Best Places to Live in Tennessee 2025 – Top Cities & Towns Ranked

Tennessee keeps drawing new residents because the state pairs low costs with strong jobs, four real seasons, and land that still sells for less than the national average. This guide ranks the best places to live in Tennessee in 2025 and shows where families, retirees, and young adults fit best. So, let’s take a look at the best places to live in TN.

Is Tennessee a Good Place to Live?

Yes. Tennessee charges no broad state income tax on wages, keeps overall living costs nine percent below the national mark, and hosts the third-largest automotive cluster in the country. Health care systems such as Vanderbilt, Methodist, and Covenant anchor cities and towns, while fifty-four state parks and two major lakes give quick outdoor breaks.

Buyers who want the best places to live in Tennessee with land can still find five-acre tracts under three hundred thousand dollars within forty-five minutes of Knoxville, Chattanooga, or the Tri-Cities.

Best Places to Live in Tennessee for Families

Families look for low crime, strong schools, and yards that do not break the budget. The five towns below check every box and still let parents reach a major employer in under thirty minutes.

1. Franklin

Franklin lands at the top of state report cards year after year. Williamson County schools score in the top two percent nationally, and the town maintains more than forty parks. Main Street fills with mom-and-pop shops, yet Nashville jobs sit only twenty-one miles north. Home prices climb, but the property tax rate stays near seventy-five cents per one hundred dollars of value, far below similar high-performing districts in Texas or Illinois.

2. Collierville

Collierville gives Memphis commuters a safe suburb with a 3.5-acre average lot size. The municipal school system broke away from Shelby County in 2014 and now earns an A-plus rating. The town square hosts parades ten times a year, and the library runs free STEM camps each summer. Median household income tops one hundred ten thousand, yet a four-bedroom brick home still lists around five hundred thousand.

3. Germantown

Germantown keeps crime rates that rival New England towns. The police department answers calls in under two minutes, and the city runs its own ambulance service. Elementary class sizes stay below eighteen students, and the high school sends ninety-four percent of seniors to college.

4. Hendersonville

Hendersonville sits on Old Hickory Lake, giving every subdivision either a water view or a boat ramp. Sumner County schools added four new campuses since 2020, easing crowding. Major streets carry four lanes with timed lights, so the drive to Nashville International Airport takes twenty-four minutes at rush hour. Homeowners pay no city income tax, and the combined county-city property rate is still under one percent.

5. Mount Juliet

Mount Juliet calls itself the city between the lakes, and families have given the city the nickname since Percy Priest and Old Hickory both enable skiing on weekends within a span of fifteen minutes. The town expanded quickly, but the planners needed to have both sides of the roads with sidewalks, and hence, the children would walk to school without stepping on asphalt with the cars. New retail centers maintain the sales tax revenue at a high level, and the city uses the funds to maintain the property tax rate at zero rate in eight consecutive years.

Best Places to Live in Tennessee for Retirees

Retirees rank health care access, mild winters, and daily costs above nightlife. These five towns deliver all three and still place golf courses or hiking trails within a ten-minute drive.

1. Tellico Village

Tellico Village spreads across three counties along Tellico Lake. Residents choose among three championship golf courses, two marinas, and a full hospital campus that opened in 2022. HOA dues cover lawn care, so snowbirds lock the door and head south without worry. Home prices start near four hundred thousand for a lake view patio home, yet total monthly utilities average one hundred twenty dollars.

2. Fairfield Glade

Fairfield Glade sits on the Cumberland Plateau, so summer highs stay eight degrees cooler than Nashville. The community lists eleven lakes, five golf courses, and a wellness center with an indoor pool. Property taxes run just under one thousand dollars a year for a two-thousand-square-foot house, and the Knoxville airport is one hour away when grandkids visit.

3. Cleveland

Cleveland gives retirees a full city at half price. Bradley County Medical Center partners with Erlanger Health System for cardiac and cancer care, and the town adds new senior centers with free fitness classes. The downtown greenway follows a creek for six miles, and the Ocoee River brings visitors who keep restaurant prices low year-round. Social Security income faces no state tax, stretching fixed budgets further.

4. Paris

Paris offers small-town rhythm plus a 3,300-acre lake that state wildlife officers stock with bass and crappie every spring. The cost-of-living index sits at eighty-one, and retirees over sixty-five receive an additional property tax freeze on the first acre of land. The town square hosts free bluegrass shows each Friday, and the regional hospital runs a senior discount program that cuts outpatient fees by twenty percent.

5. Crossville

Crossville brands itself as the golf capital of Tennessee with twelve public courses. The plateau climate brings only three snow events a year, and the town added a new outpatient VA clinic in 2023. Housing stock ranges from fifty-thousand-dollar cottages to four-hundred-thousand-dollar ranch homes on acre lots, so buyers find space without tapping full retirement savings.

