Belle Meade is the most expensive neighborhood in Nashville by median home value, and it isn’t particularly close. But the relevant answer depends on whether you’re buying, renting, or just trying to understand where money lives in this city.
Belle Meade: The Undisputed Top
Belle Meade is an enclave in West Nashville with private golf clubs, stately colonial and Georgian homes on large lots, and a demographic profile defined by generational wealth. It functions as its own municipality within Nashville, technically incorporated as a separate city, which gives it control over its own zoning and development. This has allowed it to remain exclusively residential and exclusively expensive. There are no honky-tonks in Belle Meade, no short-term rentals, and very little of what’s happened to the rest of Nashville in the past decade. Average home prices run well above $1 million, and the most significant properties trade considerably higher. It’s the Nashville address for people who don’t need to tell anyone they live in Nashville.
Green Hills and Oak Hill: The Second Tier
Green Hills and Oak Hill occupy the next bracket. Green Hills has an average home price above $600,000 in most market conditions, with many properties significantly higher. The neighborhood’s appeal is suburban luxury: top-rated schools, high-end shopping at The Mall at Green Hills (which includes Louis Vuitton and Tiffany & Co.), excellent restaurants, and very low crime. Oak Hill is more residential and less commercial, with large wooded lots and an equally expensive housing market. Both areas reflect the pattern of wealthy Nashville neighborhoods being south of downtown and west of I-65.
The Gulch: Expensive by Urban Standards
The Gulch is the most expensive urban neighborhood in Nashville for renters and condo buyers. High-rise units here regularly command some of the highest per-square-foot prices in the city, and the amenity packages built into the buildings, rooftop pools, fitness centers, concierge services, justify those prices in the market’s logic. A two-bedroom in The Gulch typically starts above $2,000 per month to rent and above $500,000 to buy. For a neighborhood that didn’t meaningfully exist fifteen years ago, its ascent to Nashville’s most expensive urban market happened with remarkable speed.
Forest Hills and West Meade
Forest Hills, in West Nashville adjacent to the Percy Warner Parks, offers some of Nashville’s most expensive single-family homes in a wooded, low-density setting. West Meade, about ten miles from downtown, has large homes on spacious lots and a price range that reflects proximity to both downtown and the parks. These are neighborhoods for people who want significant square footage and privacy without relocating to the suburbs entirely.
What Expensive Looks Like in Nashville vs. Coastal Markets
Nashville’s expensive neighborhoods are expensive relative to the city but reasonable by the standards of Boston, New York, or San Francisco. Belle Meade mansions that would be $10 million in Greenwich are $3 to $5 million in Nashville. This relative affordability has attracted significant wealth migration from coastal cities, which has in turn driven prices higher, particularly in Green Hills and The Gulch, where the new arrivals have often brought coastal income levels to a Nashville cost structure.
Sources
- Redfin, “14 Popular Nashville Neighborhoods” (February 2025): redfin.com/blog/nashville-tn-neighborhoods/
- Homes.com, Nashville neighborhood search: homes.com/neighborhood-search/nashville-tn/
- NashvilleHomesViewer, Most Walkable Neighborhoods in Nashville: nashvillehomeviewer.com
- GIS Geography, Nashville Neighborhood Map: gisgeography.com/nashville-neighborhood-map/