What Is the Cost of Living in Nashville?
- 4 sections
- 2 tables
- 6 sources cited
By the federal government’s own price index, the Nashville area is slightly cheaper than the U.S. average overall but more expensive for housing. The Bureau of Economic Analysis put overall prices in the Nashville metro at 96.3 percent of the national level in 2024, while housing costs were 104.6 percent. In practical terms, a single adult with no children needs about $51,200 a year before taxes to cover basic costs in Davidson County, according to MIT’s Living Wage Calculator (February 2026 update).
Whether Nashville feels expensive depends on where you are coming from, whether you rent or own, and how much of your budget goes to housing and a car.
How Nashville Compares With the National Average
The BEA’s Regional Price Parities compare price levels across metro areas, with the U.S. average set at 100 (all items, FRED RPPALL34980; housing, FRED RPPSERVERENT34980).
| Measure (Nashville metro, 2024) | Index (U.S. = 100) |
|---|---|
| All items | 96.3 |
| Housing services | 104.6 |
The two numbers point in different directions for a reason. Housing is where Nashville’s prices sit above the national level; many other goods and services cost a little less than average. So someone who already owns a home, or who rents cheaply, can find Nashville comfortably priced, while a new arrival searching for an apartment feels the higher housing number first. The BEA revises earlier years when it publishes new data, so compare figures from the same release.
A Basic Budget for One Adult
MIT’s Living Wage Calculator estimates the minimum cost of basic needs in Davidson County. These are not typical or comfortable spending levels; they are the floor the calculator uses to set a living wage (MIT Living Wage, Davidson County).
| Annual cost, 1 adult, no children (MIT, Feb. 2026) | Amount |
|---|---|
| Housing | $18,507 |
| Transportation | $8,507 |
| Food | $4,814 |
| Medical | $3,236 |
| Required income after taxes (all categories, including those not listed) | $43,652 |
| Taxes | $7,591 |
| Required income before taxes | $51,243 |
That works out to a living wage of $24.64 an hour for a single adult working full time. With one child, MIT’s estimate rises to $37.95 an hour. The transportation line is large because the calculator’s basic budget includes the cost of getting around by car. Whether you can manage without one depends heavily on where you live and work, which is covered in do you need a car in Nashville.
Taxes: No Income Tax, High Sales Tax
Tennessee does not tax wage income, which is a real advantage for anyone moving from a state that does. The trade-off is sales tax. Since February 1, 2025, when the voter-approved Choose How You Move transit surcharge took effect, the combined state and local rate on most purchases in Davidson County has been 9.75 percent: the 7 percent state rate, the county’s 2.25 percent local rate, and a half-cent transit surcharge (WSMV on the referendum; Choose How You Move summary).
Groceries are taxed at a lower state rate of 4 percent. On November 1, 2026, Davidson County’s local rate on food and food ingredients drops from 2.25 percent to 1.75 percent, according to the Tennessee Department of Revenue notice reported by WSMV; prepared food, candy, alcohol, and dietary supplements are not covered by the reduction. News reports describe the combined grocery rate in different ways depending on whether they include the transit surcharge, so check the Tennessee Department of Revenue’s local sales tax rate dashboard for the total before building it into a budget.
For a wage earner, how much the missing income tax saves depends on the state you are leaving and your income, so compare your current state’s tax on your own salary rather than relying on a rule of thumb.
Housing in More Detail
Housing is a budget item that varies a great deal from one household to the next, because rents and sale prices differ widely between neighborhoods. Neighborhood-level costs are compared in the cheapest neighborhood in Nashville, and rents for a typical apartment in the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Nashville.
If you are weighing a move, run three numbers for your own situation: the rent or mortgage you would actually pay, the cost of owning and insuring a car, and your take-home pay with no state income tax. Those three numbers describe your own cost of living here more closely than a citywide index can.