“Should we look in the city, or in Franklin or Brentwood?” is the question I get most from people moving here, and the honest answer is that they are three different ways to live, not three price points of the same thing. The city is neighborhoods with sidewalks, restaurants and 100-year-old houses, ten minutes from work. Brentwood is one-acre lots, long driveways and quiet, twenty-five minutes down I-65. Franklin is a real small town with a Main Street — plus a lot of suburb around it. Here is how they compare on the things you can actually measure, followed by a short quiz that scores your answers.
The comparison
“City” below means the in-town neighborhoods people compare with the suburbs — East Nashville, 12 South, Sylvan Park, Germantown, Green Hills — not the whole of Davidson County.
Tax rates: 2025 certified rates (Tennessee Comptroller; Williamson County Trustee; Metro Nashville) — the property tax page shows the arithmetic and every other county. Drive times are typical peak ranges from map data, not promises; a specific address can be better or worse. “What $650,000 buys” is my general reading of fall 2026 sales; the current numbers are on the market page.
The city, in a paragraph each
East Nashville is where most of my own work is: bungalows and Victorians south of Eastland, brick ranches on deeper lots in Inglewood to the north, Five Points and Riverside Village to walk to, Shelby Bottoms along the river, and downtown ten minutes across the bridge. It has the widest range of prices in town and the most active new-construction market. The East Nashville guide splits it into eight sub-neighborhoods.
12 South, Belmont and Green Hills are the south side’s version of the same idea: porches and sidewalks around 12th Avenue, Belmont’s campus, Sevier Park, and Green Hills’ shops and mid-century homes a few minutes further out. Prices in 12 South run higher than East Nashville for similar houses; Green Hills is where the city’s larger lots and larger budgets are.
Sylvan Park, The Nations and Germantown are the west and north sides: Sylvan Park’s cottages near Richland Creek and the Charlotte Avenue restaurants, The Nations’ new tall-and-skinnies and converted warehouses, and Germantown’s rowhouses, condos and the farmers’ market a short walk from the river and the ballpark.
Brentwood
Brentwood is 10 miles south of downtown and a different proposition from every in-town neighborhood: residential zoning in most of the city calls for one-acre lots, there are no apartment complexes inside the city limits, and the result is large brick homes on big lawns along quiet streets, with Maryland Farms’ office parks and the Franklin Road and Old Hickory Boulevard shopping centers doing the work a Main Street would do elsewhere. The property tax rate is the lowest of the three (about $1.49 per $100 of assessed value in 2025), which on a $650,000 home is roughly $2,150 a year less than the city — though in Brentwood, $650,000 mostly buys a townhome or condo, not one of the houses on the acre lots. The commute is I-65 or Franklin Road, 25 to 40 minutes at peak; Crockett Park, Smith Park and the greenways are the outdoor life. People pick Brentwood for space, quiet and a short drive to the Williamson County employers, and accept driving for everything else. The Brentwood page →
Franklin
Franklin is 20 miles south and has the thing Brentwood does not: a real downtown. Main Street’s brick storefronts, the Franklin Theatre, the restaurants and the festivals sit at the center of a town that was here a century and a half before the suburbs arrived, and the historic districts around it are the most walkable streets in Williamson County. Around that core is a large, newer city — the subdivisions of the 1990s to 2020s, Westhaven’s planned-community streets with their own town center, and the Cool Springs corridor along I-65 with the mall, the offices (Nissan’s North American headquarters among them) and the apartments and townhomes that Brentwood lacks. The property tax rate depends on an address most people have never heard of: inside the Franklin Special School District, the city, county and FSSD rates combine to $2.0633; outside it, $1.566. The commute downtown is 35 to 55 minutes at peak — the real cost of Franklin — and for a job in Cool Springs or Brentwood it is nothing at all. The Franklin page →
The quiz: which fits?
Six questions, scored against the table above. It takes a minute, nothing is saved or sent, and the result is a starting point for a conversation, not advice.
Is Brentwood or Franklin closer to Nashville?
Brentwood. It is about 10 miles south of downtown on I-65, roughly 25 to 40 minutes at peak; Franklin is about 20 miles, roughly 35 to 55 minutes at peak. For a job in Cool Springs or Brentwood the order flips — Franklin and Brentwood are both minutes away and the city is the long commute.
Are property taxes lower in Brentwood and Franklin than in Nashville?
Yes. On the 2025 rates a $650,000 home pays about $4,573 a year in most of Nashville, $2,421 in Brentwood and $3,353 in Franklin inside the Franklin Special School District ($2,545 outside it). Homes are assessed at 25% of value everywhere in Tennessee; it is the rate that differs.
What is the difference between Brentwood and Franklin?
Brentwood is a residential city of one-acre lots and large homes with no traditional downtown and no apartments; Franklin is a historic small town with a walkable Main Street, surrounded by newer subdivisions, planned communities like Westhaven, and the Cool Springs office and retail corridor with townhomes and apartments. Brentwood’s property tax rate is lower; Franklin has more variety of housing and price.
Is it cheaper to live in Nashville or Franklin?
It depends on what you buy. Property tax is lower in Franklin; sales tax is the same 9.75%; per home, Franklin’s typical sale price runs higher than the city’s because the homes are newer and larger, while per square foot the city is often the more expensive. The current medians are on the market page, replaced monthly.
Which Nashville neighborhoods feel most like Franklin?
None exactly, but for a walkable center with older homes around it, 12 South and East Nashville’s Five Points are the closest in-town versions; for newer construction with sidewalks and a plan, Westhaven in Franklin and The Nations in Nashville are the comparison people make.
