These Are The 10 Best Places To Live In Tennessee For 2018

Where are the best places in the state of Tennessee?

To the untrained eye they are the places that have awesome economies. They’re the places in Volunteer State where people have the best jobs, residents are all above average, and the sun shines the most.

However, here at HomeSnacks, we don’t trust the untrained eye and instead look to data to understand the best places to call home in Tennessee.

There might be some surprises on this list, but when you look at the unbiased data, it’s hard to argue against.

After analyzing 91 places in Tennessee, we came up with this list of the best places:

1. Germantown (Photos | Homes For Sale)
2. Brentwood (Photos | Homes For Sale)
3. Signal Mountain (Photos | Homes For Sale)
4. Collierville (Photos | Homes For Sale)
5. Spring Hill (Photos | Homes For Sale)
6. Franklin (Photos | Homes For Sale)
7. Collegedale (Photos | Homes For Sale)
8. Nolensville (Photos | Homes For Sale)
9. Bartlett (Photos | Homes For Sale)
10. Mount Juliet (Photos | Homes For Sale)

Well, it looks like you should check out Germantown if you’re thinking of moving to Tennessee — it’s the best the Volunteer State has to offer according to the data.

Follow along as we provide more insight into how we reached our overall best places to live in Tennessee.

If you’re looking for something more national, check out the best states in America or the best places to live in America.

For more Tennessee reading, check out:

• 10 Best Places To Live In Tennessee
• These Are The 10 Best Counties To Live In Tennessee
• 10 Cheapest Places To Live In Tennessee

Mapping The Best And Worst Places To Live in Tennessee

The Pressing Question: Size

Before we even started to collect data, we had to answer a tough question: Is it fair to pit cities with populations over 100,000 against places with a population of 18?

We firmly decided no, that just isn’t fair.

So to create our ranking, we broke places to live into three tiers:

• Cities — Populations over 5,000
• Towns — Populations between 1,000 and 5,000
• Small Towns — Populations below 1,000

This left us with 91 cities, 175 towns, and 136 small towns.

We then decided, no matter how much anyone loves their town, the best places have more of everything and therefore you need to have over 5,000 people to truly be ‘the best’.

Now we also realize that city living might not be your cup of tea, so we ran the following analysis on towns and then again for small towns.

You can see those two top tens at the bottom of the post.

How We Calculated The Best Place To Live In Tennessee

Now that we had our set of cities, it was time to rank them.

We ranked each place in Tennessee across a number of criteria from one to 91, with one being the best.

We then took the average rank across all criteria, with the city posting the lowest overall score being crowned the winner of the title “Best Place To Live In Tennessee”.

The criteria we looked at were:

• Median Home Values
• Median Income
• Population Density (Higher better)
• Unemployment Rate
• Commute Time
• Crime
• Education Levels
• Health Insurance Coverage
• Poverty rates

Sources of criteria include the New Census Data and FBI Crime Data.

If your city or town isn’t among the top 10, jump down to the bottom of the post to see a detailed chart of the best places in Tennessee.

Otherwise, buckle up for a ride down good living lane with Germantown at the end of the cul-de-sac.

Let’s take a look at why Germantown is a great place to call home for 2018.

There’s low crime in Germantown, and the residents here are gainfully employed (3.7% unemployment rate).

You can make Germantown your home for only $296,300 which won’t be too hard on a $107,376 household salary.

Brentwood is a short drive from everything, but who would want to leave the 2nd best place in Tennessee?

Homes are priced around $555,800 and residents have the 65th shortest commute in Tennessee.

Taking its place as the 3rd best place in Tennessee is Signal Mountain. Residents here earn a really high salary each year, and crime is fairly low, in comparison to the rest of Tennessee.

It’s considered a cultural community, as it boasts an arts scene, and many ethnic restaurants, too. Which means you can’t be bored here.

An unemployment rate of only 4.3% helps thing too.

Who wouldn’t want to live in a place where there’s low crime and everyone is rich? That’s the case with Collierville.

Things are looking peachy keen here. The unemployment rate is the 10th lowest in Tennessee and the median income comes in at $110,591.

This is the kind of place you brag to your friends on Facebook about.

Spring Hill is feeling the love as it ranks as the 5th best city to live in Tennessee for 2016.

