Home and investor loans in Nashville

Nashville at a glance

Census figures for Nashville-Davidson (balance), which leaves out the smaller cities inside the county.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 five-year estimates (opens in a new tab) (housing figures; estimates with margins of error) and Vintage 2025 population estimates (opens in a new tab) (July 1, 2025, compared with the April 2020 base). Accessed Oct. 20, 2026.

What it means: roughly one Nashville household in two rents, and about a third of all homes are in apartment-size buildings of five units or more. That gives homebuyers plenty of condo and townhome choices, and it gives investors a wide range of property, from single-family rentals and duplexes to apartment buildings.

Where Nashville investors find deals

Nashville's housing is the most varied of the markets we cover. About one home in eleven is a townhome, about 7 percent of homes sit in two-to-four unit buildings and about a third are in buildings with five or more units. More than a quarter were built before 1970, and the median home was built in 1987, older than every other market on our Tennessee pages except Columbia.

With roughly one household in two renting, that mix gives investors several ways in: older homes to renovate and resell, duplexes and fourplexes to hold (test one against its rent with our DSCR calculator), and, for business purposes only, apartment and mixed-use buildings. Davidson County is home to about 746,000 people under one metro government.

Tall-and-skinny pairs and the East Bank

In The Nations, Sylvan Park, 12 South and East Nashville, many older houses have given way to pairs of narrow, multi-story homes, often two where one house used to stand, that locals call tall-and-skinnies. A builder can use a business-purpose ground-up construction loan to put up both homes, with funds released in draws, or a bridge loan to hold the lot while plans are drawn. Once the pair is finished and sold, each buyer finances their own home, whether they'll live in it or rent it out.

Across the Cumberland River from downtown, Metro's East Bank plan covers about 550 acres. A Sept. 22, 2026 update to the East Bank Development Authority board put substantial completion of the new enclosed Nissan Stadium at Feb. 17, 2027. Investors eyeing apartment or mixed-use buildings in the blocks around it can ask about our business-purpose programs.