Nashville ranks #5 for fastest year-over-year rent growth. Tax increase to push rents higher.

by Rod Williams - A new study from Apartment List finds Nashville rents have declined 0.2% over the past month, but are up moderately by 2.1% in comparison to the same time last year.


Currently, median rents in Nashville stand at $950 for a one-bedroom apartment and $1,166 for a two-bedroom. Nashville's year-over-year rent growth leads the state average of 1.5%, as well as the national average of 0.8%.

Now, as Nashville is on the verge of passing a 32% property tax hike, we can expect rents to jump again. The average renter can expect rent to increase $1800 a year if the 32% tax hike passes.

There is a lot of hypocrisy about affordable housing in Nashville.  While many advocates bemoan the loss of affordable housing, the same people supports policies that lead to a loss of affordable housing.  Supporting higher taxes is one way, government destroys affordable housing.  Another way is by opposing rezoning or actually downzoning property to stop developers from building affordable housing. This happens.  Some of the most vocal councilmembers  for affordable housing do the most to kill affordable housing and trample property rights in the process.

Another way is by rezoning large swaths of the county from zoning that permits two housing units per lot to a zoning that allows only one housing unit per lot.  When you reduce density, you increase the likelihood of the development of higher priced homes.  This also contributes to urban sprawl.

Another way we destroy affordable housing is my beautifying parts of town that were home to lower income people.  When you ban pay day lenders, restrict the number of car lots on a major corridors, require decorative fencing in front of car lots, require all dumpsters to be behind fencing on reinforced concrete pads and do other things to beautify a part of town, you increase property values and make that part of town desirable to people who previously would not have wanted to live there.  That displaces low-income people.  Every corridor cannot look like Brentwood and remain affordable.  Currently there is a plan to beautify Dickerson Road.  The days of mobile home parks on Dickerson Road are numbered.  Hundreds if not thousands of affordable housing units will be lost.

While rents have been rapidly increasing in Nashville, rent is still not as outrageously high as many other large cities.  For more detailed information see the report from Apartment List at this link.

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