Franklin and Brentwood now cost more to rent than Nashville itself

The typical rent in Franklin is about $2,132 a month, and in neighboring Brentwood it's $2,129. Both sit well above Nashville itself, where the typical unit runs $1,825. The suburbs have quietly passed the city they grew up around.

That's roughly $300 a month, or $3,600 a year, to rent in the suburb instead of downtown.

How the gap opened

Suburbs usually undercut the city at their center. Around Nashville the order flipped, and the reason is who moved where. Franklin households pull in a median income of about $119,528, and Brentwood is higher still at $182,088, against a metro that earns far less. When the people renting in a place earn six figures, rents follow them up.

Brentwood shows how fast it's moving. Rent there jumped 19.0% in the past year, the steepest climb of any city in the Tennessee market we track. Franklin rose 5.0% and Nashville only 2.8%, so the distance between suburb and city is still growing, not closing.

What it means if you're renting here

The math no longer rewards the old move of trading a downtown address for a cheaper place in Franklin. A one-bedroom in Franklin costs $2,243, which is $458 more than the same size in Nashville at $1,785. You're paying a premium for the school districts and the space, not saving on rent.

Murfreesboro is where the savings actually sit now, at $1,687 typical and a $1,560 one-bedroom, roughly $450 under Franklin. It's a longer drive to downtown Nashville, and that drive is the real price difference in this market.

One caveat worth stating plainly. Franklin carries a Rent Reality Score of 58 and Nashville a 67, so Nashville's rent still tracks its own history reasonably well, while Brentwood's 37 flags rent that has run ahead of its trend. A number climbing 19% in a year tends to correct, so Brentwood renters signing today are buying near a local peak.

If you're weighing the wider metro, our Nashville rent data tracks every bedroom size month to month, and you can line up any two of these cities in the compare tool.

Sources

• RentDataNow rent data for Franklin, Brentwood, Nashville and Murfreesboro (Zillow Observed Rent Index, June 2026)

• US Census Bureau, American Community Survey, median household income