It depends almost entirely on what problem you’re trying to solve by moving.
If you’re leaving a high cost-of-living city like New York, San Francisco, or Los Angeles, Nashville makes immediate financial sense. Tennessee has no state income tax, the cost of living runs roughly 1-8% above the national average depending on the source and the neighborhood, and the median home price sits around $525,000 in 2025, which is below Austin, Denver, and most major coastal metros. For people earning coastal salaries while working remotely, Nashville represents one of the simplest value trades in the country.
If you’re chasing a music career, Nashville is the only city that matters for country, Americana, and the songwriter-based commercial music industry. The network is real, the infrastructure exists, and you cannot replicate it anywhere else in America.
If neither of those describes you, the calculation is more complicated.
What Makes It Work
The job market is legitimately strong. Healthcare, technology, hospitality, and finance all have significant presence here, and unemployment consistently tracks below the national average. HCA Healthcare, Amazon (corporate offices), Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and AllianceBernstein are among the major employers. The tech ecosystem has been growing fast enough to produce multiple unicorn-valued startups in the last decade.
Nashville’s food and entertainment infrastructure would be the envy of cities twice its size. The density of actually good restaurants, live music venues, and outdoor recreation options is disproportionate to the city’s population. For someone who prioritizes lifestyle spending, Nashville punches hard.
The social energy is real. The city is used to newcomers. Neighborhoods like East Nashville, The Gulch, and Germantown have been cycling through new residents fast enough that community organizations, new-resident meetups, and shared social spaces have developed around that fact.
What Makes It Hard
Traffic is a persistent structural problem. Nashville ranks in the top 25 worst congestion cities in the US. With 79% of residents driving alone to work and no functional mass transit system, I-24, I-65, and I-440 function as unpaid daily taxes on your time. The average commuter loses around 34-41 hours annually to traffic depending on route and timing. Remote work substantially reduces this pain, but it does not eliminate it.
Making genuine friends takes longer here than the Southern hospitality reputation suggests. People are warm on the surface. Getting past that warmth into actual social connection requires patience and sustained effort, particularly if you’re introverted or not embedded in a church, work team, or established social institution. This is not a Nashville-specific problem, but Nashville does not solve it.
Allergies are brutal. The humid subtropical climate, combined with the spring tree pollen cycle and fall ragweed season, regularly earns Nashville poor air quality grades from the American Lung Association. People who move from dry climates are often blindsided.
Housing affordability has deteriorated significantly since 2019. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is around $1,779 per month citywide, with downtown units pushing $2,000-2,300. Five years ago those numbers were materially lower. The housing cost advantage over coastal cities still exists, but it has narrowed.
Who It Works Best For
Nashville makes the most sense for people arriving with a specific purpose: a career opportunity, a music industry connection, proximity to family, or a cost-of-living reset from somewhere more expensive. It is a excellent city for families (good parks, strong healthcare, reasonable schools), for young professionals in healthcare or tech, and for anyone who wants to live in a city that is actively building something rather than managing decline.
It is harder for people who arrive expecting a small, walkable city. Nashville is sprawling, car-dependent, and traffic-heavy. Visitors often experience the dense neighborhoods near downtown and assume the whole city functions that way. It does not.
The city rewards people who engage with it deliberately and penalizes people who assume it will do the work for them.
Sources:
- Colonial Van Lines – Living in Nashville (January 2025): colonialvanlines.com
- The Agency Nashville – Should You Move to Nashville in 2025: theagency-nashville.com
- The Honest Local – Pros and Cons of Living in Nashville (June 2024): thehonestlocal.com
- Blueground – Living in Nashville Pros and Cons (June 2024): theblueground.com
- Moverjunction – Moving to Nashville Guide 2025: moverjunction.com