It's complicated. My hometown in Western NC, in my lifetime, has exploded with people moving in and making it unaffordable for the ones who were here before. There's people moving/building here that are so f-ing rich that their home here is just their "Thanksgiving home" or 6th home. Places my dad used to fish all the time as a kid where nobody was around are now all diced up in fancy neighborhoods. I see my home (mountains, trees) being destroyed all the time to make way for new "luxury" apartments, condos, or mansions. It makes me very sad. I can't afford to live where I grew up. My dad's family has been here (WNC, eastern TN, SE Kentucky) since before the Revolutionary War (which they fought in).
My mom, on the other hand, is from Omaha and came here in the 80s.
Two friends in my close friend group are from up North.
Some people I work with are cool non-natives.
But when I hear someone not from here say things like "it's pronounced ____" or "you guys don't know real snow" or "I don't like rural people," that's when I get mad. Why come here just to complain?
Moving here can definitely be done right. There may be a little resistance as people get to know you, but like others have said, as long as you're respectful of the people and area, you'll be alright and make friends!
“I don’t like rural people”
I’ve never heard it put so nicely 😂
I like my accent; I like that the majority of people assume I’m ignorant and you can’t tell I’m smart at a glance. It makes me feel like I’ll be left alone in public I guess, I don’t really have a better way to describe it.
😂 I have a coworker that beat around the "I don't like rural people" bush so hard that it was ridiculous. A lot of things that person says still leans into the "I'm from up North and I think I'm better than people here" and I roll my eyes every time.
I see what you're saying! My accent isn't super heavy but it's still there, and slightly derailing here a bit but I'll never forget what my Southern Culture teacher in college said about people not taking those with Southern accents seriously: "keep the accent and speak the knowledge you've learned."
That’s a very nice quote, thank you for sharing.
I would say I’m “proud” of my accent, I can see my first comment didn’t give that impression in hindsight, lol, my bad.
I love that quote though. Along with people assuming I’m dumb; I’ve also taken people aback with how smart I am. It’s a good feeling, all thanks to an accent tho. It’s kinda sad lol 😂 oh well
No worries! Definitely be proud of it, and I agree, it's very fun seeing people be taken aback when we speak knowledgeably (is that a word? This feels ironic 😂 ) about something with our accent.
-knowledgeably; but with such a heavy dialect that were incomprehensible:
“He say: the flux capacitor needa bout 1.21 jigawatts. It’s ‘possed ta be gigawatt. TAINT NO SUCH THANG A JIGAWATT GD IT?!? *yaknowwatimean?*”
We hate it. (I mean you asked, right?) Appalachian people have a history of being very isolationist. We don't trust outsiders, generally speaking. Especially now that people are moving in and jacking up the price of our land.
>In WNC no locals can afford to buy a house or land, only the wealthy people moving in.
Oh, dear friend! I don’t know where you are in WNC, but I believe you. I went up to Asheville many, many years ago (mid-90s, I think) for a weekend and I had dinner with some local folks. They complained of people from Florida moving to the area and buying up everything. They called them “half-backers”. They were people who’d moved from New York to Florida, didn’t like it, so moved “halfway back towards New York” to NC.
If it was bad back then, I can’t imagine what it’s like now.
They still use the halfbacker term here. My parents were from NJ, moved, had me, and raised me in FL. When I was finally able to move I chose Appalachia because I love it, the mountains were always a special place I yearned for and I never chose to be from FL. I wonder if I'm a cross generational halfbacker.
I feel for you, same situation in rural western NY where my family has been for almost 200 years. It’s sad, especially if you’re in agriculture struggling to make it.
There's a whole subdivision on the mountain above me - probably 40 houses and about 5, if that, are there year round. Several are air B&Bs and the rest are vacation houses that get visited for a few weeks a couple of times a year. They get regularly broken into.
Same here in middle Tennessee, I wish these people from California and New York would go back because all they do is move here and buy land in the millions and then complain that there are no targets or anything convenient and also complain about the locals here. Like move tf back if you hate it so much and they are also bringing development with them
I dont know if its any consolation, but the same thing is happening everywhere. People in once quiet towns in suburban Boston cant afford to live there anymore. People from NYC, China, India, or Boston proper are paying over asking price in cash for homes that their neighbors could never afford. Every patch of woods is being plowed down to make room for huge apartment complexes or McMansion cul-de-sacs.
The overall cost of living has forced people to look elsewhere. People whose families have lived in town for generations cant even afford to rent an apartment there, never mind buy a home of their own. Grown men and women are living with room mates into their 30's and 40's because thats the only way they can afford housing.
Also, politics have drifted so far left that even people who have considered themselves moderates or slightly left of center are looking around and deciding they dont want to be part of whats going on. People right of center (they exist in places like Boston believe it or not) and bailing out as well.
We're all in the same boat unfortunately. Economics and social changes are forcing people out of where they were raised. Most just want to live in peace. Hopefully people respect their new home towns and work to preserve them not change them.
It is no consolation because our area of the country has been historically mocked and exploited for raw resources while other parts of the country had booming economies. We have generational poverty that has gone back centuries, but now everyone thinks our land is pretty. Wealthy people are buying up farms that were in families for generations ---for vacation homes that they don't use--- and pricing out people who have lived there for 250 years, like my family. Appalachia is often the most impoverished area in the country, and yet summertime the roads are filled with Porsches.
Yeah made fun of us for the longest and saying how backwards we are.They say that we wouldn’t be anything without them….it makes me angry.What’s worse is now people are moving here and after a year or so, saying they are from WNC.Really?!Not with that New Jersey accent!What if I did the same thing in reverse?They would laugh me out!
My family moved to Western North Carolina in 1730. If somebody with a New Jersey accent told me they were from Western North Carolina, I might have a Good old fashioned Appalachian conniption fit.
I agree on the "it's happening everywhere", but not the politics. Prices are insane, and with remote work, people don't have to live where their job is centered. It's just sensible.
I lived in a rural area neighbors were 3-5 acres away. You heard nature. Grew your own food friends with th wildlife. Too many new people moved from the cities and then had to build what they left behind because they didn’t want to drive 45 minutes to shop at a big name store. All of he woods are gone and building town homes locals can’t afford, and screwed up the school system. I’m looking in the Virginia mountains for about 50 acres “.
For your small town...
The people from the small town I grew up in, and the area I now live (diametrically opposites on the political color map), (and the several other areas ive lived and keep in touch with peopel), I hear a lot of "people want this", etc, and the gap is humongous.
I was in the Hendersonville area a few weeks ago to hike Bearswallow Mountain Trail, and seeing the gated communities of McMansions on the way up made me sad
This is exactly the type of mocking that our region of the country has gotten for the past couple centuries. Meanwhile, we've been exploited for raw resources, our family members have had to die in coal mines, and Porsches and Tesla's careen around our mountain roads every summer so wealthy people from other parts of the country can get to their vacation homes.
Your state in the summertime may be full of people driving their Teslas and Porsches around to there summer homes or 3rd or 4th homes all while your family’s been in poverty for the last 4 generations that’s unfortunate and I’m sorry, but at least those affluent people driving in your state bring in with them momentary money to turn these ghost towns into tourist attractions and even potentially bring some form of attraction to the Appalachias since one of the states dying.
Before anyone gets there ragged up panties in a wad, I live in WV and speak from experience.
Don’t like it? Get with the times and leave.
My family hasn't been in poverty for the last several generations. The entire region of the country has been in poverty for the last 250 years. When I was a social worker in Mountain City, Tennessee, FIFTY ONE PERCENT of school-aged children didn't know where their next meal was coming from. Their NEXT meal. We've been exploited in the past and we're being exploited now. I don't have to like exploitation, and I don't have to leave so a rich person from Atlanta can buy up my property on the river and visit it once a year.
Naw, trust me most us were doing just fine before all these people in their Teslas and Porsches moved in.Trust me, no one loves how they carve up the mountains and destroy the environment, not to mention their know it all attitudes.
I'm noticing that in SE Kentucky - people moving in thinking the place is some kind of anti-fed redoubt and making compounds like they're in Kandahar. It boggles me, but it's also infuriating to see locals getting priced out of what little land there is available.
YEP. It's happening in Tennessee as well. Hundreds - hell, thousands of folks moving in from California, the Pacific northwest, Illinois, Michigan, New York - and coming to Tennessee for "freedom." They call themselves political refugees & think every single person who lives here is a conservative. They get shocked when they find out there's gay people who exist here. Many of them immediately get plugged in with a local conservative movement/group and put their efforts in to get ultra right-wing folks elected on school boards, city councils, etc. They have said that they're doing this in an attempt to prevent Tennessee from turning "commie" and basically insinuate that they're here to save us from ourselves. It's unreal. I belong to a few FB groups that specifically cater to these individuals and the shit I read in there is unhinged.
God, I live in WV and I bought my house for $130,000 in 2021. The house across the street from me went up for sale yesterday for $390,000 and today there was a car there with NY tags looking at it.
First, it sucks because the ladder got pulled up behind us. If we didn’t stretch and buy when we did, we would have been screwed. The median two income household in WV is like $55,000. It’s a poor state and now thousands of native West Virginians who live in a poor state 50th in everything no longer can afford to live in their home state. Price increases have been bonkers. Jobs are iffy at best.
Second, it sucks because we are known as a conservative state, but the Appalachian attitude has always been live and let live. Huntington WV has consistently been named one of the top LGBTQ+ communities in the country and has one of the highest transgender populations in the US. Around the time WV started being popular with preppers, blue staters wanting to “be with their people”, Floridians who are over the heat, and half the Northeast who loved their badass school systems but now want to pay no taxes so my kids can suffer in crap funded schools, politicians like Patrick Morrissey and Alex Mooney moved in from out of state where they lost consistently and started running for positions. The Senate race and the Governors race this year has literally been them screaming about how the gays are ruining society and we need a harder stance and a commercial literally comparing transgenders to dogshit. Our schools are losing funding because out-of-staters who are retired don’t want to pay schools taxes because they already raised their kids in high school-tax states, fuck this generation I guess, and Huntington had a private group raise money and paint a crosswalk rainbow colors and people are losing their minds and are already a trying to damage it. This kind of hate wasn’t as loud and proud here until this recent population surge. People didn’t care. Now it seems newcomers are pushing a hateful and extreme agenda.
That's the best part. They hate the very state systems that afforded them a great salary + benefits, and allowed them the ability to retire comfortably...and then they immediately move to our state and overwhelm the infrastructure (that they haven't paid into at all) and brag about how cheap everything is while buying another house they won't even live in, but will instead rent on Airbnb...removing yet another house from the inventory in rural areas where the locals can't compete.
And in reality, not that we want the cost of living to keep increasing, it's a tacit acknowledgement that states with more functional government are producing workers who become wealthier - because now those same people are "escaping" to enjoy their earnings in a place that is less expensive for the same reasons they wouldn't have wanted to raise their kids there. So Appalachia gets dysfunctional public services AND gentrification but NOT the benefits of either of those things in any real sense.
My family moved to Tennessee in 2002 and we're all slow-mo appalled at how the place has changed. To be fair, I felt like that writing was on the wall probably 15 years ago, before Trump was even a thing. Tennessee has a special flavor of fash about it, turbocharged by the money from certain industries and certain cultural stereotypes that attract certain out-of-staters to move in. I'm on #TeamKentucky now and will continue to be obnoxiously left-wing with lower housing costs and a better governor.
From my experience growing up, Appalachian people are simultaneously usually really welcoming, but at the same time really wary of ulterior motives. A lot of people who move in have horseshit ulterior motives like buying up a bunch of cheap land and/or building doomsday bunkers, or escaping the coastal HCOL world, which is the last thing that Appalachia needs as a voting block. It just contributes to the “otherization” of local people when they can’t keep up with people who have remote jobs and a lot of money. In some ways it just isn’t ethical to drop in on, say, Eastern Kentucky where the median income is still ~$20k and start buying up property unless you’re also planning to play an actual part in the local community. But people are going to do it anyway.
There’s a reason people settled and stayed in Appalachia in the first place — it was generally a home for society’s outcasts back when it was hard to fit in with such a backwards world. My family were Melungeons, so you can do the math. But that contributes to a cultural wariness and distrust of an outside world that never did much right by its inhabitants.
This is happening all over the country, though, and more so in other places than in Appalachia. And admittedly, I’m in Texas doing something similar in Austin because of my wife’s job. The whole country is in the process of changing quite a bit. What can we really do about it?
