I live on. I’m very comfortable saying I’ll get more bang for my buck on the fishing license in tennessee, having been in both states tennessee offers a much wider variety of fishing within a closer distance.

How do y’all compare the hunting between the two states? I’ve only deer hunted tennessee, much better than what I’m used to currently living in Florida. Just going off the internet, it seems tennessee has the better turkey hunting.

Being an hour and a half apart, weather is a non factor comparing Chattanooga vs Atlanta.

Any pros/cons of being a resident in one state vs the other I’m not thinking of?

I grew up outside of chattanooga (Dalton, GA) and spent my post-college years living and working in the Atlanta area. I’d choose Chattanooga, hands down. Honestly, there is almost no amount of money you could pay me to move back to Atlanta; especially now that I have kids. While I don’t live in either place at the moment, we are contemplating a relocation back towards the Dalton-Chattanooga corridor. I feel like despite Chattanooga’s higher base sales tax, Georgia’s tax burden is overall worse; just my perception and it may be because of all the add-on SPLOSTs in our current town. Atlanta is just an absolute nightmare these days on so many fronts and I could probably write a lengthy book filled with complaints.
On the other hand, I’m one of Chattanooga’s biggest fans. It’s a great outdoors town and there is decent trout fishing about an hour east of there with better trout fishing a little bit further away. Good smallmouth bass fishing in that general area of Tennessee too. Chattanooga is a great city with tons of good restaurants and things to do; all without feeling “too big”. Every time we go back there, my wife and I just look at each other and say “why in the world haven’t we moved here?” God, I love that town so much. I can’t comment about the hunting in TN because I do almost all of my hunting at my wife’s family farm in Georgia with a few hunting trips to Alabama every so often.
I enjoy flying out of Chattanooga and generally choose to do so over Atlanta whenever it’s not cost prohibitive. It’s super convenient and you can drive up, park at the airport and be through check-in and security in 20 minutes. The one drawback is their direct flights are limited but I’ll most often choose a layover versus a direct flight out of Atlanta. That airport is just so busy and I constantly have hit absurdly lengthy delays at check in or going through security. I nearly missed a flight to Montana last year despite being at the airport 3.5 hours early, because no one in the Atlanta airport could figure out how to check a firearm.
Obviously, I can’t say enough good things about Chattanooga. My only concern is that I recently saw a magazine article (maybe New York Magazine or the New Yorker) where Chattanooga was being spoken about as an up and coming city with the potential to be next Austin (which I find kind of preposterous, honestly). It was among a pretty lengthy list of cities, most much larger, but it’s something to consider. There has definitely been a noticeable uptick in the hipster population there over the past 6-7 years. Even with large population growth, there’s plenty of room for expansion in East Tennessee and Nashville will end up taking most of the growth coming to Tennessee, anyway. I think the public schools in both cities are pretty bad (with a few exceptions) but the suburbs in both places have good schools. Biggest difference is Atlanta suburbs are a much longer drive into the city than Chattanooga because the traffic is indescribably bad in the ATL. Feel free to message me if you have any other questions.

 

[bigbassin]

Where are you moving from?

Currently outside Tampa. Don’t really care for it.

Hunting here isn’t great, closest public land is a little over an hour away with a 1 deer per 1000 man days harvest rate. Folks do get on ducks here, but truthfully on the wrong side of the state for that, east coast holds them much better.

 

[ETtikka]

I live in East TN and I drive through SC to get to FL, it’s an extra 30min per Google maps , but I would probably go through Arizona to avoid Atlanta.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Traveiled to both plenty. My mom lives in Cookeville TN. imo I would take Chattanooga.

Rafting and mountain biking in Chattanooga are solid. It gets high marks for overall outdoor lifestyle options if you are into that sort of stuff. Those NC / TN mountains from chat to Boone NC are some of my favorite in the East. If I were moving there I would try to grab a few acres east of town in ooltewah or Apison now and build my house over the next few years.

the ATL ain’t a bad place. A few friends live in Alpharetta And love it. You’re closer to a beach if you like that stuff. Like any big city, you gotta carve out your orbit and make that work.

 

[Rich M]

I lived in Atlanta for about a year. Traffic was dependent on which way you were going and if there was a ballgame going on. There is nothing like coming down 575 at like 0600 and seeing the red brake lights on 75 headed into town. Did that for a week while staying at sil's place and all can say is wow! Wife found us an apartment and it was in the perfect place for traffic relative to where i was working.

Chattanooga is considerably smaller. Many of TN's roads have hogbacks to make it up and over the mountains, down into a valley, up over a mountain.

Both AL, GA, TN have some dry counties or limited liquor/beer access - something to check into if it is important to you.

 

[dtrkyman]

I worked for a wealthy dude recently, he moved from Georgia to TN. Mostly for tax purposes I believe.

He lives in Chattanooga.

 

[fwafwow]

Atlanta is just an absolute nightmare these days on so many fronts and I could probably write a lengthy book filled with complaints.

Agreed. As @Desk Jockey mentioned though, it all depends where you live. I'm in one of those suburbs and have been for 20 years, so I avoid the current problems with crime, but I am always on alert. I think some of this is cyclical, as I was held up at gun point at an ATM in '92 - in daylight - across from the main entrance to Emory.

I enjoy flying out of Chattanooga and generally choose to do so over Atlanta whenever it’s not cost prohibitive. It’s super convenient and you can drive up, park at the airport and be through check-in and security in 20 minutes. The one drawback is their direct flights are limited but I’ll most often choose a layover versus a direct flight out of Atlanta. That airport is just so busy and I constantly have hit absurdly lengthy delays at check in or going through security. I nearly missed a flight to Montana last year despite being at the airport 3.5 hours early, because no one in the Atlanta airport could figure out how to check a firearm.

I thought about this yesterday and should have included a comment about the ATL airport. I fly a lot and other than Ronald Reagan, this is the best airport iMHO. Yes it's busy, but that's the tradeoff for getting direct flights to almost anywhere, and for having many options for departure. I haven't had to connect or have a layover in years. Security can be a long line, but if you have TSA pre-check and/or Clear it is usually 15 minutes or less, even on a Monday morning. I don't typically have to deal with any check-in wait (I carryon), but when I do, it is when I'm checking a firearm. I've never had a problem doing so - and it is often faster than checking a normal bag (at least with Delta), because they have a separate line for "special" or oversize items (including firearms). My last time doing that took me 10 minutes - including taking the gun to the room where they X-ray/scan it. If you fly another airline, I could see a different experience.

Biggest difference is Atlanta suburbs are a much longer drive into the city than Chattanooga because the traffic is indescribably bad in the ATL. Feel free to message me if you have any other questions.

Yes. The traffic sucks. My longest drive is to the airport, which is about 35 miles from me. I allow 45 min to 1.25 hours depending on the time of day. But a quick trip - just a few miles in Buckhead to go from my office to a meeting around 4 or 5pm - could take 30 min. One post-Covid benefit is that I'm better able to avoid the office - but admit to using it especially when I order hunting gear that I don't want to show up on our doorstep....

 

[Poser]

As others said, Chattanooga is a great outdoors town and you’ll likely have no problem finding a likeminded social pool of fly fisherman, hunters, etc, but also Mtn biking, paddling and climbing if you’re into any of that.

East TN isn’t the best area for Whitetail hunting as it has a low population density, but you are close to large area of public land with bear, deer and hog hunting. I’d probably snag a NR GA license, too, if you are going to live there.

6 years ago when I was looking to make a move based on lifestyle, I closely considered Chattanooga vs. where I ended up in Durango.

 

[Sherman]

No brainer. Bulldog football and Freaknik during spring break.