Murfreesboro, TN

[goofy's friends]

Anyone familiar with this town?

We are looking at a possible job opportunity in this town and have never been there. So, anything someone could tell us would be appreciated. school system? Climate? Culture? Shopping? Things to do on the weekends? Where is a good place in town to live?

Thank you--we're not even sure if we should apply for the job or not since we are not familiar with the area.

 

[masonjar]

Do you mind me asking where you currently live?

 

[Stasieki]

I'm currently typing this here in Murfreesboro. We moved here in June 2008 and so far I love it. I will give you a little background so you know where I am coming from...

Grew up in Atlanta and was there until I was 27 (2002), then moved to Jacksonville, FL for 6 years, moved here when our DD was just over 2 years old. My DH is helping with a family business in Tullahoma. We thought we would stay in FL forever, but the family needed his help, and once we had a child, we wanted to be closer to family.

I really do like it. I love being in a pretty close knit community (I think around 100,000), but 20 minutes away from nashville. We actually are temporarily living in Nashville, but looking to purchase a home in Murfreesboro this summer. I like it that it feels like the community I grew up in outside of Altanta 30 years ago. Everyone is really nice so far.

What kind of specific question do you have? Do you have kids? I have done a ton of school district research, but it would help if I knew how old your kids were. Do you mind me asking what field of job you are looking in? Just curious. I am in commercial real estate.

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

Murfreesboro has a small country town feel but is close enough to Nashville that you still have the benefits of a bigger city. For any "culture" such as theater, symphony, etc... you would need to journey to Nashville. MTSU is in Murfreesboro so there are quite a few college students around.

Personally I would rather live in Brentwood than Murfreesboro - better schools and closer to Nashville.

The people in Tennessee are incredibly friendly so no matter where you choose to live I am sure you would be welcomed.

Good luck with your move.

 

[goofy's friends]

We lived in Tulsa, OK all ou lives until 2 years ago. We are in the state of Washington right now and frankly hate it. I think it just is too different in every way from where we are from. My DH works for a large company with no chance to go back to Tulsa. He could possibly put in for a lateral move to Murfreesboro, but we are unsure of how much we would like it.

We are rather conservative and want our children brought up conservatively. We have 3--right now, they are 1st, 4th, and 6th grade. I would love to know about the research you came up with on schools. I am a teacher, so am pretty picky about education.

clarabelle, why not Murfreesboro?

 

[goofy's friends]

Friendly is definately a step in the right direction!!! That's good to hear!

 

[Robinrs]

My niece and her family moved there in 2005 from Chattanooga. I can ask her and PM you.

 

[Stasieki]

We lived in Tulsa, OK all ou lives until 2 years ago. We are in the state of Washington right now and frankly hate it. I think it just is too different in every way from where we are from. My DH works for a large company with no chance to go back to Tulsa. He could possibly put in for a lateral move to Murfreesboro, but we are unsure of how much we would like it.

We are rather conservative and want our children brought up conservatively. We have 3--right now, they are 1st, 4th, and 6th grade. I would love to know about the research you came up with on schools. I am a teacher, so am pretty picky about education.

clarabelle, why not Murfreesboro?

I would call myself mid-conservative (if there is such a thing - haha). I like Brentwood, too (Nashville), but since we both work, I prefer to live as close to where I work as possible (I did the 1.5 hour commute in Atlanta). Of course, if you lived in the south part of nashville, you can be in Murfreesboro in 30 min's tops. We need to live in Murfreesboro, b/c DH works an hour and a half way and Murfreesboro would get him to 40 min's and me right around the corner. I would say you would want to stay in the Siegel school district (North) if you want public schools. We are sending our DD to a Catholic Preschool. I have found private schools to be pretty resonable here. We will probably have her go public when she hits 1st grade, though. A lot of people are also moving to the Blackman school district. There is a neighborhood we are looking at called Berkshire. The main difference I can see with the two areas is maybe Siegl is a bit "old money" and Blackman is "new money" (this is only my opinion from working here, since I haven't moved here yet). In the Blackman district, you can get a 3,300 SF house for $275,000, whereas in Siegel, it may be an older 2,200 SF house. They have a great place called the Discovery Center and a Children's Theater here, but I do agree that Nashville is more the place for "events". The seasons here are nice, although, allergies are quite bad. I heard you will get used to it.

 

[DaveInTN]

IMO, a conservative from Tulsa will fit right in in Middle Tennessee, especially compared to Washington state. I see certain similarities between TN and OK, such as political persuasions, family values, role of religion in lives, etc.

I can't speak much to Murfreesboro's quality of life as I haven't spent much time there. I live in the next county to the west; Williamson Co. If you come here on a fact finding mission at some point, you may just want to check out Williamson Co, in particular areas of Franklin that are convenient to Route 840, which is the expressway between Franklin and Murfreesboro. Would not be a terrible commute. Again, nothing against Murfreesboro/Rutherford County as I'm not very familiar, I just know that I love where I live and the public schools are very good.