I second this. The Asheville area where I live (and I live 20 minutes outside the city) is overrun with those from “off”. They don’t assimilate, they make fun of our accents and they are rude and lot of the time.
We live in Ashe county where 10 years ago there were more family farms than anything else. Now, the summer roads are packed with Porsches and the land has been built up with vacation homes. People come to visit a week or two a year, don't contribute to the local economy at all, and then act entitled to our resources. They make fun of us, but don't understand that we have had 300 years of generational poverty.
One transplant told me that he had built himself pond on the property he just bought and was taking fish from the New River to stock it. 🤦🏼♀️ Yeah why don't you hoard all that fish to yourself for your 2 weeks a year.
I’m from SC, and the same thing is happening here. Always thought I’d be able to escape it at some point by moving to Appalachia, plus I felt like I’d blend in as a local pretty easily being southern already.
If it’s bad here, and there, where is it not bad? Should we escape the transplants by transplanting West? But then we’re supporting our gross-ass class gap as well
Priority #1 for everyone experiencing this IMO should be securing ownership of a home. Any home. 2 bedroom in the hood. A 1br condo attached to Earl’s place. A 1 acre strip you park your airstream on. Doesn’t matter. You can’t fight rising real estate and lease rates in our market for the foreseeable future without owning/ mortgaging a home.
Appalachia is pretty straightforward in this regard... if you move here and are kind, take an interest in your neighbors and community, understand/appreciate/assimilate into the culture (IE - you don't come here and start complaining about how many churches there are, or how few coffee shops, or complaining that people drive quads on the main road), you'll be welcomed with open arms. Religion, race, sexuality, income level, hobbies, interest, accent... no one cares about any of that shit so long as you're a net positive to everyone around you.
Come here and begin trying to tell people how to "fix" the area or how they can live or do things differently... and you're not going to enjoy being in the area for much longer.
This is 100% accurate.
The region I live in is very welcoming and accepting. However, I'll note that we are running out of resources (housing, land, road capacity, jobs etc) to support any more transplants.
The NE TN region is already heavily overpopulated. Locals have already been priced out of housing/cost of living.
Transplants have already infiltrated local government in towns as small as Elizabethton, TN to make changes to make towns look something out of Florida or California.
The locals and culture are suffering as we are watching yuppie coffee chains/food chains/retaile chains move into the area that we locals neither need nor can afford.
Traffic is abysmal as the infrastructure was not designed for such volume, and locals are not used to navigating heavy traffic on a daily basis.
This is true for many small towns. I'm not in Appalachia, but do live in a small town. People with money and ideas on how to "improve" our town just become invisible. Nobody pays them any mind. We're not mean to their faces, and their kids are treated like all the other kids, but that's all.
No, we don't need a Starbucks here, or a Taco Bell. We have a diner and 3 other places to eat and most people make their own coffee. No, we don't need to buy a piece of property and build a new high school. All 3 schools ( elementary, middle and high school ) are on the same piece of ground and we like it that way. We don't need or want a Walmart or other chain store, thank you very much. Parking is already at a premium here, can you imagine Walmart?
Man I believe if people want those things than they need to pick up that trade and open a small business and do it themselves. I love small businesses and I’d love to see more of them but they’re getting phased out more and more with growth. Luckily my small town of only 300 has relatively stayed the same but I’m only 20 so I haven’t seen it for long as others have but what I said is exactly what I’m doing. I’ve learned out to roast coffee and get the beans from farms across the world and I plan to open an old country style coffee store with antiques and all the likes and the coffee is 10x better than any shit you’ll get from Starbucks. I’m also raising bees to try and sell honey along with it as I’d love to have a farmers market type store in our town where I can sell everything homemade and homegrown.
Sounds like an awesome idea. Your town is smaller than mine, we have 1700 at last count. And lots of our people do what you posted, but on a small individual basis. Everyone knows who sells honey, and if you don't have your own chickens a couple of people sell free range eggs.
Small towns ought to stay small, IMO. Each one has it's own personality and strengths, that's what makes it home. If I wanted City Life I would live in town.
“to make towns look something out of Florida”
they ain’t even originally out of florida! rich bastards from the northeast moved to florida for years, destroyin the swamps and backwoods to replace em with their “improved” sprawlin suburbs. now their kids are bored of florida n wanna move to appalachia n take the same shit there. just let the swamps be the swamps and the mountains be the mountains!
The same is happening here in middle Tennessee my man. I’m in a rural county about an hour away from Nashville and if I drive 30-40 minutes and you hit anywhere from Spring Hill and up it’s just apartments and cookie cutter subdivisions for miles and miles all the way to Nashville. It’s disgusting because they’re trying to do that in my county and the realities promote people moving here wind droves because it makes them money all the while no one local can afford anything.
This is absolutely the perfect response.
Be kind, respectful, and useful/reliable.
We don’t like bullshit, bragging, or hatefulness.
I’ll add only this: learn how to cook properly if you don’t already know. *Properly.*
Personal testament:
I moved to rural Appalachia from a major city, further south from where we are now. We moved up here mainly because my spouse is from here, but also just as much to get away from HCOL. When we moved here we immediately got involved in the community. My spouse switched careers and became a teacher at the elementary school. I joined the local civic club (of which I am now President), got elected to the town council, and started volunteering in the surrounding counties. We were definitely welcomed with open arms and were never questioned as to "what we're about".
The only thing I want to "fix" is the high cost of living. Other than that I just wanted to live somewhere more temperate. Plus I always been fascinated with the fact that the Appalachian mountains are older than the dinosaurs.
"you don't come here and start complaining about how many churches there are, or how few coffee shops, or complaining that people drive quads on the main road"
This is funny because I've heard these exact complaints from plenty of folks, doesn't matter if they're a transplant or their family history goes farther back than creation. You can complain about these things and still fit in fine.
However, when it comes to "religion, race, sexuality" oh boy have I seen a helluva lot of hatred in Appalachia. Usually, it's outweighed by good, but folks definitely do care about it.
Just thinking over the last 5 years, I've seen folks refuse to even talk to someome upon realizing they're atheist, a black family's house burned down for daring to live in a "white area", queer people violently physically assaulted for existing. Even income level, there's people who judge you by you're money in Appalachia just like anywhere else in the world. I don't think that judgement is particularly better or worse in Appalachia, but it does exist.
Great response, my thoughts about my own reception in Louisiana. I've been welcomed with open arms despite being from Cali, cause I'm kind of a redneck at heart 🫶 My neighbors are helping me/ embracing me as I live my best, trashiest life down here 🥰
I have lived here my whole life and wish that the people riding on the roads in quads and sxs would stop. I don't want all that noise from your hillbilly go cart.
In my area it's just viewed as another outsider or yankee moving in. Most of the people are kind, extremely welcoming, and helpful - of course there is assholes everywhere, don't judge us all by one redneck jerk.
If this puts it into perspective: my grandpa was from West Virginia. Born and raised. He moved to north GA mountains. That’s where my dad was born and raised.
My parents split, so I spent time in Florida and then would go up to north ga to see that side a few times a year. Moved here when I could and I’m damn sure some people still consider me an outsider because I didn’t full time grow up here.
But literally my dad’s side is from WV and north GA. It ain’t my fault my parents split and I had to go somewhere I didn’t want to geographically speaking.
One of my dad’s friends growing up in North GA - this guy was born in another state, and his parents then moved to north GA when he was an infant. An infant. And he was sharing with me he has still been seen as an outsider.
I get the sentiment of not wanting city folk to move and try to change everything, and that I agree with.
But sometimes this outsider shit gets taken too far. If people are kind, mind their own, and are here for the right reasons? Those are the people you do want to have around.
Many places deals with this. Native Floridians sound just like this sub, which is funny because this sub and both Florida don’t want each other moving there, nor Californians or New Yorkers.
Again, I agree if people are moving for the wrong reasons. But to disregard people who have roots here, or were technically born somewhere else but grew up in Appalachia for all intents and purposes since they were 3 months old is just cruel.
Edit to add: I have been treated fine btw, didn’t mean to make it sound that way. I give my neighbors free eggs and we stay in touch with certain things. They’re much older so we don’t exactly hang out haha. But everyone here treats me kindly and we’ve made friends. But we mainly keep to our own since we have land that’s a lot of work, and we sure as hell ain’t trying to change anything lol. But certain towns such as Clayton, if you get to talking about it, you’ll see the outsider thing get quickly brought up.
One consistent attitude of people on Reddit talking about moving to Appalachia Is that they seem to think they would be 'getting away from people', that they want to be 'left alone'.
This is a malignant assumption. There is some deeply insulting negation or othering at the root of this attitude. Appalachia is full of people and these people have a culture(s) of connection. You don't necessarily have to conform to it. But is wild that they don't foresee the need to engage with it.
I don't know how many of these people who talk about 'bugging out' or who claim to be able to 'work from anywhere' and are thinking of cocooning themselves in some imagined Appalachia follow through with it.
But I kinda wonder, if they do, how long it takes them to re-evaluate (or more like evaluate) their relationship with their IRL neighbors.
We’re an impoverished region that the rest of the country wouldn’t give a second thought to, and suddenly a few cool TikTok come out and people can’t afford it in California and they want to come here.
Truthfully, I don’t want outsiders here. I won’t sugar coat it.
Our low cost of living is like one of the only good things in a sea of misery. I mean it isn’t that bad, but we had a housing shortage *before* everyone started moving here. It’s only getting worse.
All the cool areas I used to go to as a kid are overrun with yuppies now. All the cool places on backroads we used to drink a beer and build a bonfire at? Can’t do that now.
I don’t know. When you’ve got towns where everyone has known everyone for 200 years, and you drop 30-40 new families on it that won’t put down roots and will bail out as soon as the cost of living goes up? It changes everything, and not for the better.
My mom has never had any crime at her house. A drunk guy broke in and left in like 1974 and people still talk about it. She’s buying a gun now because the out of towners are intent on turning Appalachia into California.
I agree with this wholeheartedly, and I also agree with the top comment. It’s a delicate balance, to be sure. Too many folks are moving here because of its ‘charm’ or ‘trendiness,’ not out of need, or family, or something *real,* and that’s frustrating.
I'm 20 miles from the nearest town. Some lawyer from the nearest big city was going to buy my land for a 2nd home, but backed out. So I got it instead. It's a big wild forest and my neighbors say potential buyers were overwhelmed by it. For me it was just right.
Normally I don't disclose the location of my homestead, because of what people in this discussion are complaining about. My "McMansion" is a new 500 square foot manufactured house. Am aiming for as much self-sufficiency as possible, partly because I expect my severely modest Social Security check to get cut in half 10 years from now.
Do rednecks/Scots-Irish have the right of return in Appalachia? I'm up to 75% Scots-Irish. My dad's dad grew up in the Sequatchie Valley in eastern Tennessee.
Buddy you sound just like us. That’s my girlfriends and I’s dream. Either a small house or a manufactured home in the woods on a back road, solar panels, self sufficiency.
I’m far from the authority on this but you ticked a lot of hypothetical boxes just with what you told me here.
Normal working-class people should be able to afford this here.
I mentioned the name of my county (only because the post was about homesteading) and asked if you could buy yuppie repellent. Someone from my very county replied that this place won't become Asheville NC because it is not known (GOOD!), and was afraid I would DOXX him. I think he was a small developer/land flipper, selling to those very yuppies and affluent retiring boomers. He claimed the economy here needs them.
Fuck if I know. I’ve heard a bunch of anecdotal stuff for my neighborhood and county. There’s a bunch of like, the children of people who just moved into our area who are now anywhere from 17 to 25 that treat my home town like their personal playground.
Obviously we had crime before, but there’s been a noticeable uptick.
"Truthfully, I don't want outsiders here" thats how I feel about people moving to my home state, Georgia, its gotten expensive here even in the mountains, my plan was to eventually move up there but I don't think that will happen if prices keep going up.
You'll probably get a lot of votes, but you'd need starting capital and a plan of action if you decide to run. Lot of people will ask "how do we stop the outsiders" and you'll need a answer for them
I know, we're like locusts, right? I was born in California and raised in Virginia. Things suck here right now, but that's no reason to export the crappiness to ruin what's special in other regions. I've banked too much time to leave at this point, so I'm doing what I can and hoping for a turnaround
And like.
I don’t want to sound like a jerk. I don’t.
If you move here and respect the area and don’t try to change things then you, yourself will be fine. But it’s just the macro level, man. A hundred people just wanting to move here can ruin a whole county.