It ranked highly because of its high incomes (12th overall) and low crime (6th overall and one of the best in the top ten).

We think the city should probably change its motto at this point to something like “The Place To Be In Tennessee”.

If you don’t have a job in Franklin, you’re most likely not trying very hard. The unemployment rate here is almost as low as you can get — 4.2%. In fact, there are probably enough butler and landscaping jobs available here to put every single unemployed resident to work, what with a median income of $88,961.

That’s actually not a bad idea…

The Town of Collegedale might be a bit of a surprise to some in terms of how well it ranks according to science.

The crime rate in Collegedale isn’t amazing, but it’s far below the state average. The homes are valued at $194,400 here, and the schools get some of the most funding in Tennessee.

If Collegedale can get some more of their residents to work, things will look even rosier here. The unemployment rate (3.8% is the 10th highest in the state.

The crime is the 17th lowest in the state in Nolensville, and there were only 12 violent crimes in the entire city last year. We think it’s even safer here than the numbers indicate.

The schools are some of the best in Tennessee, and residents live in very expensive homes. They also earn more than most every other city in the state. Residents in Nolensville earn $110,087 a year.

Perhaps what makes Bartlett so amazing is the high emphasis they put on quality education: they have one of the highest rate of education at attainment for adults.

However, quality education isn’t all that makes Bartlett great. They also have the 11th highest median income and the 68th shortest commute time.

We wouldn’t be surprised to see CNN call Mount Juliet one of the best places to live in the United States. Not only do the residents all make great livings, there’s essentially no crime in the entire city. And the residents are very involved in the community.

They can’t build homes fast enough here as it seems everyone wants a piece of Mount Juliet.

Next 10 Cities

Wrapping Up The Best Places When It Comes To Living In Tennessee

If you’re looking at areas in Tennessee with the best economic situations, where there’s lower than average crime, and a lot to do, this is an accurate list.

Germantown made a strong showing to take in the overall number one spot for 2018.

Best Towns To Live In Tennessee

1. Lookout Mountain (Pop. 1,930)
2. Belle Meade (Pop. 2,704)
3. Oak Hill (Pop. 4,686)
4. Sewanee (Pop. 2,503)
5. Forest Hills (Pop. 4,999)
6. Gray (Pop. 1,806)
7. Medina (Pop. 4,025)
8. Shackle Island (Pop. 3,290)
9. Walden (Pop. 1,907)
10. Lakesite (Pop. 1,911)

Best Small Towns To Live In Tennessee

1. Ridgeside (Pop. 671)
2. Rockvale (Pop. 822)
3. Bell Buckle (Pop. 401)
4. Walterhill (Pop. 355)
5. Rockford (Pop. 788)
6. Berry Hill (Pop. 793)
7. Baneberry (Pop. 487)
8. Garland (Pop. 343)
9. Oak Grove CDP (Sumner (Pop. 215)
10. Gibson (Pop. 316)

If you’re curious enough, here are the worst places to live in Tennessee according to the data:

1. La Follette (Pop. 7,131)
2. Savannah (Pop. 7,043)
3. Ripley (Pop. 8,249)

For more Tennessee reading, check out:

• 10 Best Places To Raise A Family In Tennessee
• These Are The 10 Best Places To Retire In Tennessee For 2018
• These Are The 10 Richest Cities In Tennessee
• 10 Safest Places In Tennessee
• 10 Worst Places To Live In Tennessee

