Fairfield Glade against Tellico Village

Tellico Village costs more every month. Fairfield Glade has a documented $6,000 charge on the day you buy; Tellico Village's current at-closing figure needs written confirmation. Tellico Village sits about half an hour from Knoxville. Fairfield Glade sits about an hour and a half away, two thousand feet up on the Cumberland Plateau. The houses there are a good deal cheaper.

On paper the two are near twins. Median age 71.1 at Fairfield Glade, 70.8 at Tellico Village. 5 6

Both have water, whatever the listings imply. Tellico Village is built along the shoreline of one lake. Fairfield Glade has eleven of its own, and two marinas. 23 The differences that actually decide it are twelve hundred feet of elevation, forty miles of distance from Knoxville, and the fee structure each association confirms before you close.

Assessment figures: Fairfield Glade from its 2026 budget, Tellico Village from its own 2026 budget adoption slides. The Tellico Village closing entry is marked for confirmation because Tennessee changed the relevant statute in April 2026 and no current amount was located in the official material checked afterward. 1 2 Home values and median ages are American Community Survey five-year estimates. 5 6 Elevations from the United States Geological Survey. 22 Distances explained in section eight.

One caveat that matters. The Fairfield Glade figure is the rate for homes with sewer and trash service. The Tellico Village figure is levied per lot or living unit. Close enough to compare, not quite the same object.

Asking prices say much the same as census values. The median single-family sale price in the Tellico Village postal code was $634,750 in June 2026, across 68 sales, with homes going at 99.6% of asking. 21 For Fairfield Glade, Redfin puts the median sale price in postal code 38558 at about $372,000 across the three months ending May 2026, on longer market times: 120 days against 69 a year earlier. 19 The two figures come from different reporters over different windows, so read the gap as a size, not a measurement.

Fairfield Glade is the larger footprint and the larger population: more than 14,000 acres, around 5,600 homes, roughly 9,400 residents, and 120 miles of roads. 3 It has five eighteen-hole golf courses, eleven lakes and two marinas. 23 The 2024 census estimate puts the population at 9,487, with 68.5% of residents aged 65 or over. 5

Tellico Village is smaller and denser: about 6,816 lots across roughly 4,800 acres, spanning Loudon and Monroe counties, with about 770 lots in the Kahite neighborhood on the Monroe side. 4 Population is around 7,414. 6 Three golf courses. The whole place is built along Tellico Lake, and the water is the point of it.

Both are unincorporated. Neither has a municipal government, so neither pays a city property tax, and in both the association sets what you pay. 14

For 2026, Tellico Village charges $186.98 a month, or $2,243.76 across the year. That was a 3% increase, adopted by the board on November 19, 2025. 1 Fairfield Glade charges $137 a month, or $1,644 a year, after a $17 increase.

The difference is $49.98 a month, or $599.76 a year, in Fairfield Glade's favor. Hold onto that figure. It's about to be spent.

For scale: Tellico Village budgeted $15.5 million of assessment revenue for 2026 across 6,915 assessment-paying properties, which is 35% of its $43.5 million total revenue. 2

For a Fairfield Glade home purchase, the reported one-time amenity reserve fee at closing rose from $5,000 to $6,000 in its 2026 budget. This page cannot yet give you a current Tellico Village figure with the same confidence.

The reason is a law that moved. A 2023 bill that would have enabled a $2,500 fee died in committee, and a revised $5,000 proposal followed. 8 7 Then Tennessee enacted Public Chapter 727 in April 2026. It changed the statutory definition so a charge connected with purchasing, issuing, maintaining, or transferring a club membership tied to the property or its community is not a transfer fee covenant. 9

That change does not tell us whether Tellico Village has adopted a fee, how much it would be, or when it would begin. Its adopted 2026 budget and July board slides do not supply a current at-closing amount. 10 Until the POA or a closing agent answers in writing, the honest entry in the table is "confirm," not zero.

Tellico Village publishes its budget adoption slides publicly each November, which is why four years of its history can be set out here. 1 11 12

Three years of increases at 5%, 3% and 3%. The board's own guidance for 2026 capped rate and assessment increases at 3% without a supporting business case, and the adopted budget met that target. 2

Fairfield Glade's 2026 increase was $17 a month on a $120 base. A little over 14% in one year, and it has a specific cause, set out on the Wyndham exit page: a partner and its timeshare associations, worth about 11% of Community Club revenue between them, moved to leave, and the budget had to absorb that loss in one year rather than three.

One bad year isn't a trend. But if you're trying to work out what you'll be paying in 2031, four years at 3% gives you more to go on than two years, one of them a shock.

Tellico Village also levied an $80 per month water and sewer infrastructure fee from September 2024, then suspended it from July 1, 2025. 13 Worth knowing: the association will add a separate line when infrastructure needs money, and will take it off again.

At Tellico Village, golf isn't in the assessment. It's a separate optional fee. For 2026, an individual taking the fully unlimited package with an association cart pays $5,295 for the year, up from $4,944 in 2025. A two-person household on the same terms pays $7,925. 2

Set against a $2,243.76 assessment, those are the numbers that make a comparison of monthly dues misleading. A golfing couple at Tellico Village is looking at roughly $10,000 a year before property tax, utilities or insurance.

The Fairfield Glade equivalents aren't here, because this site hasn't sourced them yet. For a golfer that's the most important gap on the page.