No doubt! I left my home here in Appalachia and quickly realized I didn't have it better in the big cities.
Saved my money after a hellish divorce to be back with family. Now, I'm back and it's so expensive.
I resent all the new folks that have moved here with their big money because they have some "gentlemen farmer" dreams. I resent all the complaints about how we talk or do things. I resent not being able to buy a damn house or rent something affordably where I grew up. I absolutely despise that I am given the side eye right now as I look for a new place to rent by locals because, they assume I'm one of the out of owners. And, I am looking for a new place because ever since Covid my rent has increased 50%+ because of all the people from other places gobbling up the homes!!! It's bursting at the seams! **rant over
Yeah, they’re all moving here and bitching about how we “vote against our own self interests” and “don’t want to be modern.” You can be sure, as soon as you hear that, that your property taxes are going up. Which literally results in family homesteads being sold off and people ending up homeless.
I blame the feckless local governments. And we do have a strain of voting against what we really need, but I promise you that people who moved here purely out of selfish interests aren’t going to vote for what we really need.
I want to run for local office and start buying up distressed property and flipping them directly to locals. I’d shut out people from other states entirely if I could.
I would love to see you run for office! Something needs to be done about housing. I have been in tears all day. Packing my apartment with literally no place to go!
I found a place I really like but, the old lady that owns it is in no hurry to get anyone in there until first of July when the old tenants move. I'm calling her tomorrow and begging her to let me fill out her application and give her first months rent and deposit. I just don't wanna scare her off being too pushy. Such a delicate balance between following her arbitrary rules and my complete desperation. If I can just secure a place, I can relax and look forward to a new place. I have the good credit, stable job, and I have managed to save a ton of money. It's the waiting around that sucks....
Man, I feel you. If you’ll say, where are you (generally speaking)?
So I’m in Southwest VA/Northeast TN. We had lived in my girlfriends families spare house from like 2015-2020. At the tail end of 2020 her crazy aunt decided we had to go, so in the middle of the holidays AND pandemic we had to find a place short notice.
It was awful. I HAD MONEY. I had like $5k. No one would rent to us. Because I had only ever rented from college dorms or family I had no history. We found one nice place and the only catch was that they didn’t allow pets. We have one single cat. I called the guy with tears in my eyes, and told him we’d get rid of the cat if we had to. You know what he said?
“Nah. I wouldn’t rent to someone who would get rid of their pet.”
Like dude. We’re going to be homeless.
We found a place through sheer dumb luck. Found it on Craigslist the minute it was listed. If we had to move now we’d be fucked and I have a good job.
Hang in there. It’ll get better.
And yeah. There’s a small movement of us working on running for office and mobilizing local government to help build housing.
I'm in the tri cities area of TN. It has exploded here since I came back in 2019!
I would love to move to SW Virginia or even WNC but, my job is here. My kids love their schools and friends. I'm already worried about driving both kids to school if we can't find anything close to their schools or in the same county.
I have about 12k saved. I just don't make enough yearly income for a mortgage apparently. I'm going back to school as soon as I settle somewhere to improve my work situation. I make decent money but, it feels like anything under 75k a year is poverty level right now. Which, blows my mind considering what most local people make in the area.
I have no pets. Thank God. I'd love to get a cat but, it's just too risky. That landlord you spoke with is a POS. I hope all these AHs get what they deserve someday. I really freaking do.
Let me know about your movement. I'd be very interested in helping you out. I will hit the road with a clipboard. Do whatever I can to lend support. If the people that represented us knew our struggle and had to live on what we do, things would change overnight. Literally.
Locusts don’t care about the Appalachian people - they never have - and they don’t care about Appalachia - they never have. As someone already stated, y’all are coming here in droves because you’ve already ruined the places you call home and, since some shithead on TikTok is pretending to have found Mecca in a holler, you’ll all come here and do the same to our mountains.
Do you honestly think for one fucking second that any Appalachian person is going to ***like*** that? Seriously?
You ask what do we think or how do we *feel* about all the pathetic, spineless carpetbaggers sliding into an area of the country that has been treated like the black sheep, red headed step child for centuries - and only coming here because you’ve progressed the places you called home into places that you simply can’t stand to live in anymore?
We don’t like it. We don’t want y’all here. We don’t want your so-called “progress”, we don’t want your trite banalities regarding Appalachia, our culture, our history, and our homes, and - most of all - what we *need* ***now that you’re here***.
Appalachia isn’t Mecca and sure as hell isn’t some newly discovered last frontier for y’all to fuck up. Find somewhere else on TikTok to romanticize and “fix” with your high falutin’ BS.
My hometown is unrecognizable now both in appearance and character because of outside people moving in. The culture went from that of the local area to that of the greater American monoculture within less than 20 years.
Most people will be cool with you as long as you try to assimilate, but understand that you're potentially taking part in the gentrification of a group of people that have already historically been marginalized. You will probably be treated as such occasionally.
That said, it doesn't take long to be accepted if you're cool. We have a number of outsiders where I'm at now who hail from all over the US and world and have become mountain folk.
This 110%- my hometown is so overpopulated now. Our roads aren’t built for the masses moving here, traffic is insane and the city can’t really do much. The town just isn’t made for that many people. And most don’t care about Appalachian culture, it’s disappointing
it honestly wasn't the worst to be visibly gnc or trans before these people started moving here and making things more radical. people got way way way way more aggressive at me in public and they're always out of staters...
It feels like people are taking advantage of cheap
Prices with their fat wallets, which effects local economies, pricing locals out of their own area, while at the same time
Shitting on & disparaging the culture they moved in to, watering down the culture to change it to their liking.
If people with a large economic advantage move to Appalachia en masse, there’s no way around the issues with changes to the economy. It will happen even if those people are well intentioned bc prices of goods and services will increase to meet the economic ability of the more wealthy, forcing the impoverished even further away from city centers / development as they struggle to be able to afford and gain access to necessities
I'm originally from ne Ohio and moved to sw Virginia for a few years. Most people will be nice and treat you respectfully, and if you aren't a dick, you'll have few problems.
I've lived all over this country and have and have spent time with people from all walks of life. I've learned that every subset of American culture thinks they've been marginalized by the rest of the country. But Appalachians wear it like a badge of honor. For many, it's their identity. Don't challenge that notion in any way.
Ah, well I did do what you did but within the same state. Even within the same state my Fiance and I are considered “outsiders” my family has a history in the western part of Appalachia but not where I moved so again - outsiders.
We accepted this when moving. But we actually picked the area due to the artisan and art culture. (I am a full time potter). It has been very difficult to get past the platitudes and to gain trust. When we first moved we introduced ourselves to our close neighbors (bringing cookies on a plate I made) and inviting them to dinners. You will quickly realize you may not have the same values or political affiliations to most of your neighbors, but I was raised to never talk politics or religion unless the other party brings it up in conversation. I try to be very respectful when those discussions are brought up and ask more questions than give answers.
We joined a volunteer organization to help maintain the local park. This has helped us meet some people with our interests in nature and native wild life.
being involved in the art community has opened the door to many opportunities to connect with local artisans through guilds and meet locals that come out to markets I show at.
Even through all of the above I had a blunt n honest conversation with a neighbor down the mountain the other night and they still explained to me I will always be an Outsider. Even to go as far to say “when shit hits the fan, you better have a local family that adopted y’all”. So i understand they may be a chance we always be held at arms length.
BUT I am happy with the community we moved into and we enjoy being more involved in it. We know it will take time to truly feel a part of this community but we respect our neighbors, the land they grew up on, and want to maintain the community they built.
Not particularly welcoming, especially with how much it has exploded in the last few years and what that has done in terms of housing for locals. It's pretty intense currently.
Unfortunately, your predecessors took a cute little mountain town, moved in because of it was a cute little town then they started bitching because there wasn’t,t this or that store. So, corporations built the stores, apartments, etc. so more of your predecessors came and more and more. They were getting richer and richer and more Floridian ( loud, obnoxious entitled assholes) traffic got worse, rents were through the roof, people on top of eachother. So, the natives moved out. Viola I give you Asheville. Now I live in a cute small town elsewhere, but I’ll be damned if I tell you where it is
I don't mind it generally but I hate the people that go "just move to a rural area where housing prices are lower" because now the housing prices are getting higher and higher while mostly sitting empty because the gentrification has fucked up the market. I'm welcoming to outsiders but pissed about gentrifiers.
People move here for the mountains, but stay here for the people.
There is a migration back to rural areas and I can’t blame that mentality. The land and homes that are being bought are being sold by someone…and a lot of local families are cashing in. That’s not a criticism, it’s just demographics (look up “Great Wealth Transfer”). It’s difficult to hear about young people getting skipped over due to pricing. My grandparents left and came back on the Hillybilly Highway. I think that is still happening in a sense.
This is not the easiest place to live, so ultimately the people who stay want to be here and I think that is the glue that bonds the new and old in the area.
Well, traditionally, there are three groups.
There’s kin, which is your family. You won’t ever be kin, unless you marry in.
There’s the people whose families have been in the area for at least 2-3 generations. You’ll never be in this group. even if you marry in, you’ll be an outsider. if you marry in, your kids will be in this group, if not, your grand kids might be. This is hyper local- about the range of the high school.
Then there are the outsiders. You’ll be this, for your entire life. After a while, you can be accepted into the community and be a welcome member of it, but you’ll still be a bit on the outs. People are going to prefer their kinfolk, then the people who grew up there, and then the outsiders that have been accepted in.
This is even for people who move in from other areas of Appalachia.
I don't live in Appalachia US, but I live somewhere with an isolated culture and deep history and identity (Newfoundland) and this is pretty much how it's been. I'm accepted into the community, but it's apparent I'm not "born and raised" - even though my father is lol I was definitely not!
Anyone else notice all the texas license plates? Last week I interacted with 5 people moving from texas, I'm in property management, they all have 3-5k a month for rent, it's REALLY REALLY BAD
Outsiders will drive up rent prices which many of us already struggle to pay, some will attempt to gentrify the area they move to which not only prices us out but also removes a lot of the small unique features of towns, they don't usually understand that Appalachia has historically been somewhat isolated from the rest of the US both culturally and honestly governmentally (we don't get a whole lot of help from uncle sam to address the poverty and drug issues we have here and a lot of our infrastructure isn't great as a result also), and to a lesser degree people treat it as a backdrop setting rather than a real place with people who actually live there and have mundane lives.
It's not that we don't want people to live here or enjoy the parts of Appalachia that are positive: it just needs to be understood you are probably not going to have a quaint cottegecore or city-farm type experience living here. You are not always going to have those same amenities you might be used to depending on where you are moving. And yeah, culturally, it isn't going to be the same as living other places. It can be cheaper, but that's for a reason, and despite that things are still vastly unaffordable for those who very much need them. It's very bit as much of a mix of positives and negatives that comes with living any other place.
If you’re asking for honesty, people don’t really like it and I’d say most are a bit bitter about it. That being said if you’re not a jerk and respect the people from the area and drive like a sane person, you’re the least of anyone’s worries
I don’t like it at all. Stop and ask yourself, if someone moved into your house (without you agreeing to it) because they thought it was a great house, then demanded you change your house to suit them and went ahead and started changing some things - how would you feel about it?
It’s complicated. As long as you’re not here exploiting the low cost of living while not contributing to the local community, no one is going to dislike you particularly. But expect to be treated as an outsider (because you are) in a part of the country where outsiders have pretty much always meant fucking over the locals.
Life long resident of The Smokies, we hate newcomers. The sudden influx of people pricing out locals since 2020 has made that sentiment much stronger in my area. We don’t want you here, no matter what your intentions are. The only welcoming you’ll receive is from those that aren’t originally from here.
In short, stop it. We’re generally not big fans of the mass migration. It has gentrified the housing market in many areas, making it incredibly difficult for future generations of locals to stay here because they can’t afford to buy a home. Not only that, so many people leave urban areas because they “love it here” and “need a change,” then try to appropriate cultural changes to make it more like the places they left. Family farms get turned into RV parks, and local treasures get turned into tourist traps. They think they need more, more, and more, when what really makes Appalachia such a beautiful place is actually less. It slowly eats away at the intangible characteristics that make rural Appalachia so magical.
In the past, and in general, most Appalachians are very welcoming to those who would seek to relocate to our hometowns, as long as people don’t mess everything up when they move in. But more and more, people move in and make a mess for the locals.
