Nashville’s ‘Laid-Back Luxury’ Attracts Homebuyers Far Beyond the Music Industry

Famous for its music scene, Nashville, TN, is now attracting corporate high earners willing to pay a premium for branded luxury in a walkable, retail-friendly neighborhood.

"I call it 'stealth wealth,'" says Corcoran Reverie agent Kris Wylder, who also heads up sales at The Residences at The Nashville Edition, a new luxury condo high-rise in The Gulch, a trendy neighborhood south of downtown and northeast of Music Row. "It's this very laid-back luxury that isn't stuffy."

Now known for its top-notch restaurants, high-end retail brands, The Frist Art Museum, and the historic Union Station Hotel, The Gulch began its transformation from a gritty industrial neighborhood of mostly parking lots about quarter of a century ago.

While downtown Nashville, famous for its flashy music venues and bars, has earned the nickname "Nash Vegas," The Gulch offers a more low-key yet still vibrant scene that Wylder compares to New York City's Chelsea district. "It's a very livable area but also central to everything," she says.

Real estate investment firm Tidal Real Estate Partners, behind notable residential, commercial, and hospitality projects in Manhattan and Brooklyn, NY; Savannah, GA; Raleigh, NC; and Nashville, is betting big on The Gulch, pouring $1.2 billion into neighborhood real estate projects.

The Residences at the Nashville Edition in The Gulch has 81 luxury condo units and 5-star hotel-level service. (DBox)

The Residences at The Nashville Edition, the condo tower being built atop the 261-room Edition hotel, a luxe boutique brand created by Marriott International in partnership with mogul Ian Schrager, is the firm's first branded condo in Nashville.

There are only two other branded residences in the city—Four Seasons Private Residences and Residences at Broadwest, which sits atop the Conrad Nashville, part of the Hilton franchise. But neither one of them is in the midst of the trendy Gulch neighborhood.

Condos inside Nashville Edition start at $1.62 million for a one-bedroom, one-bath, one-powder room unit, and range up to $8.65 million for a four-bedroom, four-bath unit with a den/flex room and a powder room.

There are two penthouses, both with expansive terraces and four bedrooms, but pricing hasn't been released.

"We’ve had really healthy interest," Corcoran Reverie broker Chris Grimes, who works on the sales team with Wylder, tells Realtor.com®, calling the complex Tidal's "crown jewel" of Nashville. The agents wouldn't release sales percentages for the building, which won't be delivered until early 2028.

Wylder says most buyers thus far have been locals, often downsizing from larger homes right outside of the city. "It's been pretty wild," she says. "The local buyer has really attached to [the building]."

Condo units in The Residences at Nashville Edition start at $1.6 million for a one-bedroom with a bath and powder room. (DBox)

Then there are those who hail from out of state, lured by such employer behemoths as Oracle, AllianceBernstein, or one of the city's many healthcare companies.

While Nashville remains known for its country crooning residents such as Keith Urban, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, Jason Aldean, or the late Dolly Parton, it is increasingly a hub for nonmusic industries like healthcare, tech, and even finance.

Says Grimes: "In the past, [country stars] Brad Paisley or Dierks Bentley might have come in the door, but now we're seeing a lot of executives that are relocating from larger cities who are used to living in an urban core and not wanting to be suburban."

The low-key Nashville luxury market

Nashville's luxury market once tracked closely with national trends, with the top 10% of listing price points (entry luxury) in August 2016 coming in around $794,000, while the national level was roughly $789,000 in the same period—a less than 1% difference between the two.

But today, it's a different story.

The metro's entry level to luxury (90th percentile) is now about 38% above the national, according to Realtor.com data, coming in at $1.66 million, while the national average is at $1.20 million.

That gap shrinks at the higher luxury tiers, but Music City still outpaces the national average in both. At the top 5% of sales, the Nashville prices are about about 32% higher than the national level. And at the top 1%—or ultraluxury level—the Nashville metro is 15% over the national, with a median of $5.96 million versus $5.16 million.

While The Edition residences comes with the usual plethora of amenities such as a pool, it also offers a level of five-star concierge service normally only found in high-end hotels. (DBox)

Yet the city doesn't tend to pop to mind as a major luxury market in the way that New York, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Boston do. Even a similar-sized metro—Austin, TX—gets far more attention for being a hot luxury market.

Grimes, who has been selling real estate in the city for 12 years, says he began to notice the push to higher luxury levels with the debut of the Four Seasons residential condo building.

Rising out of the upscale neighborhood of SoBro (south of Broadway), the 40-story condo tower atop the hotel, which opened in 2022, is sold out. Prices range from $5.16 million to $33.5 million.

"It's the branded residences those high earners are really looking for," he says. According to Realtracs data, closings in the Four Seasons and Broadwest took a median of just 36 days, compared to 177 days for the rest of the market.

"Branded residences are trading at over 96% of their listing price on average, while nonbranded properties are closer to 93%," he adds.

Typical luxury buildings might outdo each other with sweeping views, rooftop decks, high-end fitness centers, pools, and other lush amenities—but it's the hospitality-branded residences that can also offer five-star concierge service that the average condo, no matter how luxe, may not be able to compete with.

"There's that ability to open up your phone and reach out to the concierge," says Grimes, imagining the request of a Nashville Edition resident. "Oh my gosh, I'm so busy with this work call, can you please arrange to take my dog for a walk?"

"It's very exclusive, and not like we have 200 units," adds Wylder. "You can say, 'I'm going to be gone for two weeks, can every package be put inside of my unit?' It's really meant to be as full service as someone wants it to be."

While residents may pay extra for concierge services of this type, prices haven't yet been set.

The Residences only has two penthouses, each of which come with open-plan kitchens that stretch into private terraces. (DBox)

Other amenities in the building include a pet spa, large terrace with an outdoor kitchen, private catering kitchen and dining room, media room, sports simulator room, fitness club with cold plunge and sauna and personal training room, a game and screening room, and private lounges.

"And if you want red laser beams, we can make it happen," says Grimes with a laugh. "That's the level of service The Edition is known for."

As for the broader local luxury market, Grimes says it's an exciting time in Nashville: "Before The Gulch, if you wanted to live in the urban core of Nashville, you had such limited choices."

Wyler, who has lived in the city for seven years, adds that the newer million-dollar-plus price tags don't surprise her.

"When I first came here, I thought, 'This city is so undervalued for what it is and what it has to offer,'" she says. "It has exploded from an amenity standpoint—the restaurants, the health and wellness options, the shopping. It's just been incredible to see.

"To me, [Nashville] is finally just being valued where it should be. I'm like, 'Oh finally, the prices caught up with everything this city has to offer.'"