Americans are abandoning Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City for an affordable Southern city alive with music.
Many people are moving to Nashville, TN, from cities where the cost of living is high, and they struggle to afford housing or the lifestyle they desire.
Nashville, also known as Music City, offers a thriving job market, a flourishing real estate sector, and the benefit of no state income tax. Additionally, for fans of Taylor Swift, the city holds a special appeal as it is where the singer kickstarted her career.
Nashville realtor Josh Anderson, founder of The Anderson Group, has had a front-row seat to the surge of out-of-state buyers.
‘There’s about 75 to 100 people per day moving to Nashville,’ he told the Daily Mail.
Since Nissan relocated its US headquarters from California to Franklin, a suburb of Nashville, in 2005, other tech giants like Amazon and Oracle have chosen to establish a presence in the area.
Unemployment in Nashville is just 2.8 percent, compared with 3.5 percent in New York City and 5.8 percent in Los Angeles, Realtor.com reported.
The economic boom is bringing workers who are feeding the housing market.
Nashville, TN, is seeing an influx of transplants moving in from more expensive cities
Known as Music City, Nashville has a wide open job market and no income tax for residents
Nashville realtor Josh Anderson
In April, over 18 percent of Nashville listings were priced above $1 million, up from just under 8 percent in 2018.
The median price for a large luxury home is now $2.5 million, which is 85.7 percent higher than it was in 2019, Realtor.com reported.
Despite the price tag, Anderson points out that the city’s cost of living is still manageable compared to other major metros.
‘Cost of living is certainly more expensive than it was seven or 10 years ago, but it’s still a lot less than the bigger metro markets like New York City, LA, San Francisco,’ he told the Daily Mail.
‘Probably also Dallas, parts of Atlanta. It’s still less expensive than a lot of those areas.’
The median home value in Nashville is currently $448,000. The median rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Nashville is around $1,900 a month.
The reasons people relocate tends to vary by city, he added.
‘If you’re in Chicago, your reasons for moving are typically that property taxes are just insane, there is a lack of job creation, and then the political climate. That’s the three that I hear the most,’ Anderson said.
There is about 75 to 100 people per day moving to Nashville, says one local realtor
Nashville has seen an influx of new residents from major coastal cities
Anderson’s clients from California tend to be high-income earners.
‘A lot of people from LA are moving here because of the high cost of homes, cost-of-living, additional taxes where they are.
‘A lot either work in sales or they are executives or they are business owners and they just feel like it’s impossible to make money and live,’ he said.
Nashville isn’t just offering low taxes.
The city has great schools, restaurants, and parks, including Centennial Park, a reference used twice in Taylor Swift’s song Invisible String.
In 2023, Nashville even dedicated a bench inside the park to the pop star, with a plaque reading: ‘For Taylor Swift, A bench for you to read on at Centennial Park. Welcome home, Nashville.’
Swift moved to the city when she was 13 to kickstart her music career, and still owns two properties in the area.
It’s not just country music that’s popular in town now, said Anderson.
Taylor Swift moved to the city when she was 13 to kickstart her music career
A bench inside Centennial Park dedicated to Taylor Swift and the lyrics of her song Invisible String
The city has great schools, restaurants, and parks scattered in each neighborhood
For young professionals, downtown condos under $1 million offer proximity to live music and top-tier dining
For young professionals, downtown condos under $1 million offer proximity to live music and top-tier dining.
‘The lineup over the last 30 days for concerts was Metallica, Pearl Jam, AC/DC, that was just a two-and-a-half week period,’ he said.
‘Everybody thinks it’s just country music, it’s not. It’s hip-hop, it’s everything. It’s pretty incredible.’
Foodies are also drawn to the city, known for it’s Southern fried chicken, BBQ, and Mac and Cheese.
‘Our restaurants and our nightlife are better than most bigger metro markets and it’s much smaller,’ Anderson said.
‘We’ve got all these James Beard and Michelin restaurants now.’
Nashville’s suburbs are also filling up, due to great area schools and charming main streets.
‘There’s a good mix of ages,’ Anderson said.
A two-bedroom two bathroom home Anderson has listed in Nashville for $295,000
Anderson says while downtown is still associated with honky-tonks that once people explore the city they find so much more
Downtown Franklin, just outside of Nashville, has a charming, quaint, Americana Main Street filled with shops
‘We work with a lot of people that have younger families, and then we have a lot of people that have kids going into high school.
‘All the schools in the outlying areas are really great. The schools in Williamson County are the best schools in the state of Tennessee.’
Anderson says while downtown is still associated with honky-tonks, once people explore the city and its surrounding areas they find so much more.
‘Downtown Franklin is like the most charming, quaint, Americana downtown you can get. It’s like small-town America that people love,’ he said, of the suburban city just 30 minutes drive from Nashville.
‘You come for a weekend and people are like, OK, I get it. It’s not hollow. There’s actual charming character and history.’
The downside of the population boom is that towering condo blocks are being built at a frantic pace for the flood of new arrivals, but that very prosperity is forcing others to slip through the net and on to the streets.
An estimated 86 people a day moved to the Nashville metro area in 2023, boosting the population to 2.1 million according to United States Census Bureau figures.