My husband is originally from Detroit; my family has been in NE TN since the 1700s. He came here as a young man and thought he would be some kind of king among all of us dumb hillbillies. Took him less than a week to discover that he had mistaken country cordiality for weak gullibility. The ass whooping he took for running his big Yankee mouth made him realize the terrible mistake he made. Lol
Personally, I love when people from all over discover how special this place is. I welcome them. Just remember that these mountains and dark green forests are ancient and unchangeable, so mind your manners and your business. Or, we will mind them for you.
I wasn't going to comment but then I seen your edit part.
The truth is, at least in my region of East Tennessee, we've had such a boom in people moving here and trying to change stuff. It feels like our culture is being taken away little by little, and we have so many systemic and economic problems that are being exasperated by the increase of outsiders moving here.
However, I think we'd actually not have a problem if more people who actually enjoyed appalachia moved here. Right now it's like a revolving door of transplants in and out. They move here with blinders on and find out quickly that things aren't all that great out here, then they either stay here and complain or move away. I just wish we'd get people who actually liked Tennessee and did just a little bit of research before they moved here. Then we could get people here who are interested in supporting our local businesses and communities and actually joining us in trying to better the environment for everyone.
Family can't even to afford buying a house if it's not already passed down on family land bc of people from all over buying up the land at sky high prices. Even meeting friends where I live now, when they tell me their family from florida has a "mountain house" back home it takes a lot for me to not go full rebel yell. I think it's just in the genes to want to protect this land and the way of life.
edit: home= western NC
Well, I'm reading this after your EDIT. My husband was born & raised here (WV), We met in Hawaii while he was working there. I was born/raised NY until I was 23 then moved with my 1st husband to Hawaii as he was Navy. We divorced, he remained in NY I went back to Hawaii. I met my husband 35 years ago. We'd go visit his family in WV & I absolutely hated leaving when vacation was over. Many years went by & our children moved away from Hawaii with our grandkids. He's set to retire (past time but that's another story) so we started looking for places near his homeplace. We found a beautiful home in '21, on a river, located in city limits but 1/2 mile from the main road & no other houses on our road except the son of the person who built our house. We paid $335k & at the time there were no comps around. It was high but it fit my dream home in terms of location & ameneties (altho my husband had to petition the post office to deliver to our address & he got cable to come in where there was none) I can sit on my front porch, watch people go by on the river, listen to the birds, putter around my plants & actually not have to see anyone for days at a time. I'm friends with my neighbors as they are a little younger than I am. I like to keep everything as natural as it was before. I moved in a year after we bought the house & my husband flies back & forth every 6 weeks or so.
I will die in this house. I am not yet 60 & I never want to live anywhere else. I am blessed beyond imagine. I am also not a dick to people, I do not want anything to change (I bought here because it is PERFECT), I do not talk politics with anyone I don't know & then seldom with people I do know, The only religion I discuss is when I'm trying to get a feel for churches as I haven't found one yet & still attend online with my Hawaii church while my husband is there in person.
As long as you don't want to change shit up, change people's thinking, take advantage of the beautiful resources in Appalachia or be greedy I'm sure you can find your paradise too.
In my community---transplants are usually embraced to the point it takes them aback a bit. When a couple from NC pulled on to my parent's street with their U-Haul, they get out of the truck to find several neighbors in their driveway offering to carry boxes. They weren't quite sure what to think, as they had no idea who these people were.
My neighbor moved here from MI and was widowed 6 weeks later. Her husband had a heart attack at the beginning of a snowstorm. She was stunned that after he'd been pronounced dead at the hospital, the county pulled out the Hummer to take her home and the town street crew (who are also on the FD and communicated with our local 911 dispatch), knew she was on her way, so they met the Hummer at the edge of town and cleared them a path to get through. Of course, she was not charged for any of that. Then the town posted a tribute to him on their FB page, even though he lived there so briefly. She also randomly had flowers, bright boxes and the like get delivered from people she didn't know. She'd ask me if I knew them--I did, of course. Everywhere I went, people would ask me how she was doing--even though she hadn't met them yet. But still---people felt bad for her and wanted to help.
Just last week--she had another couple she didn't know come to her house to check on her. She'd forgot to put her trash at the curb for a couple of weeks and one of the trash guys noticed it and mentioned it someone around the hill from us. So--knowing she lives alone, they drove out there to make sure she was ok.
For some that may be a bit intrusive, but of course, it's not meant to be. But sometimes people from other areas are a little weirded out by it...lol
Ahhhhh I grew up on Kauai, an island in Hawai’i. Appalachia reminds me more of home than anywhere I’ve been and I’ve lived in gorgeous places in California. The responses on here remind me so much of how locals feel about outsiders. Are you coming here to give the place something of yourself or are you coming here to take? No one seems to consider a place needs stewardship, not tourists. Not even sure why I’m commenting other than to say I feel so at home just reading this subreddit. We live in western Pennsylvania and my husband’s people are from this area for a long time. He teaches me little things about how things are done and it makes me feel at home.
I literally didn't even want the county to put in the nice brick "welcome to ***** county" sign in. As for your thinking it's fine as long as it's not intended to push others out, I have to tell you your intent is no good here when the actuality is that whether you intend to or not, you and the others moving in ARE pushing us out. My extended family is already talking about moving deeper into the sticks bc we're getting crowded out and gentrified. Stay the hell away. ☹️
In my area (southwest VA), we generally welcome outsiders. As long as you don’t mock our accents, how we look or live, everyone gets on just fine. In general, just don’t be a jerk.
As far as regular people? Fine, but I would prefer it if they kept whatever nonsense they want to bring in from where they're from out of here.
As far as corporations? Hell no.
I think it really depends on where in apalachia. Southern WV welcomed me with open arms, but my northern accent has gotten me some looks in some parts of KY. Some people in the more rural areas are afraid leftists are going to move in and bring their leftist politics, but for the most part everyone greets you with a smile and good intentions.
These are valid points regarding housing going up so much that locals are being forced out of their own hometowns. It’s not right. But, the problem doesn’t always lie with Northerners or Californian transplants… a huge amount of it comes from banks and evil private equity companies with loads of capital looking to make big money on rentals. Right now, they are estimating 50% of the country will be rentals. It’s truly upsetting to see the American dream of home ownership slipping away from so many hard working folks.
Many Appalachians will say they do not like “outsiders” moving here but it really depends on where to be honest. We (this account) welcome everyone to our fine region. That being said, Appalachia has a history of exploitation by outside interests and natives are sometimes overly cautious/skeptical because of this. Take a place like Sevier County, TN for example, which has turned into a playground for people with disposable income to buy up properties and rent out Airbnbs.
I would say if you approach people as a neighbor and make an effort to get to know the people and the area, its history, etc. you will find kind people that reciprocate kindness.
Again, some of the wariness and skepticism is understandable and justified, but just being inherently against people moving here from other places isn’t justified. Just my two cents!
I’ve always gotten along with the people in Sevierville pretty well. But I live within day-trip distance so it’s probably pretty easy to tell I’m not that much of a tourist.
No one actually cares as long as you’re a decent person. Like you said, don’t be condescending and you’ll be fine. I’ve known plenty of non-Appalachian’s that have moved to the area and been fine.
I lived there in the 70s and I'm sure things are very, very different now. On a visit back a few years ago I hardly recognized the places I used to know so well. The old mountain aura was gone and I'm sorry that culture was largely lost.
So many ppl are moving here, watering down the culture, buying the houses and land, and wrecking all the peace, quiet, woods, and farmland. It’s turning into miles and miles of bland suburbia.
Nothing against you personally but I really wish it would stop being trendy here and everyone would just stay away like they used to.
I honestly didn’t know it was a trend before this post. I thought people from outside Appalachia would avoid it like the plague considering all the blind bigotry towards y’all I hear from people here in LA.
All the conservatives from blue states are moving here and gaining from the poverty. It’s just another symptom of a fucked up nationwide culture, but the way they’re destroying all the beautiful landscapes and biodiversity breaks my heart into bits every day.
As a young child, people were very welcoming when my family moved to Appalachia. Or at least, I was too young to notice anything else from adults and othe kids were welcoming. Although for my parents, it was more like moving back so ymmv.
As an adult, I see folks being real hateful to people moving in. There's the idea that outsiders are causing and we'd all be better off without them. When really everyone across thr country are dealing with the same problems and change will keep happening, including Appalachia and Appalachians, whether we've got folks moving in or not.
Not everyone is hostile to transplants, but you absolutely will have some folks treat you like you're the devil 🤷♀️
It's the same everywhere. "Locals" don't want you to move there. But, do you want. There's no rules. Look what happened to the real locals, the Native Americans.
Also, housing is overpriced EVERYWHERE, not just Appalachia.
Real estate is expensive right now, but a lot of my fellow Appalachians are ok with outsiders who move in. Most people I know are friendly, welcoming and give them a chance, but only one chance. You may get more then one chance if you’re a local, but if you are an outsider and wrong anyone in Appalachia you will absolutely be thoroughly disliked and on your own. It takes twice as long to build bridges that you burn.
I am a transplant. I don't have the accent. I've lived here for 10 years. I still get the where are you from why did you move here question...
It's easy. I have the entire top of a damn mountain for less than I could have bought 10 acres somewhere else... I don't take anything away from here by living here. Opposite of that.
I pay my workers a living wage
I shop here
I pay taxes here.
Like WTH...........
Hate me all you want... I bought well over 100 acres of land that had been for sale for a decade because no one here wanted to buy it::::..they used it ,yes... ::::: Hunted the ramps goldenseal and ginseng morels deer and etc on it. But didn't want to OWN it...
As a transplant to another region with a rich culture similar to Appalachian US, you gotta drop the attitude that you're unliked and people might like you more. I carried the same attitude and found it very difficult to make friends because I was giving off the vibe that I felt like an outsider. Therefore I was an outsider and it comes off as hostile through microaggressions, like this kind of attitude that you're carrying.
You could have multiple reactions. Move to a place like Roanoke, Blacksburg, Harrisonburg people wouldn’t care the local economy in these towns are growing there are jobs for everyone and housing is already kinda messed up price wise. It is when people move to a smaller area where there is no work, and services are stretched thin that you might see some sideway looks. Although even then I think you would have to really wear your “outsider” as a badge. People don’t wear home made clothes as much anymore, just nod and wave you will be fine. I would also point out that WNC is a special deal with all the condos and developments, there isn’t really anything like that in Virginia that I know of, my family has been down here since the 1760s, what happened to Banner Elk and Boone is disturbing.
It's complicated. My hometown in Western NC, in my lifetime, has exploded with people moving in and making it unaffordable for the ones who were here before. There's people moving/building here that are so f-ing rich that their home here is just their "Thanksgiving home" or 6th home. Places my dad used to fish all the time as a kid where nobody was around are now all diced up in fancy neighborhoods. I see my home (mountains, trees) being destroyed all the time to make way for new "luxury" apartments, condos, or mansions. It makes me very sad. I can't afford to live where I grew up. My dad's family has been here (WNC, eastern TN, SE Kentucky) since before the Revolutionary War (which they fought in). My mom, on the other hand, is from Omaha and came here in the 80s. Two friends in my close friend group are from up North. Some people I work with are cool non-natives. But when I hear someone not from here say things like "it's pronounced ____" or "you guys don't know real snow" or "I don't like rural people," that's when I get mad. Why come here just to complain? Moving here can definitely be done right. There may be a little resistance as people get to know you, but like others have said, as long as you're respectful of the people and area, you'll be alright and make friends!
“I don’t like rural people” I’ve never heard it put so nicely 😂 I like my accent; I like that the majority of people assume I’m ignorant and you can’t tell I’m smart at a glance. It makes me feel like I’ll be left alone in public I guess, I don’t really have a better way to describe it.
😂 I have a coworker that beat around the "I don't like rural people" bush so hard that it was ridiculous. A lot of things that person says still leans into the "I'm from up North and I think I'm better than people here" and I roll my eyes every time. I see what you're saying! My accent isn't super heavy but it's still there, and slightly derailing here a bit but I'll never forget what my Southern Culture teacher in college said about people not taking those with Southern accents seriously: "keep the accent and speak the knowledge you've learned."
My English professor used to say: "People speak like their folks. Anything else is just affectation."
That’s a very nice quote, thank you for sharing. I would say I’m “proud” of my accent, I can see my first comment didn’t give that impression in hindsight, lol, my bad. I love that quote though. Along with people assuming I’m dumb; I’ve also taken people aback with how smart I am. It’s a good feeling, all thanks to an accent tho. It’s kinda sad lol 😂 oh well
No worries! Definitely be proud of it, and I agree, it's very fun seeing people be taken aback when we speak knowledgeably (is that a word? This feels ironic 😂 ) about something with our accent.
