People who moved to Tennessee for cheaper homes and a laid-back life say they're happy — for the most part

• Tennessee's population grew by 82,988 people in 2022, the largest amount in one year since 2007.
• People who recently moved to the state cite its affordability and slower pace of life as draws.

James Ballard did some quick math and realized he could no longer afford to live in Clearwater.

The 50-year Florida resident decided to pack up and move to Memphis, Tennessee, for a more manageable mortgage payment while on a fixed income.

"There's a song by Tom T. Hall called, 'That's How I Got to Memphis,'" Ballard told Insider.

"I never thought it would happen to me, but it did," he quipped about his new state of residency.

Ballard, 66, had a mortgage payment of $800 for a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home in Clearwater, Florida. He cut it nearly in half by moving to Memphis, where he pays $480 for a house similar in size.

The housing affordability and low taxes are a big draw for a lot of people choosing Tennessee, where there's no income tax and the median annual property tax is about half the national average at $1,317, according to SmartAsset.

Real-estate agent Brenna Foster, who was born and raised in Knoxville, also pointed to the great weather and southern hospitality as reasons folks are flocking to the area from across the country. Foster said clients have recently moved to Tennessee from New York, New Jersey, and California.

"It's been crazy just in the last year," she said. The numbers back her up. Tennessee ranked seventh out of all 50 states in population growth from July 1, 2021, to July 1, 2022, adding 82,988 residents, according to the US Census Bureau.

Tennessee cities continually find themselves on lists naming the top places to live in the United States, for various reasons. With its job market developing, particularly in the tech sector, and home prices remaining below the national median, the bang for your buck seems like an easy choice.

The median home sales price in Tennessee was $356,100 in January, according to Redfin, while the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis cites the national median home sales price in January at $427,500.

Four people who moved to Tennessee shared some of the pros and cons — from affordability to loads of littering — of moving to the southern state.

A longtime Florida resident is happy in Memphis — although he thinks it could be cleaner

Ballard visited Memphis just once before deciding to move there in November 2022. The visit was about 20 years ago, when he and a friend drove from their home in Florida to Graceland, the former estate of Elvis Presley.

His latest fascination with Tennessee came through watching YouTube videos when looking for a place to relocate, he said.

"It turned out to be a great choice," he said. "Memphis has a lot of charm."

Ballard paid $150,000 for a newly renovated home in the Raleigh neighborhood of Memphis, property records show.

But he does have one major complaint about the city of roughly 628,000: the litter.

"People throw stuff out of their cars like it ain't nothing," he said. "To say Memphis has a littering problem is to say Moby Dick was a little fish. It's beyond a problem."

Still, Ballard is happy with his decision, and thinks Tennessee is right for him. Ballard joked that with his southern accent he wouldn't fit in a city like Detroit, and knew that he wanted to stay south.

"Memphis turned out to be a great landing spot for me," he said. "I'm really happy here."

He traded snowy Buffalo for the ease of southern living

Michael Ekstrum, a finance manager for a medical device company, relocated to Chattanooga, Tennessee, from Buffalo, New York.

While a number of northerners who move to Tennessee complain that the summer months get too warm, Ekstrum, 55, welcomed the change in climate.

Ekstrum has Multiple Sclerosis and told Insider that the challenges dealt by snowy weather — shoveling, blowing, and scraping — were tough on his health.

"Oddly enough, heat is supposed to be a problem for most people with MS," he said. "In my case the cold really hurt."

Ekstrum and his wife Danielle moved from a 1,300-square-foot home in Buffalo to a 5,300-square-foot house in Tennessee in October 2018 after becoming empty nesters. According to public records, they sold the Buffalo property for $251,000 and purchased the Chattanooga home for $430,000.

Now they don't have to worry about clearing out the driveway. Average snowfall in Chattanooga registers at 3.6 inches, according to weather.gov, while Buffalo recorded 64.7 inches in December 2022 alone.

"I wake up here at any time of the year, I walk up to my door, and off I go," Ekstrum said. "I don't have to worry about the weather at all."

The warmer weather was no shock to Ekstrum, but another thing he's enjoyed about the change of scenery has been the surprising amount of diversity.

"There's a stereotype about the South — especially the Deep South — that it's not diverse and that it's very backward thinking," he said. "There's a wide range of diverse opinions, diverse personalities, and diverse experiences. It's refreshing to be in a more racially diverse area."

A retiree fed up with California's overcrowding bought a home in Tennessee without thinking twice

Michael Tyler and his wife Bonnie made frequent trips to Tennessee before electing to move there.

Tyler, 69, had lived in California his whole life, but said he watched Sacramento change for the worse as the years wore on.

"There's too much traffic, too many people, it's way too expensive, and there's no water," Tyler told Insider.

Content with settling far from the West Coast, Tyler and his wife narrowed their decision between The Villages — a retirement community in Central Florida — and Tennessee. In June 2021, Tyler, his wife, and two friends visited the two destinations to finalize a decision.

While on their way to breakfast in the eastern Tennessee town of Jonesborough, the quartet stopped in a neighborhood to check out some houses. Both couples reserved homes on the spot.

"My wife and I looked at this home and it was in a nice neighborhood and it was still being built, and I said, 'Okay, I'll take it,'" Tyler said.

Tyler sent the homebuilder a check for $2,000 to reserve the 2,700-square-foot home with four bedrooms and three bathrooms. He later paid $400,000 to buy it. They sold their 1,200-square-foot California condo for $415,000 — in just six hours, Tyler said.

Tyler and his wife were excited to make the move and even more excited once they arrived.

"We were very happy — giddy is almost the word for it," Tyler said. "We love it here. The people are nice here. And of course it is far less expensive than living in California."

A California relocator eyes Nashville as the next big tech hub

Bruce saw more than just charm in Tennessee.

The 63 year old, who works in the startup sector and asked to use only his first name for privacy reasons, moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to Nashville in 2021.

He believes the Tennessee capital could very well be on its way to becoming the next Austin, Texas. Its tech sector is flourishing with the arrival of Dell, Oracle, Amazon and others.

"I came out to Nashville a few times a couple of years ago and I just ran across a lot of, what I call, smart 27 year olds," Bruce told Insider. "They're out here because they see it's a great place to get started, and I think that bodes well for a place."

Bruce believes Austin is "overcooked" with its sky-high housing prices and the invasion of transplants. He said it no longer has the same up-and-coming feel that Nashville does.

As for why he left the Bay Area, the housing prices didn't make much sense to him anymore.

"It's gotten to be a very different place from 40 years ago, when people could afford to live there," he said. "Now it's unaffordable and an unapproachable type of place."

Bruce came for the more laid-back lifestyle that Nashville provides — and, he told Insider, he also came for the live music.

"I expected a country music scene, but it turns out there's almost any type of music you want to listen to," he said. "On a Friday afternoon, I'll just go down to a live music place that I can walk to from my house."

Bruce traded a house in the suburbs of Palo Alto for a top-floor flat in downtown Nashville with a view of the city.

But there is one thing in particular Bruce misses that California has and that Tennessee never will.

"The biggest thing I miss is the ocean," he said. "I like just listening to the sound of the ocean — it's very zen for me."