Best of luck with your decisions!

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

clarabelle, why not Murfreesboro?

Nothing against Murfreesboro but I am just more of a city girl than a country girl so I would fit in better in the Brentwood area. It seems to be a more upscale area and the schools are top notch. Middle TN is the buckle of the Bible belt and very conservative for the most part so you should fit right in.

When I first moved to Nashville I was amazed at how friendly everyone was. They find out you are new in town and invite you home for dinner. I wouldn't hesitate to move back to the area if given a chance. I still work out of Nashville sometimes but don't spend nearly as much time there as I would like.

 

[masonjar]

I live about one hour south of Murfreesboro in one of the smallest counties in Tennessee.

I wouldn't call Murfreesboro a country town; However, you might say it isn't as upscale as Brentwood or Franklin. Many of these towns are withing 30 or so minutes of each other and many people choose to live / work in one or the other and commute. There are also many people moving out into the more rural areas of Rutherford County or surrounding counties and choosing to drive as well.

The good thing about the commute is that it is right on the interstate or other major roads.

Shopping is good in Murfreesboro and what you can't find there you can find in Nashville or Brentwood.

Also, Chattanooga is about 1 1/2 hours away and offer other choices for day / weekend trips.

 

[Robinrs]

I live about one hour south of Murfreesboro in one of the smallest counties in Tennessee.

I wouldn't call Murfreesboro a country town;

I guess that's relative, I consider Atlanta a country town!

 

[goofy's friends]

Thank you guys for the opinions. If we go to check it out, we will remember what you said and check the outer areas as well. Don't mind a little commute. Thanks.

 

[Darcy03231]

My SIL has lived in Franklin, TN for about 25 years and loves it there. Her daughter & husband and children just moved back there within the last couple of years as their children are hitting school age and they wanted the schools in Franklin. While I really don't know much about the area I do know that SIL and her daughter did a lot of research on the schools in the area and that's why her daughter decided to move back (she was living in another area of TN).

 

[BkrsLoveDis!]

We are also considering a move to this very area - my DH and I are both teachers and will have a kindergartener and a 4th grader by next fall.

We travel to Nashville often and love the area and we both hit ourselves in the head this last visit and thought, why not move here?!

Schools in our area are OK but we think we could do better in this area.

I'd be curious to hear anything about the schools around this area as well.

 

[lemondog]

I have lived in Nashville my whole life. As far as schools go, I really don't know anything about the schools in Rutherford County (Murfreesboro) but on the whole the public schools in TN are not ranked very high nationally. The exception would be Williamson County schools (Brentwood/Franklin). Those are wonderful, family-friendly towns to live in, and the public schools are top notch. You can't go wrong there.

Here in Nashville proper (Davidson County) the public schools are very hit-or-miss, for the most part a miss. We send our children to private school (Catholic parochial). There are many private schools to school from, although many of them are on the pricey side. The high school down the street from me is $18,000/year!

Nashville is a wonderful city with all the amenities, and friendly people to boot. I love it!

 

[walkerag]

I live in Rutherford County, LaVergne, which is maybe 15 minutes from Murfreesboro. I have lived in Tennessee my entire life but moved to Rutherford County only 4 years ago. We love it here. Our DD7 is in the 2nd grade and loves her school, all of the teachers know her by name, I hope that is a good thing And I can say that her school does still recite the Pledge of Alliegence

Homes are affordable, great shopping, and very friendly people.

I like Franklin but it's a little too pricey for us.

 

[goofy's friends]

We just found out we are going!!! Murfreesboro, here we come! We are excited and doing lots of research--so anyone else that wants to put in their 2 cents, it's welcome!! We go house-hunting in next week and schools are the #1 priority.

 

[Inigo]

Whenever we drive south, we stop in Murfreesboro for a break. If you take the battlefield (Stone something, IIRC) exit off the interstate, go to the west just about a block. There is a playground off to the left of the road that my kids loved when they were younger. My kids call it the castle, as it has areas to climb in and on.

It was a nice break after several hours of driving, and got them ready for the next bit of highway.

 

[Stasieki]

We just moved into our house here in Murfreesboro 3 weeks ago. I have been working here for a year. There are great values on houses here. If you end up choosing to move to Murfreesboro, let me know, and I can get an idea what you are looking for and let you know which subdivision you may like. We moved off of New Salem Hwy on the west side of 24. Our Elementary is Cason Lane Academy or Scales. I have heard great things about both of them. Since my DD is only 3, I don't know too much about the middle and high. It is such a growing area I am thinking there will be new schools out here in the future.

Do you all have a realtor? My mother in law has been a residential realtor here for 25 years and knows a bunch. I am in commercial real estate.

Congrats on your move - you will LOVE it.