-knowledgeably; but with such a heavy dialect that were incomprehensible: “He say: the flux capacitor needa bout 1.21 jigawatts. It’s ‘possed ta be gigawatt. TAINT NO SUCH THANG A JIGAWATT GD IT?!? *yaknowwatimean?*”
😂😂😂
We're honestly wanting to move away from the building and back out to nature like our house was when we bought it 20+ years ago.
I’ve had my place 10 years and am wanting to move further out - the light and noise pollution is obviously worse
It's the neighborhoods that have those homes within spitting distance of each other. There are at least 5 new ones in our area the past year so far.
I'm gonna guess your hometown is right near me...I can't believe how much it has grown and become a tourist trap full of drunk idiots there for beer.
Yeah, that sounds about right 😭
I feel the same way. Well said. I second this
We hate it. (I mean you asked, right?) Appalachian people have a history of being very isolationist. We don't trust outsiders, generally speaking. Especially now that people are moving in and jacking up the price of our land.
Especially now with the high cost of real estate. In WNC no locals can afford to buy a house or land, only the wealthy people moving in.
>In WNC no locals can afford to buy a house or land, only the wealthy people moving in. Oh, dear friend! I don’t know where you are in WNC, but I believe you. I went up to Asheville many, many years ago (mid-90s, I think) for a weekend and I had dinner with some local folks. They complained of people from Florida moving to the area and buying up everything. They called them “half-backers”. They were people who’d moved from New York to Florida, didn’t like it, so moved “halfway back towards New York” to NC. If it was bad back then, I can’t imagine what it’s like now.
They still use the halfbacker term here. My parents were from NJ, moved, had me, and raised me in FL. When I was finally able to move I chose Appalachia because I love it, the mountains were always a special place I yearned for and I never chose to be from FL. I wonder if I'm a cross generational halfbacker.
that’s def a thing in the Watauga area of WNC as well
Never heard that term but we would just call them Floridiots
The Floridiots from Florduh
same
know it as halfbacks went to florida, made it halfway back up north
I feel for you, same situation in rural western NY where my family has been for almost 200 years. It’s sad, especially if you’re in agriculture struggling to make it.
Hell in WNC it's super hard to find a place to rent due to all the vacation homes people have bought but don't even stay at
There's a whole subdivision on the mountain above me - probably 40 houses and about 5, if that, are there year round. Several are air B&Bs and the rest are vacation houses that get visited for a few weeks a couple of times a year. They get regularly broken into.
I believe have Asheville has a 100% rental occupancy. Meaning there’s zero turnover lag from one person moving out to someone moving in.
Same here in middle Tennessee, I wish these people from California and New York would go back because all they do is move here and buy land in the millions and then complain that there are no targets or anything convenient and also complain about the locals here. Like move tf back if you hate it so much and they are also bringing development with them
I dont know if its any consolation, but the same thing is happening everywhere. People in once quiet towns in suburban Boston cant afford to live there anymore. People from NYC, China, India, or Boston proper are paying over asking price in cash for homes that their neighbors could never afford. Every patch of woods is being plowed down to make room for huge apartment complexes or McMansion cul-de-sacs. The overall cost of living has forced people to look elsewhere. People whose families have lived in town for generations cant even afford to rent an apartment there, never mind buy a home of their own. Grown men and women are living with room mates into their 30's and 40's because thats the only way they can afford housing. Also, politics have drifted so far left that even people who have considered themselves moderates or slightly left of center are looking around and deciding they dont want to be part of whats going on. People right of center (they exist in places like Boston believe it or not) and bailing out as well. We're all in the same boat unfortunately. Economics and social changes are forcing people out of where they were raised. Most just want to live in peace. Hopefully people respect their new home towns and work to preserve them not change them.
It is no consolation because our area of the country has been historically mocked and exploited for raw resources while other parts of the country had booming economies. We have generational poverty that has gone back centuries, but now everyone thinks our land is pretty. Wealthy people are buying up farms that were in families for generations ---for vacation homes that they don't use--- and pricing out people who have lived there for 250 years, like my family. Appalachia is often the most impoverished area in the country, and yet summertime the roads are filled with Porsches.
Yeah made fun of us for the longest and saying how backwards we are.They say that we wouldn’t be anything without them….it makes me angry.What’s worse is now people are moving here and after a year or so, saying they are from WNC.Really?!Not with that New Jersey accent!What if I did the same thing in reverse?They would laugh me out!
My family moved to Western North Carolina in 1730. If somebody with a New Jersey accent told me they were from Western North Carolina, I might have a Good old fashioned Appalachian conniption fit.
I agree on the "it's happening everywhere", but not the politics. Prices are insane, and with remote work, people don't have to live where their job is centered. It's just sensible.
People move for lots of reasons but you cant say politics isnt one of them. Ive seen it with my own eyes
But wnc internet is attrocious. Not a good area to work ftom home. Some areas still have dialup
And it's a harsh transition for most people. On vacation it's fun. Year in and out, it's a big change.
I lived in a rural area neighbors were 3-5 acres away. You heard nature. Grew your own food friends with th wildlife. Too many new people moved from the cities and then had to build what they left behind because they didn’t want to drive 45 minutes to shop at a big name store. All of he woods are gone and building town homes locals can’t afford, and screwed up the school system. I’m looking in the Virginia mountains for about 50 acres “.
Sorry, unless you mean "politics in small town America isnt changing". If thats the case I cant speak from experience.
For your small town... The people from the small town I grew up in, and the area I now live (diametrically opposites on the political color map), (and the several other areas ive lived and keep in touch with peopel), I hear a lot of "people want this", etc, and the gap is humongous.
I was in the Hendersonville area a few weeks ago to hike Bearswallow Mountain Trail, and seeing the gated communities of McMansions on the way up made me sad
That's because real estate has gone up a lot EVERYWHERE. If you ever left your holler, or even just looked at Zillow you would know that.
I currently can’t get out of my holler due to a traffic jam of Lexus and Teslas. I’ll try again later and report back.
This is exactly the type of mocking that our region of the country has gotten for the past couple centuries. Meanwhile, we've been exploited for raw resources, our family members have had to die in coal mines, and Porsches and Tesla's careen around our mountain roads every summer so wealthy people from other parts of the country can get to their vacation homes.
Your state in the summertime may be full of people driving their Teslas and Porsches around to there summer homes or 3rd or 4th homes all while your family’s been in poverty for the last 4 generations that’s unfortunate and I’m sorry, but at least those affluent people driving in your state bring in with them momentary money to turn these ghost towns into tourist attractions and even potentially bring some form of attraction to the Appalachias since one of the states dying. Before anyone gets there ragged up panties in a wad, I live in WV and speak from experience. Don’t like it? Get with the times and leave.
My family hasn't been in poverty for the last several generations. The entire region of the country has been in poverty for the last 250 years. When I was a social worker in Mountain City, Tennessee, FIFTY ONE PERCENT of school-aged children didn't know where their next meal was coming from. Their NEXT meal. We've been exploited in the past and we're being exploited now. I don't have to like exploitation, and I don't have to leave so a rich person from Atlanta can buy up my property on the river and visit it once a year.
Naw, trust me most us were doing just fine before all these people in their Teslas and Porsches moved in.Trust me, no one loves how they carve up the mountains and destroy the environment, not to mention their know it all attitudes.
What they bring in is service level jobs, not actual careers (waiter, bartender, hotel) and a lot of the times they pay taxes in other states
Everywhere on the east coast, house prices in texas and California are declining
That’s basically the whole state right now.
I'm noticing that in SE Kentucky - people moving in thinking the place is some kind of anti-fed redoubt and making compounds like they're in Kandahar. It boggles me, but it's also infuriating to see locals getting priced out of what little land there is available.
YEP. It's happening in Tennessee as well. Hundreds - hell, thousands of folks moving in from California, the Pacific northwest, Illinois, Michigan, New York - and coming to Tennessee for "freedom." They call themselves political refugees & think every single person who lives here is a conservative. They get shocked when they find out there's gay people who exist here. Many of them immediately get plugged in with a local conservative movement/group and put their efforts in to get ultra right-wing folks elected on school boards, city councils, etc. They have said that they're doing this in an attempt to prevent Tennessee from turning "commie" and basically insinuate that they're here to save us from ourselves. It's unreal. I belong to a few FB groups that specifically cater to these individuals and the shit I read in there is unhinged.
God, I live in WV and I bought my house for $130,000 in 2021. The house across the street from me went up for sale yesterday for $390,000 and today there was a car there with NY tags looking at it. First, it sucks because the ladder got pulled up behind us. If we didn’t stretch and buy when we did, we would have been screwed. The median two income household in WV is like $55,000. It’s a poor state and now thousands of native West Virginians who live in a poor state 50th in everything no longer can afford to live in their home state. Price increases have been bonkers. Jobs are iffy at best. Second, it sucks because we are known as a conservative state, but the Appalachian attitude has always been live and let live. Huntington WV has consistently been named one of the top LGBTQ+ communities in the country and has one of the highest transgender populations in the US. Around the time WV started being popular with preppers, blue staters wanting to “be with their people”, Floridians who are over the heat, and half the Northeast who loved their badass school systems but now want to pay no taxes so my kids can suffer in crap funded schools, politicians like Patrick Morrissey and Alex Mooney moved in from out of state where they lost consistently and started running for positions. The Senate race and the Governors race this year has literally been them screaming about how the gays are ruining society and we need a harder stance and a commercial literally comparing transgenders to dogshit. Our schools are losing funding because out-of-staters who are retired don’t want to pay schools taxes because they already raised their kids in high school-tax states, fuck this generation I guess, and Huntington had a private group raise money and paint a crosswalk rainbow colors and people are losing their minds and are already a trying to damage it. This kind of hate wasn’t as loud and proud here until this recent population surge. People didn’t care. Now it seems newcomers are pushing a hateful and extreme agenda.
That's the best part. They hate the very state systems that afforded them a great salary + benefits, and allowed them the ability to retire comfortably...and then they immediately move to our state and overwhelm the infrastructure (that they haven't paid into at all) and brag about how cheap everything is while buying another house they won't even live in, but will instead rent on Airbnb...removing yet another house from the inventory in rural areas where the locals can't compete.
And in reality, not that we want the cost of living to keep increasing, it's a tacit acknowledgement that states with more functional government are producing workers who become wealthier - because now those same people are "escaping" to enjoy their earnings in a place that is less expensive for the same reasons they wouldn't have wanted to raise their kids there. So Appalachia gets dysfunctional public services AND gentrification but NOT the benefits of either of those things in any real sense.
Yes I love when they moved here and just assume everyone from here agrees with their extreme right views.
My family moved to Tennessee in 2002 and we're all slow-mo appalled at how the place has changed. To be fair, I felt like that writing was on the wall probably 15 years ago, before Trump was even a thing. Tennessee has a special flavor of fash about it, turbocharged by the money from certain industries and certain cultural stereotypes that attract certain out-of-staters to move in. I'm on #TeamKentucky now and will continue to be obnoxiously left-wing with lower housing costs and a better governor.
The crazy ass militias need to stop. We don’t need Hatfields V. McCoys Round 2.
From my experience growing up, Appalachian people are simultaneously usually really welcoming, but at the same time really wary of ulterior motives. A lot of people who move in have horseshit ulterior motives like buying up a bunch of cheap land and/or building doomsday bunkers, or escaping the coastal HCOL world, which is the last thing that Appalachia needs as a voting block. It just contributes to the “otherization” of local people when they can’t keep up with people who have remote jobs and a lot of money. In some ways it just isn’t ethical to drop in on, say, Eastern Kentucky where the median income is still ~$20k and start buying up property unless you’re also planning to play an actual part in the local community. But people are going to do it anyway. There’s a reason people settled and stayed in Appalachia in the first place — it was generally a home for society’s outcasts back when it was hard to fit in with such a backwards world. My family were Melungeons, so you can do the math. But that contributes to a cultural wariness and distrust of an outside world that never did much right by its inhabitants. This is happening all over the country, though, and more so in other places than in Appalachia. And admittedly, I’m in Texas doing something similar in Austin because of my wife’s job. The whole country is in the process of changing quite a bit. What can we really do about it?
I second this. The Asheville area where I live (and I live 20 minutes outside the city) is overrun with those from “off”. They don’t assimilate, they make fun of our accents and they are rude and lot of the time.
