A growing number of high earners from Los Angeles and New York City are swapping their coastal lifestyles for a fresh start in Nashville, TN, where the housing market delivers more bang for their buck—along with a healthy dose of Southern charm.
Gary Ashton, founder of The Ashton Real Estate Group of Re/Max Advantage in Nashville, tells Realtor.com® that Tennessee’s state capital, where he’s lived for nearly 25 years, has been attracting coastal transplants in droves in recent years.
He credits the city’s winning combination of well-paying jobs in a variety of sectors, a vibrant entertainment scene, and—perhaps most importantly—the fact there are lower property taxes and no state income tax.
According to Ashton, coastal homeowners have been able to tap into their ample equity and put it toward purchasing larger and more upscale properties in Nashville and its affluent suburbs.
Last year, Realtor.com users from the Big Apple accounted for more than 3% of all viewer traffic to Nashville listings, second only to Chicago.
Meanwhile, online house hunters from L.A., looking at for-sale homes in Nashville, made up 2.8% of the total viewer traffic.
Enzo Fiore, a real estate agent with Ashton’s Re/Max group, says that 99% of his sales so far this year in Tennessee have involved Californians mostly looking to snap up single-family properties on sprawling plots of land within easy reach of dining and retail.
“They want the land, the tax benefits of Tennessee, the affordability, while still keeping their lifestyle of being close to restaurants, shopping, and things to do,” explains Fiore.
Booming economy fuels migration to Nashville
Several factors have contributed to the gradual rise in Nashville’s popularity among out-of-staters, including a robust local economy buttressed by a wide array of local industries, from entertainment to health care, technology, manufacturing, and finance.
The turning point came in 2005, when Nissan Motors moved its headquarters from California to the Nashville suburb of Franklin, bringing thousands of jobs to the area.
Other major companies followed in later years, including Amazon and the software giant Oracle, which is preparing to open a new global headquarters in Music City.
Not surprisingly, Nashville’s unemployment rate in April was 2.8%, which is significantly lower than the national rate of 4.2%.
In comparison, during the same period, jobless rates in New York City and Los Angeles reached 3.5% and 5.8%, respectively.
Beyond the surge in employment opportunities, Ashton says that Nashville has steadily grown cooler, drawing crowds of music lovers to its iconic Broadway venues, sports fans to football stadium and hockey arena, and rowdy bachelorette parties to the city’s ubiquitous pedal bars.
“When I first moved to Nashville, I think people knew it is maybe just [for] country music, and that was about it,” he says. “Over the years that perception has changed quite a bit.”
Additionally, Nashville has distinguished itself as a city that offers its residents a high quality of life as measured by key lifestyle metrics like commute times, the prices of everyday staples, and environmental risks.
As a result, Nashville’s robust luxury segment has skyrocketed, helping propel the city to the top of the Wall Street Journal/Realtor.com Luxury Housing Market Ranking in July 2024.
According to the latest data analyzed by Realtor.com experts, more than 18% of for-sale homes in Nashville were priced above $1 million in April, up from nearly 8% six years ago.
For context, in 2024, more than 13% of homes sold in Nashville had a sales price of $1 million or more, up from 11.4% the year prior—and the portion of properties fetching seven figures has been growing since 2021.
The luxury price threshold in Nashville—based on the 5% highest-priced homes on the market—was $2.5 million in April, down 9% from a year ago, continuing a downward trend that started last September.
But despite softening, the luxury price threshold was still 85.7% higher last month than in April 2019.
“Though far less affordable than just a few years ago, Nashville boasts low home prices relative to New York and L.A., along with more space and plenty of appealing amenities,” says Realtor.com Senior Economic Research Analyst Hannah Jones. “As more companies gave employees the go-ahead to work remotely, home shoppers looked to flee their high-priced coastal markets in search of more bang for their buck. Nashville saw an influx of activity as it offers plenty of charm, without losing the amenities of larger cities.”
A zoomed-out look at Nashville’s housing market shows that in April, the median listing price in the city was just shy of $550,000, representing a 4% decrease from the previous year.
During the same month, New York City and Los Angeles saw their median listing prices climb to $789,000 and $1,195,000, respectively.
Fiore, the Nashville Re/Max agent, says that many of his clients coming from Los Angeles are looking to spend well over $1 million in Nashville.
“It’s hard to find any homes in L.A. under $1 million, so the majority of clients selling there and moving to Tennessee are spending over $1 million,” says Fiore. “Being able to come to Tennessee, with no state income tax, and seeing how far their money goes out here compared to L.A., is a no-brainer.”
Fellow Re/Max agent Angela Terrance notes that it’s not just Big Apple dwellers and Angelenos looking to call Nashville “home.” Her clients include transplants from across California, from San Diego to San Francisco, as well as from Chicago, Kansas, and Washington state.
And while Terrance agrees that the majority of newcomers are drawn to Tennessee for lower taxes and higher affordability, there’s another reason why many people are looking to relocate to the Southern metro.
“Many are coming here for political reasons,” notes Terrance. “They are upset with the politics of their home state and find Tennessee to be a better fit.”
Another trend Terrance has been seeing is an influx of multigenerational families relocating together.
“They come all together and want several houses,” she says of her out-of-state buyers. “Or one moves, and down the road, a few more follow suit.
Bustling downtown vs. upscale suburbs
Where the new arrivals choose to settle in Nashville largely depends on their demographic and socioeconomic profile. Young professionals on a budget are typically looking to buy condos under $1 million, with amenities in or near the bustling downtown area, where they can be close to all the action, according to Ashton.
Meanwhile, families with kids are usually in the market for single-family homes with half-acre to 1-acre lots in the suburbs, where properties go for over $1 million.
And deep-pocketed transplants seeking more acreage and privacy often set their sights on towns like Belle Meade and Leiper’s Fork, where homes usually sell for upward of $3 million.
Fiore predicts that as home prices and property taxes continue to climb in California, individuals and businesses alike will be flocking to Nashville for a more affordable and “enjoyable” lifestyle.
“For what you buy a 1,000-square-foot starter home for in L.A., you could be buying a great home with land in Brentwood or Franklin,” notes Fiore, referring to two upscale Nashville suburbs.