Detailed List Of The Best Places To Live In Tennessee

Rank	City	Population	Unemployment Rate	Home Value
1	Germantown	39,213	3.7%	$296,300
2	Brentwood	40,873	2.8%	$555,800
3	Signal Mountain	8,500	4.3%	$325,900
4	Collierville	48,005	3.8%	$278,600
5	Spring Hill	34,364	3.6%	$225,800
6	Franklin	70,625	4.2%	$342,900
7	Collegedale	10,438	3.8%	$194,400
8	Nolensville	6,724	3.0%	$341,400
9	Bartlett	58,318	4.5%	$171,300
10	Mount Juliet	29,853	3.9%	$223,800
11	Hendersonville	55,073	4.7%	$211,100
12	Maryville	28,151	5.7%	$190,000
13	Farragut	21,690	4.6%	$328,600
14	White House	10,944	5.6%	$174,300
15	Atoka	8,917	4.3%	$172,400
16	Oakland	7,270	5.4%	$175,400
17	Kingston	5,841	5.5%	$143,600
18	Jonesborough	5,234	3.7%	$149,500
19	Mount Carmel	5,425	6.0%	$130,400
20	Gallatin	33,426	6.2%	$168,600
21	Murfreesboro	122,007	6.7%	$186,200
22	Goodlettsville	16,848	9.0%	$177,900
23	Smyrna	45,369	5.5%	$155,500
24	Clarksville	146,281	8.8%	$140,000
25	Arlington	11,599	1.4%	$207,800
26	Church Hill	6,723	7.8%	$123,300
27	Munford	6,025	8.7%	$148,300
28	Greenbrier	6,684	10.0%	$136,900
29	Fairview	8,271	5.8%	$172,000
30	Lakeland	12,541	3.4%	$252,000
31	Millersville	6,602	4.7%	$152,000
32	Clinton	9,993	5.1%	$150,000
33	East Ridge	21,311	3.7%	$116,200
34	Red Bank	11,794	6.1%	$126,900
35	Oak Ridge	29,285	9.0%	$149,900
36	Kingsport	52,871	7.9%	$134,800
37	Tullahoma	19,185	6.8%	$114,900
38	La Vergne	34,451	6.8%	$130,700
39	Jackson	67,162	8.3%	$128,700
40	Martin	10,989	12.9%	$125,700
41	Lebanon	29,439	8.3%	$177,100
42	Soddy-Daisy	13,162	8.2%	$119,300
43	Portland	12,125	5.8%	$128,200
44	Chattanooga	175,462	8.7%	$152,000
45	Elizabethton	14,012	7.6%	$116,100
46	Knoxville	183,927	7.5%	$120,300
47	Greeneville	15,035	7.7%	$127,900
48	Bristol	26,734	8.6%	$111,900
49	Manchester	10,387	4.5%	$116,000
50	Erwin	5,998	18.2%	$97,300
51	Loudon	5,701	6.3%	$106,300
52	Springfield	16,650	9.6%	$130,400
53	Dickson	15,098	6.7%	$137,600
54	Humboldt	8,254	4.7%	$74,800
55	Winchester	8,504	9.4%	$118,600
56	Alcoa	9,058	4.5%	$121,900
57	Cleveland	43,276	10.1%	$154,900
58	Pigeon Forge	6,092	3.0%	$168,900
59	Pulaski	7,728	6.7%	$96,900
60	Millington	11,069	7.7%	$110,900
61	Cookeville	32,256	9.6%	$156,900
62	Columbia	36,130	9.4%	$122,200
63	Mckenzie	5,650	10.9%	$89,900
64	Dayton	7,308	8.6%	$113,900
65	Milan	7,803	9.7%	$101,000
66	Dunlap	5,065	6.4%	$129,800
67	Sevierville	16,213	7.8%	$166,300
68	Henderson	6,491	15.3%	$112,700
69	Lexington	7,796	8.2%	$112,200
70	Paris	10,168	9.4%	$87,700
71	Dyersburg	16,867	10.9%	$103,900
72	Morristown	29,395	9.7%	$109,000
73	Athens	13,651	10.2%	$131,700
74	Shelbyville	20,916	7.2%	$104,200
75	Sparta	5,063	8.7%	$90,900
76	Mcminnville	13,664	7.1%	$92,500
77	Brownsville	9,938	7.8%	$94,200
78	Covington	9,016	10.9%	$98,000
79	Crossville	11,308	9.7%	$136,900
80	Memphis	655,857	11.3%	$93,700
81	Bolivar	5,154	20.3%	$90,800
82	Lewisburg	11,376	12.4%	$92,200
83	Rockwood	5,443	9.4%	$73,200
84	Sweetwater	5,877	10.4%	$110,200
85	Newport	6,856	13.6%	$92,400
86	Lawrenceburg	10,573	12.0%	$85,700
87	Fayetteville	7,033	11.5%	$96,900
88	Harriman	6,223	16.7%	$79,000
89	La Follette	7,131	11.2%	$64,200
90	Savannah	7,043	18.4%	$87,500
91	Ripley	8,249	14.4%	$91,600