Flyer5

Why is Olive Branch any better than the suburbs in Tennessee? Is there a different tax rate, income tax rate, property tax rate, etc? What would you define as the "Memphis BS?" How are the public schools in suburban TN vs MS? Any idea how much private school would cost per child? Just curious...any info would be appreciated.

Xmarc

As far as taxes are concerned Fayette County is a good deal. Very reasonable real estate taxes. It is more rural and kids would need to go to private school (the public schools aren't very good) but we do escape the Memphis BS.

Dadof6

Everyone is literally and emotionally "invested" in the decision about where they live, and I won't say that Olive Branch, or other northern Mississippi areas (Hernando, Southaven, etc) are better than the TN suburbs.

What I will say is that when I was hired by FedEx, for the first time, I had the luxury of surveying the real estate landscape for several months prior to making a choice--keep the family established, or uproot them and move to the MEM domicile.

It was a real change from the military "3-days to find a house" drill. When I was on Reserve in a crash pad, I wasn't out on the golf course or watching Oprah. Instead, I was touring schools, talking to High School band directors and coaches, scouting neighborhoods, driving the traffic patterns during rush hour to & from the airport, checking out churches, etc.

For our family, we needed a large house (5 of our 6 children were still at home then), decent public schools, reasonable property taxes, and quick access to the hub. Our final 3 contenders were Collierville, Hernando, and our ultimate choice: Olive Branch. It was a great fit for me then and is still berry berry good for Chico. 20 minutes, garage to AOC, if I get slowed down by 2 of the 6 red lights in between.

Make no mistake, Mississippi is not Northern Virginia or Nebraska; however, the public schools in DeSoto County are very good and (mostly)FREE. AP Chemistry, English, and Calculus courses, great marching bands and extracurriculars, and the munchkins scored two separate 4-year ROTC scholarships and a full academic scholarship. [Bragging light off now ] If you want to spend money, there are private schools in MS as well as TN.

We made the decision to move here as a family; while there were definite moving pains, as a whole we have thrived as a family. Now that all but 2 kids are gone, I would love to have some acreage versus a subdivision. But we put in a great pool in our back yard, which I'm reluctant to leave.

So--those are my reasons; and I fully respect anyone who has their own great reasons for why they think Collierville, Bartlett, Arlington, Lakeland, or Fayette County work best for them. Just like the never-ending seniority/QOL/airplane/domicile/commuter debate, there is something at FedEx for everyone.

Just don't get trapped into the "there is no way I'll ever live in Memphis" groupthink. I don't live in Memphis either, I just work there.

HIREME

By Memphis bs I assume it's the high theft rate...rather low murder rate (23rd) for a city its size...but you might lose your stuff I guess. I don't mind Memphis, good city w/ bad rep in my opinion (minority opinion prob). For me, OB offers much better schools, extremely low crime, higher median income, lower property tax rate, still decent local economy, a smaller town feel with big city availability, but the main reason is personal for me...almost in the middle between both our families and we are pretty close on both sides.