People ask me this question probably five times a week: "Rachel, if you were moving here, where would YOU live?" If I were moving to Middle Tennessee, I wouldn’t start by asking, “What’s the best city?” I’d ask: “Which city actually fits the way I want to live?” Because Franklin, Mount Juliet, Columbia, and Nashville can all be great places to live, but they offer very different lifestyles. Here’s where I’d look, depending on what mattered most to me.

If you own a home in San Diego, you’ve probably heard the usual pitch about moving to Tennessee: “You can sell your California home and buy a mansion.” That’s an oversimplification, but the same home-buying budget can purchase considerably more space in Middle Tennessee. To show the difference, we compared three real properties in San Diego and Mount Juliet at approximately $500,000, $750,000 and $1 million. These are individual examples, not market averages, but the comp