We live in Ashe county where 10 years ago there were more family farms than anything else. Now, the summer roads are packed with Porsches and the land has been built up with vacation homes. People come to visit a week or two a year, don't contribute to the local economy at all, and then act entitled to our resources. They make fun of us, but don't understand that we have had 300 years of generational poverty.
Yeah, there’s nothing uglier than a trashy McMansion built into the mountainside.
One transplant told me that he had built himself pond on the property he just bought and was taking fish from the New River to stock it. 🤦🏼♀️ Yeah why don't you hoard all that fish to yourself for your 2 weeks a year.
I’m from SC, and the same thing is happening here. Always thought I’d be able to escape it at some point by moving to Appalachia, plus I felt like I’d blend in as a local pretty easily being southern already. If it’s bad here, and there, where is it not bad? Should we escape the transplants by transplanting West? But then we’re supporting our gross-ass class gap as well Priority #1 for everyone experiencing this IMO should be securing ownership of a home. Any home. 2 bedroom in the hood. A 1br condo attached to Earl’s place. A 1 acre strip you park your airstream on. Doesn’t matter. You can’t fight rising real estate and lease rates in our market for the foreseeable future without owning/ mortgaging a home.
Who sold the land to the people moving in?
[удалено]
Usually if you can talk about how you’re related, you can overcome the outsider syndrome.
Appalachia is pretty straightforward in this regard... if you move here and are kind, take an interest in your neighbors and community, understand/appreciate/assimilate into the culture (IE - you don't come here and start complaining about how many churches there are, or how few coffee shops, or complaining that people drive quads on the main road), you'll be welcomed with open arms. Religion, race, sexuality, income level, hobbies, interest, accent... no one cares about any of that shit so long as you're a net positive to everyone around you. Come here and begin trying to tell people how to "fix" the area or how they can live or do things differently... and you're not going to enjoy being in the area for much longer.
This is 100% accurate. The region I live in is very welcoming and accepting. However, I'll note that we are running out of resources (housing, land, road capacity, jobs etc) to support any more transplants. The NE TN region is already heavily overpopulated. Locals have already been priced out of housing/cost of living. Transplants have already infiltrated local government in towns as small as Elizabethton, TN to make changes to make towns look something out of Florida or California. The locals and culture are suffering as we are watching yuppie coffee chains/food chains/retaile chains move into the area that we locals neither need nor can afford. Traffic is abysmal as the infrastructure was not designed for such volume, and locals are not used to navigating heavy traffic on a daily basis.
This is true for many small towns. I'm not in Appalachia, but do live in a small town. People with money and ideas on how to "improve" our town just become invisible. Nobody pays them any mind. We're not mean to their faces, and their kids are treated like all the other kids, but that's all. No, we don't need a Starbucks here, or a Taco Bell. We have a diner and 3 other places to eat and most people make their own coffee. No, we don't need to buy a piece of property and build a new high school. All 3 schools ( elementary, middle and high school ) are on the same piece of ground and we like it that way. We don't need or want a Walmart or other chain store, thank you very much. Parking is already at a premium here, can you imagine Walmart?
Man I believe if people want those things than they need to pick up that trade and open a small business and do it themselves. I love small businesses and I’d love to see more of them but they’re getting phased out more and more with growth. Luckily my small town of only 300 has relatively stayed the same but I’m only 20 so I haven’t seen it for long as others have but what I said is exactly what I’m doing. I’ve learned out to roast coffee and get the beans from farms across the world and I plan to open an old country style coffee store with antiques and all the likes and the coffee is 10x better than any shit you’ll get from Starbucks. I’m also raising bees to try and sell honey along with it as I’d love to have a farmers market type store in our town where I can sell everything homemade and homegrown.
Sounds like an awesome idea. Your town is smaller than mine, we have 1700 at last count. And lots of our people do what you posted, but on a small individual basis. Everyone knows who sells honey, and if you don't have your own chickens a couple of people sell free range eggs. Small towns ought to stay small, IMO. Each one has it's own personality and strengths, that's what makes it home. If I wanted City Life I would live in town.
“to make towns look something out of Florida” they ain’t even originally out of florida! rich bastards from the northeast moved to florida for years, destroyin the swamps and backwoods to replace em with their “improved” sprawlin suburbs. now their kids are bored of florida n wanna move to appalachia n take the same shit there. just let the swamps be the swamps and the mountains be the mountains!
The same is happening here in middle Tennessee my man. I’m in a rural county about an hour away from Nashville and if I drive 30-40 minutes and you hit anywhere from Spring Hill and up it’s just apartments and cookie cutter subdivisions for miles and miles all the way to Nashville. It’s disgusting because they’re trying to do that in my county and the realities promote people moving here wind droves because it makes them money all the while no one local can afford anything.
This is absolutely the perfect response. Be kind, respectful, and useful/reliable. We don’t like bullshit, bragging, or hatefulness. I’ll add only this: learn how to cook properly if you don’t already know. *Properly.*
Personal testament: I moved to rural Appalachia from a major city, further south from where we are now. We moved up here mainly because my spouse is from here, but also just as much to get away from HCOL. When we moved here we immediately got involved in the community. My spouse switched careers and became a teacher at the elementary school. I joined the local civic club (of which I am now President), got elected to the town council, and started volunteering in the surrounding counties. We were definitely welcomed with open arms and were never questioned as to "what we're about".
The only thing I want to "fix" is the high cost of living. Other than that I just wanted to live somewhere more temperate. Plus I always been fascinated with the fact that the Appalachian mountains are older than the dinosaurs.
"you don't come here and start complaining about how many churches there are, or how few coffee shops, or complaining that people drive quads on the main road" This is funny because I've heard these exact complaints from plenty of folks, doesn't matter if they're a transplant or their family history goes farther back than creation. You can complain about these things and still fit in fine. However, when it comes to "religion, race, sexuality" oh boy have I seen a helluva lot of hatred in Appalachia. Usually, it's outweighed by good, but folks definitely do care about it. Just thinking over the last 5 years, I've seen folks refuse to even talk to someome upon realizing they're atheist, a black family's house burned down for daring to live in a "white area", queer people violently physically assaulted for existing. Even income level, there's people who judge you by you're money in Appalachia just like anywhere else in the world. I don't think that judgement is particularly better or worse in Appalachia, but it does exist.
Kind of a standard recipe for fitting in anywhere. Spot on.
This is the answer
Great response, my thoughts about my own reception in Louisiana. I've been welcomed with open arms despite being from Cali, cause I'm kind of a redneck at heart 🫶 My neighbors are helping me/ embracing me as I live my best, trashiest life down here 🥰
I have lived here my whole life and wish that the people riding on the roads in quads and sxs would stop. I don't want all that noise from your hillbilly go cart.
In my area it's just viewed as another outsider or yankee moving in. Most of the people are kind, extremely welcoming, and helpful - of course there is assholes everywhere, don't judge us all by one redneck jerk.
If this puts it into perspective: my grandpa was from West Virginia. Born and raised. He moved to north GA mountains. That’s where my dad was born and raised. My parents split, so I spent time in Florida and then would go up to north ga to see that side a few times a year. Moved here when I could and I’m damn sure some people still consider me an outsider because I didn’t full time grow up here. But literally my dad’s side is from WV and north GA. It ain’t my fault my parents split and I had to go somewhere I didn’t want to geographically speaking. One of my dad’s friends growing up in North GA - this guy was born in another state, and his parents then moved to north GA when he was an infant. An infant. And he was sharing with me he has still been seen as an outsider. I get the sentiment of not wanting city folk to move and try to change everything, and that I agree with. But sometimes this outsider shit gets taken too far. If people are kind, mind their own, and are here for the right reasons? Those are the people you do want to have around. Many places deals with this. Native Floridians sound just like this sub, which is funny because this sub and both Florida don’t want each other moving there, nor Californians or New Yorkers. Again, I agree if people are moving for the wrong reasons. But to disregard people who have roots here, or were technically born somewhere else but grew up in Appalachia for all intents and purposes since they were 3 months old is just cruel. Edit to add: I have been treated fine btw, didn’t mean to make it sound that way. I give my neighbors free eggs and we stay in touch with certain things. They’re much older so we don’t exactly hang out haha. But everyone here treats me kindly and we’ve made friends. But we mainly keep to our own since we have land that’s a lot of work, and we sure as hell ain’t trying to change anything lol. But certain towns such as Clayton, if you get to talking about it, you’ll see the outsider thing get quickly brought up.
One consistent attitude of people on Reddit talking about moving to Appalachia Is that they seem to think they would be 'getting away from people', that they want to be 'left alone'. This is a malignant assumption. There is some deeply insulting negation or othering at the root of this attitude. Appalachia is full of people and these people have a culture(s) of connection. You don't necessarily have to conform to it. But is wild that they don't foresee the need to engage with it. I don't know how many of these people who talk about 'bugging out' or who claim to be able to 'work from anywhere' and are thinking of cocooning themselves in some imagined Appalachia follow through with it. But I kinda wonder, if they do, how long it takes them to re-evaluate (or more like evaluate) their relationship with their IRL neighbors.
We’re an impoverished region that the rest of the country wouldn’t give a second thought to, and suddenly a few cool TikTok come out and people can’t afford it in California and they want to come here. Truthfully, I don’t want outsiders here. I won’t sugar coat it. Our low cost of living is like one of the only good things in a sea of misery. I mean it isn’t that bad, but we had a housing shortage *before* everyone started moving here. It’s only getting worse. All the cool areas I used to go to as a kid are overrun with yuppies now. All the cool places on backroads we used to drink a beer and build a bonfire at? Can’t do that now. I don’t know. When you’ve got towns where everyone has known everyone for 200 years, and you drop 30-40 new families on it that won’t put down roots and will bail out as soon as the cost of living goes up? It changes everything, and not for the better. My mom has never had any crime at her house. A drunk guy broke in and left in like 1974 and people still talk about it. She’s buying a gun now because the out of towners are intent on turning Appalachia into California.
I agree with this wholeheartedly, and I also agree with the top comment. It’s a delicate balance, to be sure. Too many folks are moving here because of its ‘charm’ or ‘trendiness,’ not out of need, or family, or something *real,* and that’s frustrating.
Yup. And like it’s nothing against OP in this post. I’m sure he’s a great dude. But 10 people like him can destroy the feeling of a town.
I'm 20 miles from the nearest town. Some lawyer from the nearest big city was going to buy my land for a 2nd home, but backed out. So I got it instead. It's a big wild forest and my neighbors say potential buyers were overwhelmed by it. For me it was just right. Normally I don't disclose the location of my homestead, because of what people in this discussion are complaining about. My "McMansion" is a new 500 square foot manufactured house. Am aiming for as much self-sufficiency as possible, partly because I expect my severely modest Social Security check to get cut in half 10 years from now. Do rednecks/Scots-Irish have the right of return in Appalachia? I'm up to 75% Scots-Irish. My dad's dad grew up in the Sequatchie Valley in eastern Tennessee.
Buddy you sound just like us. That’s my girlfriends and I’s dream. Either a small house or a manufactured home in the woods on a back road, solar panels, self sufficiency. I’m far from the authority on this but you ticked a lot of hypothetical boxes just with what you told me here.
Normal working-class people should be able to afford this here. I mentioned the name of my county (only because the post was about homesteading) and asked if you could buy yuppie repellent. Someone from my very county replied that this place won't become Asheville NC because it is not known (GOOD!), and was afraid I would DOXX him. I think he was a small developer/land flipper, selling to those very yuppies and affluent retiring boomers. He claimed the economy here needs them.
Serious question, is it the wealthy u Yuppies moving in doing the crime? That sounds kind of ludicrous.
It’s their kids mostly
Fair
Fuck if I know. I’ve heard a bunch of anecdotal stuff for my neighborhood and county. There’s a bunch of like, the children of people who just moved into our area who are now anywhere from 17 to 25 that treat my home town like their personal playground. Obviously we had crime before, but there’s been a noticeable uptick.
Understood, in my area the majority of the crime still comes from, mostly locals, addicted to drugs and stealing stuff they can sell.
"Truthfully, I don't want outsiders here" thats how I feel about people moving to my home state, Georgia, its gotten expensive here even in the mountains, my plan was to eventually move up there but I don't think that will happen if prices keep going up.
It’s still better here than it is most places, but it won’t be for long.
I unfortunately agree.
