Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My husband and I are also considering retirement in Tyler,; or possibly Athens. Can anyone give me the pros and cons between the two. Also, on average; how high are your power bills in the summer due to the heat? Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated!
My husband and I are also considering retirement in Tyler,; or possibly Athens. Can anyone give me the pros and cons between the two. Also, on average; how high are your power bills in the summer due to the heat? Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated!
Whats important to YOUt? There is many differences between the two places. Not all just pros or cons, but what you enjoy more? hat would give us a better response, hopefully, thanks. Are you living in Texas now? There are many choices, especially in Tyler, being larger, for electricity providers. The electic uses would very, by how much shade or lack of shade your place has, of course, square footage, how much energy savings measures does the place have you would consider? Type windows, many or few, which way the house faces. How, cool, or warm do you like it, ceiling fans, soooooooo, many factors.
One person may spend $100 another $300, but a solid consideration for you to make is compare electric providers, in DETAILS as to what eaches costs are. This could save you big bucks, I've discovered by my experiences.
Good luck to you on your choice. What's your time frame to move somewhere, just starting or have looked for a while, have you ever been to Tyler, Athens, Texas, are you used to the summers, lol
Anyway, we would be glad to help in anyway we can.
Thanks Mark Senior, for your quick response. We currently live in Las Vegas, NV and have just started looking at Texas; namely Tyler and Athens. We need to be reasonably close to medical. My husband is Diabetic and I recently entered Pain Management for back issues.
We haven't been to either place yet but plan to visit as soon as they take a break from turning my back into a pin cushion...lol. It's not the heat that we will have to get used to; it's your humidity.
We are still about a year away from a move but it will take that long to deal with all our stuff and sell this house.
I would say we are quiet people who don't need a lot of entertainment but we do like to have groceries reasonably close.
Your offer of advice and input is greatly appreciated and I know I'll have questions in the future. One of the reasons we were attracted to Texas is, by and large, the people I have met from there are very nice and polite.
Thank you!
There are many differences between Tyler and Athens. But you bring up a great point and one that I was discussing with a new neighbor who has recently moved here from New Mexico. She said "Oh my gosh, there are so many little towns! I'm trying hard to keep them straight!" See, where she is from is largely desert, so there are miles between each town. Here, there are so many little towns in each metro area that they can tend to blur together.
Athens is the County Seat of Henderson County and is about, I guess, 30 miles west of Tyler. Tyler is the County Seat of Smith County, which is next to Henderson County. Athens is very much a small town, with the square and the courthouse in the middle of the square. Smith County has a much higher population than Henderson County.
Tyler is "the" medical hub for northeast Texas. If it's excellent, state of the art medical care you're looking for, I'd definitely stay in the Tyler area. But if you like Athens, you could live in between the two - in Chandler, Van, Brownsboro, Edom, Ben Wheeler - there are numerous small towns dotted between Tyler and Athens.
My husband and I live in Chandler, which is 8 miles from Tyler between Tyler and Athens, about 20 miles from Athens. We LOVE it. We rarely go to Athens but since we live in Henderson County instead of Smith County, we do find that we occasionally go there. Also, we love Edom and Ben Wheeler and Canton (Canton has a HUGE flea market sort of extravaganza once a month and we go several times a year to that event just for the heck of it).
I lived in Tyler for about 10 years and I love Tyler too. It's got great amenities. I like that we live so close to Tyler now without living IN Tyler, because we go into Tyler regularly (it's very convenient) but I like the feel of a quiet, smaller town. But Tyler has many very nice, quiet neighborhoods too.
My husband has some health issues - very well controlled but he does need access to good medical care if there's an emergency. We enjoy the small clinic that's a part of a larger hospital system that's right here in Chandler, but we also know it's easy to get into Tyler if either of us need more comprehensive medical care. Baylor and MD Anderson are both adding facilities to the Tyler area and we already have several very good hospital systems here.
My advice would be to just come down and check out the area - including but not limited to Tyler AND Athens - all areas in between as well as some other communities surrounding Tyler - Lindale, Whitehouse, Bullard, Flint, Chapel Hill, Overton, Chandler, Van, Brownsboro, Canton, Edom, Ben Wheeler, and I'm sure I've left several out!
