Travel In The American Southeast: Nashville To Savannah Region

A reader wrote in with a question about where to live: Can anyone give me information about moving to another state like Tennessee or Georgia? (Nashville or Savannah).

Nashville and Savannah are two of my favorite southern cities and either is a good place to live for singles, families, and seniors. When considering relocation to a new city, a number of factors are important.

Among the most important are cost of living, crime rates, physical size and population size of the city, businesses and services available there, public transportation, school systems, the local job market, and some others. Visitor attractions, night life, and the art scene are also often deciding factors in a move. Nashville and Savannah are different in many of these elements.

A large difference between Nashville and Savannah is that Savannah is part of the Historic Deep South and its economy is largely based in the Port of Savannah on the Atlantic Ocean, the US military in the area, and Tourism.

Nashville offers more jobs than Savannah has listed and its economy is based in small and large business ventures as well as the Music and Entertainment Industries and the Port of Nashville on the Cumberland River. A vibrant fine arts culture has establised itself and rapidly expanded in the 2010's.

Nashville has received many awards from financial, economic, retirement, and travel magazines and organizations in the 2000s. For instance, Money.com named the city to its Top 25 for Work and Business in 2009 and 9th Best Place to Retire in America in 2011. Black Enterprise magazine puts it at 4th Best Place to Retire in 2011.

Savannah

Chatham County Seat, Savannah, offers a gorgeous Historic District of the Antebellum South with mansions, parks, and reenactment events carrying out the history of the Civil War for visitors.

The city is the home of Food Network's Paula Dean and her various cooking shows as well. The Port of Savannah is a transportation and shipping hub of he first order and military installations like Hunter Army Airfield are contributors to the economy. The International Paper Company has had a large presence in Savannah ever since The Great Depression, when agriculture (cotton and others) began to decline.

Savannah encourages small business enterprises via a number of long-term development programs and expects population growth to meet or exceed an additional 140,000 between 2000 - 2030. The cost of living in Savannah is found to be one of the lowest of major East Coast cities in America and lower than the national average.

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Nashville is the county seat of Davidson County and its Chamber of Commerce reports that the city enjoys a low cost of living compared to the national average (lower than Savannah as well), no personal city income tax, a diverse population that has access to affordable living spaces, a well developed arts and cultural community, historic venues, outstanding regional healthcare services, great schools K-12 and postsecondary (24 colleges and universities), and many outdoor recreational activities.

The climate is described as seasonal and warmer overall than the Midwest, but cooler on average, than Savannah to the south.

Transportation is outstanding in this city, with an international airport, rail service from an intermodal hub, and water transport from the Cumberland River throughout the Midwest and South. The number of passengers per year has increased from 2004 - 2008 by a million people up to 9 million per year in 2008 - 2010.

Economically, Nashville has the greater number of job listings, with over 23,000 job vacancies in October 2011 compared to approximately 5,000 jobs listed for the Savannah Area. Savanah jobs listings increased significantly in 2008 - 2009 and then declined, but Nashville listings have risen higher in numbers in 2010 - 2011.

Although fewer job openings exist in Savannah, the cost of living is lower than for Nashville in several categories, the Savannah cost of living for housing being the lowest of any (groceries, utilities, etc.) at 78.