Best family friendly suburb of Nashville? (Rutherford: metro, county, compare)

[bspray]

Originally Posted by star5785

For some reason I thought Nashville home prices on the whole were much more affordable than Atlanta, but they seem about the same.

That was probably true about a year ago. We bought our house in August of 2013. We had been watching the area closely for about a year and it seemed prices were starting to go up. We used Zillow as our source. We made an offer in Franklin and someone bid the same amount we did and their realtor said they were opening it up for the two of us to re-bid and we declined to raise our offer. We lost that house. We used Zillow again to guide us on how to price our current house - we bid exactly what Zillow said it was worth and we got it.

Since then, our home value has gone up close to 20% based on Zillow's valuation. I know Zillow isn't the end all be all in pricing, but it seems to be pretty accurate - especially when you look at it's trending history.

For the record, we also used Zillow to price our home we sold in San Antonio and it was pretty accurate there too.

You asked earlier why I recommended Mt. Juliet or Smyrna. I think those are both great areas, with really good schools. They have plenty of inventory in your price range. The commute into downtown Nashville is a little long for both areas but it doesn't sound like you will need to go downtown during rush hour very often so those seem like good choices to me.

[Hey_Hey]

Nashville passed the Atlanta Metro area in home price during and after the Great Recession. Nashville is growing at a faster percentage rate and there's a relative housing shortage, especially in the desirable parts of Nashville and Williamson County.

I think you'll find Smyrna to be more diverse than Mt Juliet. Murfreesboro would also be an option.

Metro Nashville has 2 or 3 "clusters" of schools that will rival the suburban schools and beat them at the Elementary level, especially those outside of Williamson County. The problem you'll run into is that housing is more expensive in many of those clusters than even Franklin. The caveat to that is that there are some decent housing options as opposed to the suburban counties, and you might be able to find a diamond in the rough (which would be a great investment BTW). Unfortunately, the neighborhood schools where single family houses are $150,000-200,000 are not very strong at all. One more thing, the two best "school systems" in Tennessee actually reside in Metro Schools in the form of the magnet schools (MLK and Hume-Fogg and their associates middle schools. Getting into them is not guaranteed though.

I initially forgot to mention a couple other areas. spring Hill could be an option if you're willing to live 45 minutes from downtown. I don't know if anyone has mentioned Hendersonville, either. It's on the lake and has a fairly broad range of housing prices couple with really good schools.

[Drake744]

If the OP or anyone in the house will be commuting to/from Nashville during normal business hours, I'd have a hard time suggesting Smyrna or Murfreesboro to anyone just based on the traffic on I-24. I realize they're used to Atlanta, but I-24 gets pretty brutal even before and after peak traffic hours. That said, I'd have no problem living in the Boro if I was working there.

[Ivyreb]

Hi! I have a question in regards to the original post. Is there a reason why Donelson or Hermitage hasn't been suggested? I ask only because we are relocating soon and considering moving there. The schools are average it seems, some better than others, and a lot of the homes seem to be in the $150-$200k range. I've never actually been there, so am I missing something?
Thank you!

[El Passeaux]

I think both are ok to live in. The problem is if you have kids. They are part of the Davidson County school district (Nashville) so in elementary they are probably ok. Its when they hit middle and high school where you get kids from a larger area in your school. I bet if you look at the school ratings, the elementary schools rate higher than the middle and high schools.

[Nashvillegirl12]

Bellevue is very nice. It's close enough to downtown and it has some really nice parks.

[titanspreds_04]

Maybe Smyrna/LaVergne/Murfreesboro. I think 150K-200K might not get you much in Mt. Juliet these days. I see new homes in MJ starting at 250k-450k all the time.

[jamalc]

Nashville is emerging just like Atlanta has been doing for the last 40 years. Homes and new subdivisions are going up everywhere. There are also great neighborhoods in the south side of the city, like Hillsboro moving south to the town of Nolensville. Another area that is booming is Murfreesboro, which is now greater Nashville. It is 32 miles southeast of downtown but only 17 miles from the city limits. I have seen new homes going up in Murfreesboro for as little as $125,000. Murfreesboro is nearly as the size of Alpharetta, and Sandy Springs combined. It's population is about 125,000.


Rutherford county where Murfreesboro and Smryna are located is emerging into a Cobb county, Ga, while Williamson county where Franklin islocated is emerging into Nashville's Gwinnett and Forsyth county. Another area also you may want to check out is Spring Hill, which is about 13 miles south of Franklin. It is another area booming with new affordable homes in the 140,000 to 250,000 range.

[El Passeaux]

Originally Posted by jamalc

Nashville is emerging just like Atlanta has been doing for the last 40 years. Homes and new subdivisions are going up everywhere. There are also great neighborhoods in the south side of the city, like Hillsboro moving south to the town of Nolensville. Another area that is booming is Murfreesboro, which is now greater Nashville. It is 32 miles southeast of downtown but only 17 miles from the city limits. I have seen new homes going up in Murfreesboro for as little as $125,000. Murfreesboro is nearly as the size of Alpharetta, and Sandy Springs combined. It's population is about 125,000.


Rutherford county where Murfreesboro and Smryna are located is emerging into a Cobb county, Ga, while Williamson county where Franklin islocated is emerging into Nashville's Gwinnett and Forsyth county. Another area also you may want to check out is Spring Hill, which is about 13 miles south of Franklin. It is another area booming with new affordable homes in the 140,000 to 250,000 range.

I would want to know where they are going to work before recommending either Murfreesboro or Spring Hill. You are moving further out and commutes could be a beast depending on where you are working (relatively speaking vs Atlanta that is).

[groovamos]

Originally Posted by jamalc

Williamson county where Franklin is located is emerging into Nashville's Gwinnett....

Boy is that ever not the case, luckily so. I'm flying out of Hobby airport today to see my brother in Chattanooga, who escaped with his wife from the diverse chaos in Lawrenceville. 1-1/2 years ago. His car got smashed up by someone who ran, after having been cornered in a cul-de-sac by my nephew. When the guy came back for his truck, the police refused to arrest him for hit-and-run, because "it was stolen"; of course theft never reported. Nephew's girlfriend hospitalized for days and my brother got an insurance hit. Lawrenceville police have their too-full hands to worry about people like my family/not. This would have been a likely conviction. Williamson by contrast is beautiful, serene, low crime, have to throw that in.