Best Places to Live in Tennessee for Young Adults

Young adults want rents below thirty percent of income, coworking space, and a crowd that does not head home at nine p.m. These three cities keep the energy high and the costs low.

1. Nashville – East Nashville neighborhood

East Nashville sits across the river from downtown, so rideshare fares stay under ten dollars. The area has coffee shops that double as remote offices, and rent for a one-bedroom loft averages one thousand three hundred, far below the national urban mark. Live music runs seven nights a week, and new bike lanes connect to the NFL stadium and the airport greenway.

2. Chattanooga – Southside district

Chattanooga has created the quickest municipal web in the western hemisphere; consequently, tech startups are flowing toward the Southside. Previously existing warehouses contain climbing gyms, craft breweries, and apartments with uncovered bricks. A studio will cost at least one thousand dollars each month, and the free electric shuttle will take a person to the riverfront within four minutes. Where trail runs after work are offered in the mountains, ten minutes east.

3. Knoxville – Old City and downtown

Knoxville maintains the University of Tennessee, which delivers concerts, food trucks, and sports fans to the Old City. The young professionals purchase bungalows in the 1920s at a price lower than three hundred thousand and commute to coworking lofts. The city has installed guarded bike lanes along five key routes, and breweries are hosting the pint nights that are also used to provide networking opportunities for engineers in the local Oak Ridge labs.

Best Places to Live in East Tennessee

East Tennessee brings the Smokies, four true seasons, and lakefront towns that still sell land by the acre. These three spots rank highest for buyers who want mountain views without losing grocery stores or hospitals.

1. Johnson City

The Tri-Cities are centered on Johnson City and include East Tennessee State University, which supports a new school of pharmacy and the medical center of the region. The median house prices are half as much as in Knoxville, but the city has forty-five parks and forty-three miles of trails. Sixty-four new apartments were added to the downtown core in 2024, so the young professionals are not far away from restaurants and music venues.

2. Farragut

Farragut is located in Knoxville, fifteen minutes west, and it records the lowest crime rate as per the population that exceeded twenty thousand individuals in Tennessee. The school system is ranked among the top three percent in the state, and the town has its own sports complex with indoor courts. The North border is Fort Loudoun Lake, hence most of the subdivisions have a boat ramp or marina slip. Home prices are increasing steadily, but property taxes remain below eight hundred dollars on several homes.

3. Townsend

Townsend calls itself the quiet side of the Smokies because it borders the national park without Gatlinburg traffic. Residents see black bears from back decks yet drive ten minutes to a full grocery store.

How to Find the Best Place to Live in Tennessee?

Start with a clear list of daily needs, then test each town in person. Use the bullet points below as a road map.

• Write down your top five must-haves, such as hospital distance, airport drive time, or minimum lot size, and rank them in order.
• Visit each finalist on the list during the week and again on a weekend to check traffic, noise, and crowd levels.
• Compare property tax rates and sales tax rates side by side, because a low home price can hide a high annual bill.
• Ask the county sheriff for a crime heat map that shows incidents by street, not just city totals.
• Talk to a local lender about insurance costs; flood zones and fire ratings vary block by block in Tennessee.

How to Stay Safe in the Best Places in TN?

Even safe towns see package theft and car break-ins. Take the steps below to cut risk and keep insurance premiums low.

• Install a doorbell camera that saves clips to local storage; police departments in Franklin, Collierville, and Farragut will request footage within hours of a report.

• Add motion lights on every side of the house; LED fixtures cost under forty dollars and remove dark corners.
• Use a monitored alarm system that contacts the sheriff directly; many counties waive false-alarm fees for seniors.
• Trim shrubs below window height so neighbors and patrol cars can see entry points.
• Lock ground-floor windows even when you are home; half of daytime burglars enter through an unlocked screen.

FAQs

What is the best area of Tennessee to live in?

Franklin ranks first for schools and jobs, Tellico Village leads for retirees, and East Nashville suits young adults, so the best area depends on life stage and budget.

What is the safest town to live in in Tennessee?

Germantown posts the lowest violent-crime rate among towns above thirty thousand people, followed by Farragut and Collierville, according to annual FBI reports.

What is the downfall of living in Tennessee?

Summer humidity climbs above ninety percent, sales tax reaches nearly ten percent on groceries, and tornadoes touch down most years in the western third of the state.

Conclusion

Tennessee offers buyers options that not many states have: suburbs along the lake to families, plateau towns to retirees, and music areas to young professionals. Tennessee has the most favorable places to live that are characterized by low tax levels, stable employment, and breathing space, be it land to the eastern side or a block to walk around Memphis.

Your list of must-haves is in hand, you have seen the above towns, and now you have decided on the place that fits your daily life. Create your personal review of these cities in the comments and make other readers aware of what the rankings never tell.