Oh, by the way - when we first moved to Chandler, we went "month to month" on our electrical plan because I just didn't read the fine print carefully. It was a VERY hot first summer here as well (three years ago). We have a 2500 square foot home. Our electric bills were running about $250 or maybe even a couple that were closer to $300 that year, but then I figured out to get on one of several "plans" and now our electricity is running about $140 at the highest.
We use TXU but there are other carriers out there as well. I'm very happy with TXU though.
Anyway, hope all this helps! I will be happy to answer any more questions you might have as well.
Sounds like Tyler may be the better choice over Athens just factoring in the city amenities. Closer to the doctor, more food choices, but just a suggestion.
These "rates" are for 2016. You know how to figure it? If you houses Appraisal District value is $100,000 then you would pay, if rate is less say .50, then the taxes per year would be: $100,000 divided by 100 = 1,000 X .50 = $500 per year taxes. Now, not to get too deep here, but there could be a Homestead exemption, then possibly Senior Citizen Exemption.
So this example is just a fairly close example of what you pay, usually less than the $500.00
However if the total amount of taxes you would pay is the "real" question, then the School District taxes is the major taxes you would pay per year. The I.S.D. Independent School District taxes are by far the highest rate of the taxes you pay per year.
I live in Fort Bend County, Katy ISD. Katy ISD = 1.5 tax rate. Our overall tax rate including the MUD is 3.0 -- There are some areas in Fort Bend County that are higher, and some that are lower. I think the lowest is 2.6.
Of course all that changes with each election and the county and school district passing more bonds...
Want some odd factoids from an old lady who lives outside Tyler? Insane things that interest me. Tyler or Athens? Depends on how you feel about traffic and trees. To me, Tyler is too busy. Too much traffic and add to that the heat half the year (paired with humidity) I like the 'burbs of Edom (almost Nothing to do but it's quiet) or Chandler (tight knit community, your life revolves around which church you attend) but it is not laid out nicely. By that I mean you have highway 31 running right down the center of Chandler and , I'm telling you, those vehicles are really moving! No; not 80 mph but there's a lot of them and Chandler only has one stop light in the center of town. So the cars come racing south from Tyler towards that one light while people are slowly pulling out of the grocery store and they'd better have good distance vision. People in Chandler just "know" which church you attend: it's either, for the most part, the Assembly of God or First Methodist. And the people stick together. Heaven help you if you attend First Baptist. It's right on the highway and you have to pull out to go home! There is no , what I would call, "scenic" aspect at all to Chandler. The one thing I can say about it is they have the nicest people I've ever met and I've lived in New Jersey and Colorado. If you choose Tyler you almost always have to enter the "Loop" 323. Some man owns a concrete company and he was on the board , the city board, whatever it's called and he decided that the entire loop needed concrete dividers "to save lives" and they very much narrowed the lanes on the Loop and other important streets that run into the Loop. You must be sober to drive in Tyler! Church is important , too , in Tyler with Green Acres Baptist seemingly leading the list of most popular church. The streets and suburbs around Tyler have some very beautiful trees and flowering shrubs. Not to the point where people would come here for the scenery-it isn't Switzerland-but we do have huge, healthy hardwoods and pines. I'm speaking of south Tyler. North Tyler is where the crime is for the most part and there's nothing attractive about north Tyler. Tyler has a lot of restaurants! But then, if you're older like moi, you have to battle traffic to get to them and get out of them. The parking lots are shrinking as they squeeze in more new restaurants. And watch out for those concrete medians! But, they're saving lives, right? For anyone to die or have a serious accident in Tyler is extremely small; always has been. Then there's the mall. It's old. It's not pretty. A store closes down in there and another pops up in its place. On the plus side, in north Tyler are two huge hospitals Christus Mother Frances (my favorite by far; you can actually find a parking spot and get from one end to another) and East Texas Medical Center which is so enormous its a major pain. First you have to go to their parking garage. Then you walk a LONG walk to the hospital which was just sold. Yes; they sold the hospital. In our experience the care you get at ETMC is , shall we say, spotty. Personally, I ran into a lot of nurses that should quit or be fired interspersed with one black RN who was fabulous. We have many good dentists of course, miserable summers that can go to 105 every single day for a solid month until 95 feels good. Our taxes are quite reasonable and you get a lot for your money in a home. A good amount of people are doing their best to get their kids into private school since the public schools have deteriorated quite a bit over the years. Meaning bad behavior and crime.
