TN metros
Cost of living across major TN metropolitan areas.
What living in TN costs
Across the 6 TN metros we track, the typical cost-of-living index is 92.2 against a national metro median of 95.7 — about 4% cheaper than the typical US metro. That ranks TN 14 of the 48 states we cover, counting from the cheapest.
The state is not uniform: Kingsport, TN is the cheapest metro at 85.0, while Nashville, TN runs 97.0 — a spread of 14% between them.
A typical TN home costs $326,370, or about 5× median household income, and typical rent is $1,530/mo.
Taxes in TN
TN levies no state income tax, so the trade-off usually shows up in property and sales tax instead. Effective property tax runs about 0.7% of home value in a typical TN metro, and combined state and local sales tax is around 9.6%.
Property tax is the one that scales with housing, so it bites hardest in the pricier metros above. Per-metro figures are on each metro page.
| Metro | COL index | Median home | Median rent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nashville, TN | 97.0 | $455,958 | $1,798 |
| Memphis, TN | 91.9 | $247,229 | $1,441 |
| Knoxville, TN | 92.2 | $367,158 | $1,762 |
| Chattanooga, TN | 92.3 | $326,370 | $1,530 |
| Clarksville, TN | 91.7 | $292,990 | $1,342 |
| Kingsport, TN | 85.0 | $246,242 | $1,350 |
Cities & towns in TN (45)
Local property tax, home values and school scores for each place.