TENNESSEE'S CUMBERLAND COUNTRY

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Low Prices, Low Wages, Low Crime

Residents from most other areas of the United States will be constantly amazed at the bargains, particularly in real estate, to be found here. Some undeveloped land still sells for $100 an acre, and good farmland can be found for $300 or $400 an acre. Even on the highly commercial strip that leads from Interstate 40 to downtown Crossville, an acre can be bought for around $900, and it's not at all uncommon to find a three-bedroom, two-bath house for under $40,000though the old Homestead houses with a few acres of land will probably be priced in the $60,000 or $70,000 range. The asking price for a brick, three bedroom"executive" house with a swimming pool was $83,500, and a small two-bedroom home on five acres with a 160-foot well was advertised for $9,000. Fifteen acres with a farmhouse, barn, well, and city water was going for $25,000-and real estate prices in the other counties of the Cumberland Plateau are some 15070 to 20070 less expensive. (Though the cost of drilling a well runs from $5.50 to $6.50 a foot, it can be a risky proposition. The underground sandstone rests in layers, like stacked lumber, and finding a sufficient pocket of underground water is sometimes costly. For this reason, city water is available in many rural parts of the county.)

Taxes, too, are reasonable. Property taxes in the county are $2.93 per $100 value, $1.55 in the city of Crossville, and the ratio of assessment for residential property is 25070. There is no school tax and no state personal income tax. However, Tennessee does have a 5'/2°10 sales tax, and Cumberland County tacks another 2'/4070 on top of that.

There's a reason for these reasonable prices. Wages are low (the per capita income in 1984 was $7,765, compared to $18,400 nationwide), and the annual unemployment rate is high (11.8070). It might drop to 8070 in summer, but goes up to 19070 or 20070 in winter, when tourism falls off.

Despite this, crime is not rampant. According to the sheriff's department, there were four rapes, seven robberies, 41 assaults, 150 burglaries, 27 auto thefts, and no criminal homicides in Cumberland County from September 1985 to September 1986. In Crossville itself, in the first 10 months of 1985, there were no homicides, one rape, one robbery, 22 assaults, and 76 burglaries with a 59070 recovery rate, which is well above the national average.

An Educational Dilemma

Both natives and newcomers are so delighted with this region it's practically impossible to find anyone with anything negative to say about it. They will, however, acknowledge one problem area: There is an over 50070 illiteracy rate in the county. It's blamed on the economic hardships the area experienced in past years, when people had to drop out of school to work in factories in order to survive. Even today, there is a nearly 50070 high school dropout rate, due largely to teenage pregnancies.

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