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The Tennessee Conservative [By Adelia Kirchner] –
It’s no secret that in the last several years, residents of red states like Texas, Florida and Tennessee have seen a major increase of “transplants” from blue states like New York and California.
Plenty of these blue state “refugees” have witnessed what left-wing policies did to their former home state and are passionate about keeping Tennessee a red state.
Some of these same people have become quite politically active in grassroots efforts, even sporting The Tennessee Conservative’s “Don’t California My Tennessee” merch just as fervently as some lifelong Tennesseans, but there are also plenty who simply moved to the state due to the lower cost of living.
According to Bloomberg News, some longtime residents of Sumner County have gone as far as saying that they “live in hell” now, with local traffic getting worse and increasingly more land being snatched up by “greedy developers.”
Between 2020 and 2022, Sumner County residents saw their economy grow 8.5% annually, which puts the county in the top 7% of all U.S. counties when accounting for growth.
But technical economic growth doesn’t mean much to your everyday Tennessean when properties in Gallatin that sold for around $100,000 in 2018, for example, are now going for closer to $380,000.
According to real estate company Redfin Corporation, the median price of a single-family home in Sumner County is currently $472,000.
This major spike in cost of living has left many of the county’s workers unable to afford the housing that they could afford just a few years ago.
Over 20,000 people from California moved to Sumner County in 2022 alone.
This influx reportedly required the annexation of more land to build more and more housing for newcomers.
Sumner County lost 16,000 acres of farmland between 2011 and 2022, which is purportedly triple the rate of lost acreage of the average county in Tennessee.
“They are annexing like there’s no tomorrow,” said member of Sumner County Constitutional Republicans and County Commissioner David Klein. “Lots and lots of apartments, and we have to fund the schools.”
“Don’t mess up what we’ve got, and don’t make our taxes go up,” Jimmy Kisner a Sumner County resident stated in conversation with Bloomberg News.
Kisner also expressed his fear that people with “lefty politics” are changing the character of the place he calls home.
“Where I live, I live in hell,” said County Commissioner Mary Genung who has been part of efforts to fight developer plans to build hundreds of homes on a vacant lot in the county.
Genung would like to deter developers by increasing minimum lot sizes in more rural areas to discourage the building of high-density residences.
“We had a big migration of people from the Midwest and Northeast to the South, and home prices skyrocketed,” said Lesley Deutch with John Burns Research & Consulting. “Now you’re getting pushback from the people that have lived on an acre lot.”
For many blue state “transplants” the high cost of living in a red state is still preferable to the even higher cost of living in a blue state.
Some newcomers may not even realize the drastic difference in cost of living that Tennessee has witnessed over the last several years.
You can’t really blame folks for wanting to leave areas with higher cost of living, especially when some don’t necessarily want to bring California politics to Tennessee.
Still, between rising home prices and major property tax increases, this mass migration of sorts has inevitably impacted cost of living and seems to have put a strain on slow southern living.
About the Author: Adelia Kirchner is a Tennessee resident and reporter for the Tennessee Conservative. Currently the host of Subtle Rampage Podcast, she has also worked for the South Dakota State Legislature and interned for Senator Bill Hagerty’s Office in Nashville, Tennessee. You can reach Adelia at adelia@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
6 Responses
One solution to the property tax issue is to abolish it statewide, cut spending wherever possible, and make up the difference with increases to the sales tax and privatization of various services. Given how many seniors and others on fixed incomes are struggling to pay their property taxes, this should already be under consideration (not to mention that property taxes essentially make real estate “ownership” a matter of renting from the government and not real ownership).
The property tax is the easiest way for counties to “steal” the land from in under fixed income people who simply can’t pay the “Robber Baron” taxes that are resulting from the upgraded assessments. You will not see property taxes repealed, it’s too lucrative for the county. I’d like to say I could be wrong but I strongly doubt it.
I some times think the BANKS and INSURANCE CO. are in bed together, they keep raising property taxes and the insurance rates jump at the same time. I am 76 years old why should I keep paying a higher price every year for the same house and piece of land. THEY are trying to kill the middle class in our country. AND here in WARRNE county they scared home owners into paying a wheel tax, and anyone starting a tax revolt the 80 thousand new IRS agents BIDEN ADDED will come right after you.
How about charging the disruptors of our Tennessean way of life with a 10 year tax for moving here in the first place. They must also provide something of quality to the community like being a professional in one of the trades or a craft builder of some sort. Not a retiree. We need to be growing food and other such commodities as trade for selling to other states not building homes on farmland so commissioners and developers get rich. Keep Tennessee Beautiful, Make Tennessee Great Again. How? By keeping it safe from those whose main objective is to exploit it’s resources for $$$.
Tennesseans did it to themselves. Greedy sellers. Plus, don’t act like y’all don’t have home grown Liberals. Cause you do. I’m in CA. Born in Tn. But, staying in CA to fight these commie bastards and get Ca back from them for my grandkids.
A complicated subject indeed. Why are farmers and landowners totally off the hook? They are supposed to be stewards of the land, but the minute they can make a huge paypay, they fold. It is hard to resist the millions that their land is worth, but isn’t the moral thing to do is exactly that…resist? You cannot blame the “others”. It is your neighbor wanting to cash-in.