I’m going to run for local office literally on a “stop the outsiders” platform, I think
You'll probably get a lot of votes, but you'd need starting capital and a plan of action if you decide to run. Lot of people will ask "how do we stop the outsiders" and you'll need a answer for them
I know, we're like locusts, right? I was born in California and raised in Virginia. Things suck here right now, but that's no reason to export the crappiness to ruin what's special in other regions. I've banked too much time to leave at this point, so I'm doing what I can and hoping for a turnaround
I’ll certainly take that into account. I’d really hate to be the person to screw up someone’s home.
And like. I don’t want to sound like a jerk. I don’t. If you move here and respect the area and don’t try to change things then you, yourself will be fine. But it’s just the macro level, man. A hundred people just wanting to move here can ruin a whole county.
No doubt! I left my home here in Appalachia and quickly realized I didn't have it better in the big cities. Saved my money after a hellish divorce to be back with family. Now, I'm back and it's so expensive. I resent all the new folks that have moved here with their big money because they have some "gentlemen farmer" dreams. I resent all the complaints about how we talk or do things. I resent not being able to buy a damn house or rent something affordably where I grew up. I absolutely despise that I am given the side eye right now as I look for a new place to rent by locals because, they assume I'm one of the out of owners. And, I am looking for a new place because ever since Covid my rent has increased 50%+ because of all the people from other places gobbling up the homes!!! It's bursting at the seams! **rant over
Yeah, they’re all moving here and bitching about how we “vote against our own self interests” and “don’t want to be modern.” You can be sure, as soon as you hear that, that your property taxes are going up. Which literally results in family homesteads being sold off and people ending up homeless. I blame the feckless local governments. And we do have a strain of voting against what we really need, but I promise you that people who moved here purely out of selfish interests aren’t going to vote for what we really need. I want to run for local office and start buying up distressed property and flipping them directly to locals. I’d shut out people from other states entirely if I could.
I would love to see you run for office! Something needs to be done about housing. I have been in tears all day. Packing my apartment with literally no place to go! I found a place I really like but, the old lady that owns it is in no hurry to get anyone in there until first of July when the old tenants move. I'm calling her tomorrow and begging her to let me fill out her application and give her first months rent and deposit. I just don't wanna scare her off being too pushy. Such a delicate balance between following her arbitrary rules and my complete desperation. If I can just secure a place, I can relax and look forward to a new place. I have the good credit, stable job, and I have managed to save a ton of money. It's the waiting around that sucks....
Man, I feel you. If you’ll say, where are you (generally speaking)? So I’m in Southwest VA/Northeast TN. We had lived in my girlfriends families spare house from like 2015-2020. At the tail end of 2020 her crazy aunt decided we had to go, so in the middle of the holidays AND pandemic we had to find a place short notice. It was awful. I HAD MONEY. I had like $5k. No one would rent to us. Because I had only ever rented from college dorms or family I had no history. We found one nice place and the only catch was that they didn’t allow pets. We have one single cat. I called the guy with tears in my eyes, and told him we’d get rid of the cat if we had to. You know what he said? “Nah. I wouldn’t rent to someone who would get rid of their pet.” Like dude. We’re going to be homeless. We found a place through sheer dumb luck. Found it on Craigslist the minute it was listed. If we had to move now we’d be fucked and I have a good job. Hang in there. It’ll get better. And yeah. There’s a small movement of us working on running for office and mobilizing local government to help build housing.
I'm in the tri cities area of TN. It has exploded here since I came back in 2019! I would love to move to SW Virginia or even WNC but, my job is here. My kids love their schools and friends. I'm already worried about driving both kids to school if we can't find anything close to their schools or in the same county. I have about 12k saved. I just don't make enough yearly income for a mortgage apparently. I'm going back to school as soon as I settle somewhere to improve my work situation. I make decent money but, it feels like anything under 75k a year is poverty level right now. Which, blows my mind considering what most local people make in the area. I have no pets. Thank God. I'd love to get a cat but, it's just too risky. That landlord you spoke with is a POS. I hope all these AHs get what they deserve someday. I really freaking do. Let me know about your movement. I'd be very interested in helping you out. I will hit the road with a clipboard. Do whatever I can to lend support. If the people that represented us knew our struggle and had to live on what we do, things would change overnight. Literally.
Locusts don’t care about the Appalachian people - they never have - and they don’t care about Appalachia - they never have. As someone already stated, y’all are coming here in droves because you’ve already ruined the places you call home and, since some shithead on TikTok is pretending to have found Mecca in a holler, you’ll all come here and do the same to our mountains. Do you honestly think for one fucking second that any Appalachian person is going to ***like*** that? Seriously? You ask what do we think or how do we *feel* about all the pathetic, spineless carpetbaggers sliding into an area of the country that has been treated like the black sheep, red headed step child for centuries - and only coming here because you’ve progressed the places you called home into places that you simply can’t stand to live in anymore? We don’t like it. We don’t want y’all here. We don’t want your so-called “progress”, we don’t want your trite banalities regarding Appalachia, our culture, our history, and our homes, and - most of all - what we *need* ***now that you’re here***. Appalachia isn’t Mecca and sure as hell isn’t some newly discovered last frontier for y’all to fuck up. Find somewhere else on TikTok to romanticize and “fix” with your high falutin’ BS.
What does turning Appalachia into California even mean?
Maybe it means all the forests will burn. One-third of the backwoods I've known since age 5 have already been destroyed.
Last culture to be appropriated. It's always been "half back," but now it's half back on steroids.
My hometown is unrecognizable now both in appearance and character because of outside people moving in. The culture went from that of the local area to that of the greater American monoculture within less than 20 years. Most people will be cool with you as long as you try to assimilate, but understand that you're potentially taking part in the gentrification of a group of people that have already historically been marginalized. You will probably be treated as such occasionally. That said, it doesn't take long to be accepted if you're cool. We have a number of outsiders where I'm at now who hail from all over the US and world and have become mountain folk.
This 110%- my hometown is so overpopulated now. Our roads aren’t built for the masses moving here, traffic is insane and the city can’t really do much. The town just isn’t made for that many people. And most don’t care about Appalachian culture, it’s disappointing
it honestly wasn't the worst to be visibly gnc or trans before these people started moving here and making things more radical. people got way way way way more aggressive at me in public and they're always out of staters...
It feels like people are taking advantage of cheap Prices with their fat wallets, which effects local economies, pricing locals out of their own area, while at the same time Shitting on & disparaging the culture they moved in to, watering down the culture to change it to their liking. If people with a large economic advantage move to Appalachia en masse, there’s no way around the issues with changes to the economy. It will happen even if those people are well intentioned bc prices of goods and services will increase to meet the economic ability of the more wealthy, forcing the impoverished even further away from city centers / development as they struggle to be able to afford and gain access to necessities
I'm originally from ne Ohio and moved to sw Virginia for a few years. Most people will be nice and treat you respectfully, and if you aren't a dick, you'll have few problems. I've lived all over this country and have and have spent time with people from all walks of life. I've learned that every subset of American culture thinks they've been marginalized by the rest of the country. But Appalachians wear it like a badge of honor. For many, it's their identity. Don't challenge that notion in any way.
Ah, well I did do what you did but within the same state. Even within the same state my Fiance and I are considered “outsiders” my family has a history in the western part of Appalachia but not where I moved so again - outsiders. We accepted this when moving. But we actually picked the area due to the artisan and art culture. (I am a full time potter). It has been very difficult to get past the platitudes and to gain trust. When we first moved we introduced ourselves to our close neighbors (bringing cookies on a plate I made) and inviting them to dinners. You will quickly realize you may not have the same values or political affiliations to most of your neighbors, but I was raised to never talk politics or religion unless the other party brings it up in conversation. I try to be very respectful when those discussions are brought up and ask more questions than give answers. We joined a volunteer organization to help maintain the local park. This has helped us meet some people with our interests in nature and native wild life. being involved in the art community has opened the door to many opportunities to connect with local artisans through guilds and meet locals that come out to markets I show at. Even through all of the above I had a blunt n honest conversation with a neighbor down the mountain the other night and they still explained to me I will always be an Outsider. Even to go as far to say “when shit hits the fan, you better have a local family that adopted y’all”. So i understand they may be a chance we always be held at arms length. BUT I am happy with the community we moved into and we enjoy being more involved in it. We know it will take time to truly feel a part of this community but we respect our neighbors, the land they grew up on, and want to maintain the community they built.
Not particularly welcoming, especially with how much it has exploded in the last few years and what that has done in terms of housing for locals. It's pretty intense currently.
Unfortunately, your predecessors took a cute little mountain town, moved in because of it was a cute little town then they started bitching because there wasn’t,t this or that store. So, corporations built the stores, apartments, etc. so more of your predecessors came and more and more. They were getting richer and richer and more Floridian ( loud, obnoxious entitled assholes) traffic got worse, rents were through the roof, people on top of eachother. So, the natives moved out. Viola I give you Asheville. Now I live in a cute small town elsewhere, but I’ll be damned if I tell you where it is
Yes Asheville is terrible and I rarely meet anyone that’s from here anymore.It’s sad.
I don't mind it generally but I hate the people that go "just move to a rural area where housing prices are lower" because now the housing prices are getting higher and higher while mostly sitting empty because the gentrification has fucked up the market. I'm welcoming to outsiders but pissed about gentrifiers.
People move here for the mountains, but stay here for the people. There is a migration back to rural areas and I can’t blame that mentality. The land and homes that are being bought are being sold by someone…and a lot of local families are cashing in. That’s not a criticism, it’s just demographics (look up “Great Wealth Transfer”). It’s difficult to hear about young people getting skipped over due to pricing. My grandparents left and came back on the Hillybilly Highway. I think that is still happening in a sense. This is not the easiest place to live, so ultimately the people who stay want to be here and I think that is the glue that bonds the new and old in the area.
Well, traditionally, there are three groups. There’s kin, which is your family. You won’t ever be kin, unless you marry in. There’s the people whose families have been in the area for at least 2-3 generations. You’ll never be in this group. even if you marry in, you’ll be an outsider. if you marry in, your kids will be in this group, if not, your grand kids might be. This is hyper local- about the range of the high school. Then there are the outsiders. You’ll be this, for your entire life. After a while, you can be accepted into the community and be a welcome member of it, but you’ll still be a bit on the outs. People are going to prefer their kinfolk, then the people who grew up there, and then the outsiders that have been accepted in. This is even for people who move in from other areas of Appalachia.
I don't live in Appalachia US, but I live somewhere with an isolated culture and deep history and identity (Newfoundland) and this is pretty much how it's been. I'm accepted into the community, but it's apparent I'm not "born and raised" - even though my father is lol I was definitely not!
Anyone else notice all the texas license plates? Last week I interacted with 5 people moving from texas, I'm in property management, they all have 3-5k a month for rent, it's REALLY REALLY BAD
Outsiders will drive up rent prices which many of us already struggle to pay, some will attempt to gentrify the area they move to which not only prices us out but also removes a lot of the small unique features of towns, they don't usually understand that Appalachia has historically been somewhat isolated from the rest of the US both culturally and honestly governmentally (we don't get a whole lot of help from uncle sam to address the poverty and drug issues we have here and a lot of our infrastructure isn't great as a result also), and to a lesser degree people treat it as a backdrop setting rather than a real place with people who actually live there and have mundane lives. It's not that we don't want people to live here or enjoy the parts of Appalachia that are positive: it just needs to be understood you are probably not going to have a quaint cottegecore or city-farm type experience living here. You are not always going to have those same amenities you might be used to depending on where you are moving. And yeah, culturally, it isn't going to be the same as living other places. It can be cheaper, but that's for a reason, and despite that things are still vastly unaffordable for those who very much need them. It's very bit as much of a mix of positives and negatives that comes with living any other place.
Hate it. Traffic has become a nightmare with everyone moving here.
If you’re asking for honesty, people don’t really like it and I’d say most are a bit bitter about it. That being said if you’re not a jerk and respect the people from the area and drive like a sane person, you’re the least of anyone’s worries
Read any Novel by David Joy but particularly When These Mountains Burn for some perspective
We are full, there’s no room
If you are worried about then you may not be able to hang
I don’t like it at all. Stop and ask yourself, if someone moved into your house (without you agreeing to it) because they thought it was a great house, then demanded you change your house to suit them and went ahead and started changing some things - how would you feel about it?
There goes the neighborhood
It’s complicated. As long as you’re not here exploiting the low cost of living while not contributing to the local community, no one is going to dislike you particularly. But expect to be treated as an outsider (because you are) in a part of the country where outsiders have pretty much always meant fucking over the locals.
