If you are looking in the Columbia, SC, area, Lexington One, Lexington Five, and Richland One are 3 strong school districts.

Williamson County, just south of Nashville, has some great schools. In Davidson County, most people send their kids to private schools if they can afford it.

by whom? i agree with knight shadow-everything is centered around the university-great for a college student, but not so great for a family.

I have also read a great deal about Gainesville being a wonderful place to live. It has improved/grown over the last 20 years and is more enticing to families these days. I can't cite any articles off the top of my head and I am not sure if I even agree. (I do recall reading this though) It is an affordable area by Florida standards when it comes to homes, insurances (car/home/health), taxes, and entertainment etc. The fact still remains people gravitate there due to UF.

one more thing...again, thank you all for the continual discussions in this thread and for all your opinions/advice!

Definitely agreed. There are some good public elementary schools in Davidson County (Nashville), but once you get into middle schools/high schools, most people who can, put the kids in private school then.

With me, I went to public schools from K-4, and at that point my mom & step-dad were trying to decide between moving us to Williamson Co. for the schools, or moving me to private schools. We ended up staying in Davidson and I went to St. Bernard then St. Cecilia. But price wise, (including my sister's private school education), it was probably about the same between spending the extra $$$ on real estate in Williamson as spending the extra $$$ on schools.

Some consider Louisville, KY to be the south. I don't...but some do. With that in mind, Louisville is an amazing city. In most ways it has a lot of the attitude of a southern city, but also has a thriving arts scene, a decent music scene, incredible independent restaurants (as opposed to, say, Nashville), and isn't too far removed from the north...


also, here's a great youtube video about our city...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=OV1lnXKD8R0

I am really excited to start planning a trip this summer up the coast of Florida. I am going to make vacation stops along the coast of the very NE of Florida, spots of Georgia, and South Carolina to start. I can't wait.

I'm from Louisville, KY and have friends/family throughout the south including TN, AR, GA, SC, FL.
I would definitely look at Nashville and Louisville-
Although Louisville is located in the "northern" south, it is a great big little town.
You get the KY Derby and all that jazz, but prices here aren't too high-my FI and I bought a 5 bedroom three bathroom house for less than $200k in a nice area. The school system here is tiered- so if you have gifted children they go into the gifted system and by high school get college credit. Not only that but all of Jefferson County is open- so say you don't like your "home" school for your kids, you can apply to put them in any school in the system.
There is also a large private school sector. Louisville is strongly Catholic, but many nonCatholics go to the Catholic private schools. I actually went to Catholic schools til 5th grade when I switched to the public schools. There are also other programs such as the "traditional" program not sure what is different but I know it is a much more structured program.

Crime here isn't bad, especially for an area with 1.5 million people around it. You are also 2 1/2 hours from Indy, and Nashville and 1 1/2 hours from Cincy.

Not sure if that helps any.

Also, I just got back from Myrtle Beach- I have no desire to ever go there again. I cannot believe that is a tourist location (my best friend lives in Florence SC and we went for a day). It was dirty, the people were rude and gross and the service at the restaurants was despicable!

Anyway, just my 2 cents. Jefferson County Public Schools is the district if you want to look at it.

Have you been to Nashville in the past couple of years? In 2005/2006 a huge number of local-owned/unique/indy restaurants cropped up in Hillsboro Village, the Gulch, and along West End. Many of these are upscale and are excellent.

Now... Williamson County/Brentwood... I agree. Big Box Chain Central.

^^^ I'd also chime in for Jefferson County. Even though my heart belongs to SC and there are stellar schools in Dorchester County (District 2), I lived in Louisville when I attended seminary. I loved, loved, loved it. I also worked in a couple of schools in Jeff county and thought very highly of them. And the area (at least 7 years ago) was very clean, pretty low in crime, and close to other major cities. And it's hard to beat Louisville during Derby time. :p Thunder over Louisville was AWESOME!

[sidetrack]

Which seminary? What are you doing now?

I attended Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary to pursue my Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy. I'm not currently employed, but do volunteer as a therapist at the Chaplain's Family Life center.

Being there on Alta Vista Rd... it's pretty easy to fall in love with Louisville. The area is beautiful.

I also lived in KY about an hour away from L'ville. As a Bostonian via college years in Pittsburgh, I did feel as if Louisville was very Southern. Even in the city, the locals walked slow, drove slow, and spoke slow. Despite all that, I grew to love the area. I have a couple of Kappa alums with whom I keep in touch. Several of heir kids went to Manual DuPont HS which is a magnet HS of Jefferson County PS. Kentucky Country Day and Louisville Collegiate were popular choices when I was there during our Ft Knox stint.

I did encounter a bit of anti-Catholicism when I lived there.

Cool. I've known a few ministers who went there (most in my area went to Union or Columbia or, maybe, Princeton), although the Louisville grads I've known would have all been there decades ago.