[mabbo]

Get out, man. The region isn't trying to help people like you, with families, it's trying to help the entrenched who bought 20 years ago.

You may make less money in terms of income in most other cities, but your retirement savings will grow a lot faster regardless. I work on a traveling/remote team. One of my teammates lives in Chattanooga. His 3 bedroom house with I think 2 or 3 aces of land put him back a whopping $200,000.

[btrautsc]

Came to suggest this, cool that it already happened.

Can confirm. Founder in Chattanooga. About 13 of our people live here / TN.

Housing options (that appear) much better than in this thread with good public schools and sub-30 minute commute available. Specific ethnic communities may be harder to find.

Pretty great housing from $250-600k all over the place

[nether]

Lots of places like this. Check out this 3-bedroom with front porch, backyard, for $70,000 in Iowa: https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/IA/pmf,pf_pt/87001013_...

[biesnecker]

Ugh, look at the school ratings on that house, though. :-(

Not that there aren't a lot of places in the country with good schools and affordable housing prices, but for a lot of people with kids schools matter as much or more than housing prices.