Athens has nothing going for it except lakes. I'm tired now; message me if you want any more weird information.
Want some odd factoids from an old lady who lives outside Tyler? Insane things that interest me. Tyler or Athens? Depends on how you feel about traffic and trees. To me, Tyler is too busy. Too much traffic and add to that the heat half the year (paired with humidity) I like the 'burbs of Edom (almost Nothing to do but it's quiet) or Chandler (tight knit community, your life revolves around which church you attend) but it is not laid out nicely. By that I mean you have highway 31 running right down the center of Chandler and , I'm telling you, those vehicles are really moving! No; not 80 mph but there's a lot of them and Chandler only has one stop light in the center of town. So the cars come racing south from Tyler towards that one light while people are slowly pulling out of the grocery store and they'd better have good distance vision. People in Chandler just "know" which church you attend: it's either, for the most part, the Assembly of God or First Methodist. And the people stick together. Heaven help you if you attend First Baptist. It's right on the highway and you have to pull out to go home! There is no , what I would call, "scenic" aspect at all to Chandler. The one thing I can say about it is they have the nicest people I've ever met and I've lived in New Jersey and Colorado. If you choose Tyler you almost always have to enter the "Loop" 323. Some man owns a concrete company and he was on the board , the city board, whatever it's called and he decided that the entire loop needed concrete dividers "to save lives" and they very much narrowed the lanes on the Loop and other important streets that run into the Loop. You must be sober to drive in Tyler! Church is important , too , in Tyler with Green Acres Baptist seemingly leading the list of most popular church. The streets and suburbs around Tyler have some very beautiful trees and flowering shrubs. Not to the point where people would come here for the scenery-it isn't Switzerland-but we do have huge, healthy hardwoods and pines. I'm speaking of south Tyler. North Tyler is where the crime is for the most part and there's nothing attractive about north Tyler. Tyler has a lot of restaurants! But then, if you're older like moi, you have to battle traffic to get to them and get out of them. The parking lots are shrinking as they squeeze in more new restaurants. And watch out for those concrete medians! But, they're saving lives, right? For anyone to die or have a serious accident in Tyler is extremely small; always has been. Then there's the mall. It's old. It's not pretty. A store closes down in there and another pops up in its place. On the plus side, in north Tyler are two huge hospitals Christus Mother Frances (my favorite by far; you can actually find a parking spot and get from one end to another) and East Texas Medical Center which is so enormous its a major pain. First you have to go to their parking garage. Then you walk a LONG walk to the hospital which was just sold. Yes; they sold the hospital. In our experience the care you get at ETMC is , shall we say, spotty. Personally, I ran into a lot of nurses that should quit or be fired interspersed with one black RN who was fabulous. We have many good dentists of course, miserable summers that can go to 105 every single day for a solid month until 95 feels good. Our taxes are quite reasonable and you get a lot for your money in a home. A good amount of people are doing their best to get their kids into private school since the public schools have deteriorated quite a bit over the years. Meaning bad behavior and crime.
Athens has nothing going for it except lakes. I'm tired now; message me if you want any more weird information.
No but DO, continue later. I get tired too. How long have you been in the Tyler area? Do you IN the city limits? Yes, on the medians, but the city has many statistics on the decrease in accidents, yes, if you are not careful, watch out for the person making a LEGAL u turn IN the intersection with a traffic signal when THEY do have the right away. Confusing for some, but when you get used to it, just what your doing, and maybe CAREFULLY watch the other guy too. Several major intersection, Paluxy and "THE" loop. has a flashing red arrow light to turn RIGHT, you CAN turn right, when the RED ARROW is RED "STEADY" it is NOT "flashing red" you CAN NOT, repeat NOT turn right on red. Clear? Just be extra careful at traffic intersection with lights and medians both, particularly if YOU turn right or make a you turn. Otherwise the median have saved many accidents.
Oh well, I'm tired too, but tell us more. Thanks
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
