With Nashville constantly growing and undertaking multiple high-profile developments this year, we figured it was time to talk about the cost of planting some roots in Music City.

The median household income in Davidson County is $71,328, according to the US Census Bureau. State-wise, Tennessee is No. 42 in the country for median income at ~$59,695 per household.
The overall cost of living in Nashville is higher than the national average and higher than the rest of the state.

In Nashville, the cost of healthcare is lower compared to other parts of the state and the US. However, the cost of groceries, housing, transportation, and other miscellaneous expenses in the city have higher average costs than other cities in Tennessee and the country overall.

Breaking down the numbers

Hypothetically speaking, if you live in a household that brings in $71,000 annually, your max monthly budget for rent and utilities would be about $1,775 (30% of your monthly gross income). The average monthly rent for an apartment in Nashville is $1,744 — leaving you little to no wiggle room.

Meanwhile, if you’re wondering how much you can currently afford to spend on buying a home in Nashville, try using SmartAsset’s cost calculator. Factors like your marital status, annual pre-tax income, down payment, and monthly debt will help determine that figure. According to BestPlaces, the median home cost in Nashville is $413,200.Noting this feels rather low, but it is what BestPlaces says

While we’re crunching numbers, let’s also take a look at the chart below to see how Nashville's cost of living compares to that of Memphis, TN.
Interested in seeing Nashville's cost of living compared to cities in other states? We played around on NerdWallet’s cost of living calculator, where you can put in any city along with your current pre-tax household income to find out what other cities you could afford to live in.

We took a look at the cost of living in Nashville compared to Austin, TX. Here’s what we found:

The cost of living is 2% lower in Austin.
To maintain our standard of living, we would need to bring in $70,039 to our Austin household.
The median cost for a two-bedroom apartment is $1,870, which is $141 more than Nashville.Noting I used Nashville's average rent price from NerdWallet ($1,729) vs. the one used up above from Rent Cafe (1,744)

Local housing and developments

Nashville has entities like the AHR working to create more affordable units. Metro is developing a comprehensive plan based on the Affordable Housing Taskforce Report to address the city's housing challenges. Track progress on the affordable housing dashboard.

There are also a number of local development firms working on apartments — from Louisville-based LDG Development's Ewing Heights community to Elmington's Harpeth Valley Apartments at 8101 McCrory Ln.This header is an entirely new section and the template left these two graphs pretty open to be MKT-specific, so this section might need a closer look. For this paragraph in specific, I utilized this July 2024 article from City Now Next to help: "4,405-Units Of Affordable And Attainable Housing In The Nashville Pipeline."