Chattanooga, Tennessee

"Pardon me, boy is that the Chattanooga Choo Choo?" The famous song by Glenn Miller is a real classic.

A couple of years ago my wife and I briefly visited Chattanooga, Tennessee and we were both very impressed. In fact my wife was so impressed that she has it high on her list of places to move to when we retire. I, on the other hand, would prefer a warmer climate like Florida, however Chattanooga's climate is okay.

Chattanooga's coldest month is naturally January. The average high temperate reaches 49 degrees. December and February has high temperatures in the low 50's and the rest of the year has highs of over 60 degrees. The warmest month is July with an average high temperature of 90 degrees.

Chattanooga has plenty of rainfall with about 54 inches of rain per year. January and March are the only months that average over 5 inches of rain. Chattanooga also averages no snowfall...that's music to my ears. They average 207 sunny days per year. Now that we have covered the weather, let me give you some more information about Chattanooga.

The average overall cost of living rates at 82, based on a scale that uses 100 as average. There are 58% Republicans and 42% Democrats. 41% are Protestant and 3% are Catholic.

There are about 155,000 people in Chattanooga. It is a large enough city that you should be able to find plenty to do. They have Look-Out Mountain, Ruby Falls, The Chattanooga Choo Choo and a new aquarium. Of course the University of Chattanooga is in town as well as the Chattanooga Lookouts minor league baseball team. Chattanooga is not far from Chickamauga, Georgia where one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War occurred. And I'm sure there are many other forms of entertainment.

If you can not find anything in Chattanooga, you are only only about 112 miles from Knoxville, 156 miles from Gatlinburg, 135 miles from Nashville and 118 miles from Atlanta, Georgia.

Tennessee is one of the top 5 tax friendly states in the U.S. and the Chattanooga housing costs are relatively cheap even in a good economy.

Something else that appeals to me is the fact that Chattanooga is in growing zone 7a (see zone map below). I know that doesn't mean a lot to most people but what it does mean is that Palm Trees can grow in Chattanooga. I used to think that Palm Trees would only grow in sandy soil and warm climates like Florida, but after doing some research, I discovered that there are some Windmill Palms that can survive as far north as in growing zone 7a. One of my retirement goals is to be able to look out of my window and see a real Palm Tree.

If you are not quite ready for retirement. Chattanooga has some quality employers. The top employers for Chattanooga include; Erlanger Health System, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, McKee Foods and Volkswagon Group of America.

I may be a little biased because my dad's side of the family is originally from Tennessee. My Grandpa and Grandma move to Indiana in the 1920's and our family has been here since then. I think Tennessee is a great state and I especially like the southeastern part of the state.

To me, Chattanooga looks like a good place and if I can't get my wife to move farther south, I would gladly accept the Chattanooga winters over the Indiana winters anytime. But I still have about 10 years to get my wife to Florida and I will keep working on her.