Cumberland County levies $1.1350 per $100 of assessed value, unchanged across 2024 and 2025. Loudon County levied $1.7683 outside Lenoir City across the same two years, and Monroe County, which contains the Kahite neighborhood, levied $1.5228. 14

Read straight, that says Loudon County taxes property at more than half again the Cumberland rate. Don't read it straight.

2026 is a reappraisal year in Loudon County, and the average property there is worth about 70% more than it was five years earlier. 16 When values jump, the rate resets downward: the certified 2026 rate for Loudon County outside Lenoir City is $1.1034. 15 Cumberland County's next revaluation is 2027, so its rate is still sitting on older values.

Two counties in different years of their reappraisal cycles tell you very little. The actual bill on the actual house tells you something. In Tennessee, residential property is assessed at 25% of appraised value, so the arithmetic is the appraised value, times 0.25, times the rate, divided by 100. 14 Ask the county for the current bill on the address before you make anything of the headline rates.

Cumberland County's combined sales tax is 9.75%, being 7% state and 2.75% county, with no municipal rate on top in Crossville. 17 Loudon County's is 9%, being 7% state and a 2% county rate that has stood since 1998. Tellico Village is unincorporated, so no city rate applies, though Kahite sits in Monroe County and pays 9.25%. The secondary sources contradict each other on Loudon County, some quoting 9.75%, so these figures come from the Department of Revenue's own rate table. 18

Tellico Village lies about 36 miles from downtown Knoxville, roughly 51 minutes with mid-day traffic, and about 26.6 miles from McGhee Tyson Airport, roughly 34 minutes. 25 Fairfield Glade is about 74 miles from downtown Knoxville, an hour and a half without traffic, and 10.2 miles from Crossville, its county seat, at about 20 minutes. 24

Both figures are given in whole miles, because neither community has a single front door. Routing from six points across Fairfield Glade returns anywhere from 66 to 77 miles, a spread of eleven. Tellico Village, less than half the size, spreads about three. A distance quoted to a tenth of a mile for a place this big would be inventing precision. 24 The drive times also come from different methods, one with live traffic and one without, so treat the minutes as indicative. Nothing closes the gap between 36 miles and 74.

The spread is worth a second look if you are buying at Fairfield Glade. Ten miles of difference between one end of the community and the other is a real consideration when the drive is one you will make for a specialist appointment rather than for fun.

Elevation is the other real difference. Fairfield Glade sits at about 2,086 feet on the Cumberland Plateau, and the Community Club describes it as two thousand feet above sea level. 22 23 Tellico Village sits at about 892 feet. 22 Twelve hundred feet buys you a different winter, and the plateau winter is the part of Fairfield Glade the ranking listicles leave out. Visit in February before you decide anything.

The nearest hospital to Tellico Village is Covenant Health Fort Loudoun in Lenoir City, about 11.6 miles away, a 50-bed facility with 12 emergency suites and an Advanced Primary Stroke Center designation. 26 25 It does not provide maternity or obstetric services. 27

Cumberland Medical Center in Crossville, roughly 10 miles from Fairfield Glade, is full-service and does provide maternity. 28 24 A retirement-age buyer is unlikely to need that service. It still tells you what the hospital can sustain.

What sits beyond the local hospital matters more. From Tellico Village, Knoxville and its major medical centers are about 36 miles off. From Fairfield Glade, the local clinics cover cardiology and orthopedics, and specialty care beyond them means the drive to Cookeville or Knoxville. 30 20

Cumberland County figures from its 2025 community health needs assessment. 30 Loudon County figures from County Health Rankings, 2025 release. 29 The two sets come from different compilations, so read them as the right order of magnitude rather than as decimal-exact rivals.

Cumberland County does better on primary care. Loudon County does better on mental health and dental, and the mental health gap is substantial. Neither county is well supplied by national standards. The healthcare page covers the Cumberland County picture in full , including a rumor about the hospital closing that is not true.

Almost no comparison covers this, and it's the part that decides whether a surprise bill turns up in year seven.

Tellico Village publishes a reserve study. The 2026 study reports a starting reserve balance of $18.44 million against a fully funded level of $23.9 million, which is 77% funded, with $4.64 million in annual contributions held flat for fifteen years and no special assessments projected across its thirty-year horizon. 31 The association's own budget names failure to adequately fund reserves as its first-listed risk. 2

A special assessment there needs a majority of members voting at a meeting called for the purpose, under Article X of the declaration. 32 That protection is written into the governing document rather than left to board practice.

The 2026 Tellico Village budget wasn't adopted unanimously. Two directors declined to vote for the capital project and operating expense portions. 33 Fairfield Glade's 2026 budget was approved unanimously. Read that either way you like.

In September 2025, Fairfield Glade owners rejected a proposed covenant change by 83.4% of those voting. 34 The exact ballot totals are not repeated here because automated extractions of the source disagree.

Tellico Village suits a household that wants to live on a shoreline rather than up on the plateau, wants Knoxville and a major airport inside an hour, or wants an association with a longer public record of small, predictable increases. It costs more every month, and its current at-closing amount needs written confirmation.

Fairfield Glade suits a household buying at a lower price, planning to stay a long time, and willing to absorb $6,000 at closing for a lower recurring bill. It's the bigger community, with more golf and more lakes, and it's further from everything.

This isn't a decision to make off one page. The boring recommendation is the right one: rent in each for a season, one of them in winter, and ask both associations the same questions. That list is here, written to be printed and carried into a meeting.