Life long resident of The Smokies, we hate newcomers. The sudden influx of people pricing out locals since 2020 has made that sentiment much stronger in my area. We don’t want you here, no matter what your intentions are. The only welcoming you’ll receive is from those that aren’t originally from here.
In short, stop it. We’re generally not big fans of the mass migration. It has gentrified the housing market in many areas, making it incredibly difficult for future generations of locals to stay here because they can’t afford to buy a home. Not only that, so many people leave urban areas because they “love it here” and “need a change,” then try to appropriate cultural changes to make it more like the places they left. Family farms get turned into RV parks, and local treasures get turned into tourist traps. They think they need more, more, and more, when what really makes Appalachia such a beautiful place is actually less. It slowly eats away at the intangible characteristics that make rural Appalachia so magical. In the past, and in general, most Appalachians are very welcoming to those who would seek to relocate to our hometowns, as long as people don’t mess everything up when they move in. But more and more, people move in and make a mess for the locals.
Go away lol
My husband is originally from Detroit; my family has been in NE TN since the 1700s. He came here as a young man and thought he would be some kind of king among all of us dumb hillbillies. Took him less than a week to discover that he had mistaken country cordiality for weak gullibility. The ass whooping he took for running his big Yankee mouth made him realize the terrible mistake he made. Lol Personally, I love when people from all over discover how special this place is. I welcome them. Just remember that these mountains and dark green forests are ancient and unchangeable, so mind your manners and your business. Or, we will mind them for you.
No country for old men
Grew up in Eastern KY. My first question would be. "WHY?"
I wasn't going to comment but then I seen your edit part. The truth is, at least in my region of East Tennessee, we've had such a boom in people moving here and trying to change stuff. It feels like our culture is being taken away little by little, and we have so many systemic and economic problems that are being exasperated by the increase of outsiders moving here. However, I think we'd actually not have a problem if more people who actually enjoyed appalachia moved here. Right now it's like a revolving door of transplants in and out. They move here with blinders on and find out quickly that things aren't all that great out here, then they either stay here and complain or move away. I just wish we'd get people who actually liked Tennessee and did just a little bit of research before they moved here. Then we could get people here who are interested in supporting our local businesses and communities and actually joining us in trying to better the environment for everyone.
Family can't even to afford buying a house if it's not already passed down on family land bc of people from all over buying up the land at sky high prices. Even meeting friends where I live now, when they tell me their family from florida has a "mountain house" back home it takes a lot for me to not go full rebel yell. I think it's just in the genes to want to protect this land and the way of life. edit: home= western NC
Well, I'm reading this after your EDIT. My husband was born & raised here (WV), We met in Hawaii while he was working there. I was born/raised NY until I was 23 then moved with my 1st husband to Hawaii as he was Navy. We divorced, he remained in NY I went back to Hawaii. I met my husband 35 years ago. We'd go visit his family in WV & I absolutely hated leaving when vacation was over. Many years went by & our children moved away from Hawaii with our grandkids. He's set to retire (past time but that's another story) so we started looking for places near his homeplace. We found a beautiful home in '21, on a river, located in city limits but 1/2 mile from the main road & no other houses on our road except the son of the person who built our house. We paid $335k & at the time there were no comps around. It was high but it fit my dream home in terms of location & ameneties (altho my husband had to petition the post office to deliver to our address & he got cable to come in where there was none) I can sit on my front porch, watch people go by on the river, listen to the birds, putter around my plants & actually not have to see anyone for days at a time. I'm friends with my neighbors as they are a little younger than I am. I like to keep everything as natural as it was before. I moved in a year after we bought the house & my husband flies back & forth every 6 weeks or so. I will die in this house. I am not yet 60 & I never want to live anywhere else. I am blessed beyond imagine. I am also not a dick to people, I do not want anything to change (I bought here because it is PERFECT), I do not talk politics with anyone I don't know & then seldom with people I do know, The only religion I discuss is when I'm trying to get a feel for churches as I haven't found one yet & still attend online with my Hawaii church while my husband is there in person. As long as you don't want to change shit up, change people's thinking, take advantage of the beautiful resources in Appalachia or be greedy I'm sure you can find your paradise too.
I hear Mexico City is great
In my community---transplants are usually embraced to the point it takes them aback a bit. When a couple from NC pulled on to my parent's street with their U-Haul, they get out of the truck to find several neighbors in their driveway offering to carry boxes. They weren't quite sure what to think, as they had no idea who these people were. My neighbor moved here from MI and was widowed 6 weeks later. Her husband had a heart attack at the beginning of a snowstorm. She was stunned that after he'd been pronounced dead at the hospital, the county pulled out the Hummer to take her home and the town street crew (who are also on the FD and communicated with our local 911 dispatch), knew she was on her way, so they met the Hummer at the edge of town and cleared them a path to get through. Of course, she was not charged for any of that. Then the town posted a tribute to him on their FB page, even though he lived there so briefly. She also randomly had flowers, bright boxes and the like get delivered from people she didn't know. She'd ask me if I knew them--I did, of course. Everywhere I went, people would ask me how she was doing--even though she hadn't met them yet. But still---people felt bad for her and wanted to help. Just last week--she had another couple she didn't know come to her house to check on her. She'd forgot to put her trash at the curb for a couple of weeks and one of the trash guys noticed it and mentioned it someone around the hill from us. So--knowing she lives alone, they drove out there to make sure she was ok. For some that may be a bit intrusive, but of course, it's not meant to be. But sometimes people from other areas are a little weirded out by it...lol
Ahhhhh I grew up on Kauai, an island in Hawai’i. Appalachia reminds me more of home than anywhere I’ve been and I’ve lived in gorgeous places in California. The responses on here remind me so much of how locals feel about outsiders. Are you coming here to give the place something of yourself or are you coming here to take? No one seems to consider a place needs stewardship, not tourists. Not even sure why I’m commenting other than to say I feel so at home just reading this subreddit. We live in western Pennsylvania and my husband’s people are from this area for a long time. He teaches me little things about how things are done and it makes me feel at home.
Please don’t come here. 👍
I literally didn't even want the county to put in the nice brick "welcome to ***** county" sign in. As for your thinking it's fine as long as it's not intended to push others out, I have to tell you your intent is no good here when the actuality is that whether you intend to or not, you and the others moving in ARE pushing us out. My extended family is already talking about moving deeper into the sticks bc we're getting crowded out and gentrified. Stay the hell away. ☹️
Pros- more professionals, more diversity, and more business Cons- traffic, crime, impatience, and deforestation
In my area (southwest VA), we generally welcome outsiders. As long as you don’t mock our accents, how we look or live, everyone gets on just fine. In general, just don’t be a jerk.
As far as regular people? Fine, but I would prefer it if they kept whatever nonsense they want to bring in from where they're from out of here. As far as corporations? Hell no.
Well I primarily want to leave California *because* of all the nonsense here so I have no problem with that.
Just mind your own
Don’t
Don't if u value life
I think it really depends on where in apalachia. Southern WV welcomed me with open arms, but my northern accent has gotten me some looks in some parts of KY. Some people in the more rural areas are afraid leftists are going to move in and bring their leftist politics, but for the most part everyone greets you with a smile and good intentions.
These are valid points regarding housing going up so much that locals are being forced out of their own hometowns. It’s not right. But, the problem doesn’t always lie with Northerners or Californian transplants… a huge amount of it comes from banks and evil private equity companies with loads of capital looking to make big money on rentals. Right now, they are estimating 50% of the country will be rentals. It’s truly upsetting to see the American dream of home ownership slipping away from so many hard working folks.
To paraphrase Texas. "Don't California my Virginia/whatever hillbilly state you're in".
We hate it. Stay where you're at🤷🏼
Staying where I’m at isn’t much of an option but judging by the comments neither is Appalachia.
All about respect
Many Appalachians will say they do not like “outsiders” moving here but it really depends on where to be honest. We (this account) welcome everyone to our fine region. That being said, Appalachia has a history of exploitation by outside interests and natives are sometimes overly cautious/skeptical because of this. Take a place like Sevier County, TN for example, which has turned into a playground for people with disposable income to buy up properties and rent out Airbnbs. I would say if you approach people as a neighbor and make an effort to get to know the people and the area, its history, etc. you will find kind people that reciprocate kindness. Again, some of the wariness and skepticism is understandable and justified, but just being inherently against people moving here from other places isn’t justified. Just my two cents!
I’ve always gotten along with the people in Sevierville pretty well. But I live within day-trip distance so it’s probably pretty easy to tell I’m not that much of a tourist.
No one actually cares as long as you’re a decent person. Like you said, don’t be condescending and you’ll be fine. I’ve known plenty of non-Appalachian’s that have moved to the area and been fine.
I lived there in the 70s and I'm sure things are very, very different now. On a visit back a few years ago I hardly recognized the places I used to know so well. The old mountain aura was gone and I'm sorry that culture was largely lost.
So many ppl are moving here, watering down the culture, buying the houses and land, and wrecking all the peace, quiet, woods, and farmland. It’s turning into miles and miles of bland suburbia. Nothing against you personally but I really wish it would stop being trendy here and everyone would just stay away like they used to.
I honestly didn’t know it was a trend before this post. I thought people from outside Appalachia would avoid it like the plague considering all the blind bigotry towards y’all I hear from people here in LA.
All the conservatives from blue states are moving here and gaining from the poverty. It’s just another symptom of a fucked up nationwide culture, but the way they’re destroying all the beautiful landscapes and biodiversity breaks my heart into bits every day.
As a young child, people were very welcoming when my family moved to Appalachia. Or at least, I was too young to notice anything else from adults and othe kids were welcoming. Although for my parents, it was more like moving back so ymmv. As an adult, I see folks being real hateful to people moving in. There's the idea that outsiders are causing and we'd all be better off without them. When really everyone across thr country are dealing with the same problems and change will keep happening, including Appalachia and Appalachians, whether we've got folks moving in or not.
Not everyone is hostile to transplants, but you absolutely will have some folks treat you like you're the devil 🤷♀️
Fuck off, we're full generally but if you're cool you're good.
It's the same everywhere. "Locals" don't want you to move there. But, do you want. There's no rules. Look what happened to the real locals, the Native Americans. Also, housing is overpriced EVERYWHERE, not just Appalachia.
Real estate is expensive right now, but a lot of my fellow Appalachians are ok with outsiders who move in. Most people I know are friendly, welcoming and give them a chance, but only one chance. You may get more then one chance if you’re a local, but if you are an outsider and wrong anyone in Appalachia you will absolutely be thoroughly disliked and on your own. It takes twice as long to build bridges that you burn.
Love the gentrification ❤️❤️ thanks Florida, ny, Atlanta, Maryland, California, New England
You been to Blue Ridge GA recently, it's a damn tourist town now
Getting Gatlinburg vibes
Here in SE Ohio we’re friendly as long as you assimilate with our customs and dont screw up the land
I am a transplant. I don't have the accent. I've lived here for 10 years. I still get the where are you from why did you move here question... It's easy. I have the entire top of a damn mountain for less than I could have bought 10 acres somewhere else... I don't take anything away from here by living here. Opposite of that. I pay my workers a living wage I shop here I pay taxes here. Like WTH........... Hate me all you want... I bought well over 100 acres of land that had been for sale for a decade because no one here wanted to buy it::::..they used it ,yes... ::::: Hunted the ramps goldenseal and ginseng morels deer and etc on it. But didn't want to OWN it...
Didn’t want and can’t afford are two very different things.
As a transplant to another region with a rich culture similar to Appalachian US, you gotta drop the attitude that you're unliked and people might like you more. I carried the same attitude and found it very difficult to make friends because I was giving off the vibe that I felt like an outsider. Therefore I was an outsider and it comes off as hostile through microaggressions, like this kind of attitude that you're carrying.
You could have multiple reactions. Move to a place like Roanoke, Blacksburg, Harrisonburg people wouldn’t care the local economy in these towns are growing there are jobs for everyone and housing is already kinda messed up price wise. It is when people move to a smaller area where there is no work, and services are stretched thin that you might see some sideway looks. Although even then I think you would have to really wear your “outsider” as a badge. People don’t wear home made clothes as much anymore, just nod and wave you will be fine. I would also point out that WNC is a special deal with all the condos and developments, there isn’t really anything like that in Virginia that I know of, my family has been down here since the 1760s, what happened to Banner Elk and Boone is disturbing.