9 Best Places To Live In Tennessee
Tennessee runs no state income tax, a cost of living below the national average, and small-town infrastructure that still works. The nine below cover the state south to north: Waynesboro near the Alabama line, Church Hill near the Virginia border, and seven more in between. Each one is small enough that everyone knows the dentist by name and large enough to have one.
Waynesboro
Waynesboro sits in Wayne County in south-central Tennessee, about 90 miles south of Nashville and 75 miles east of Memphis. Population runs about 2,400. The courthouse square is the working downtown, with retail and restaurants oriented around it. Crazy Horse Recreational Park covers the main outdoor draw, with the Waynesboro City Park and Pool handling summer kid traffic and the Waynesboro Municipal Golf Course nine holes on the east side of town.
Wayne Medical Center handles the in-town acute care. The Waynesboro Senior Center on Broadway runs daily senior programming. Median home prices in town are roughly $245,000, and local crime rates run well below the national average.
Church Hill
Church Hill is in Hawkins County in upper East Tennessee, about 15 minutes from Kingsport and an hour from the Virginia state line. The town runs about 6,700 residents on the rolling foothills approach to the Appalachians. Laurel Run Park gives morning walking access without driving anywhere. Bays Mountain Golf Club runs a nine-hole layout in strong wooded surroundings.
The Church Hill Senior Citizens Center on Central Avenue runs daily programs for older adults. Acute medical care runs through Holston Valley Medical Center in Kingsport, 15 minutes away. Median home prices sit around $289,000, comfortably below the state average. The proximity to Kingsport for shopping, hospitals, and the regional airport is the practical advantage Church Hill plays on.
Camden
Camden is the county seat of Benton County, sitting between Nashville and Memphis on I-40, about an hour and a half from each. Population about 3,500. Median home prices run about $207,000, the lowest on this list. Local crime rates run around 40 percent below the national average.
The Patsy Cline Memorial north of town marks the site where the country singer's plane crashed on March 5, 1963, killing Cline and three others on the way back from a benefit show in Kansas City. The Birdsong Drive-In Theater on US Highway 70 runs outdoor movies through warmer months. West Tennessee Healthcare Camden Hospital handles in-town primary care, and the Benton County School District covers area schools.
Algood
Algood sits just east of Cookeville in Putnam County in the Upper Cumberland region. Population runs about 4,300. The town functions practically as a quiet residential extension of Cookeville, which means residents can use Cookeville Regional Medical Center, Tennessee Tech University, and the Cookeville commercial strip without living in the larger town.
Algood City Park covers the in-town green space. The Algood Senior Citizens Center handles daily programming. UCHRA (Upper Cumberland Human Resource Agency) Public Transit operates the regional transit service connecting Algood to Cookeville and the surrounding counties. Median home prices land around $330,000.
Dayton
The 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial happened in the Rhea County Courthouse in Dayton, when high school teacher John Scopes was prosecuted for teaching evolution under Tennessee's Butler Act. The courthouse still stands and operates, with the original second-floor courtroom preserved and the Scopes Trial Museum in the basement holding case artifacts and archives.
Dayton sits on the western edge of the Cumberland Plateau in Rhea County, about an hour north of Chattanooga. Laurel-Snow State Natural Area (locally called the Pocket Wilderness) covers 2,259 acres of waterfalls and forested trail just north of town. Swinging Bridge Park has the downtown picnic shelter. Rhea Medical Center is the in-town hospital. Average home prices run around $364,000.
Oliver Springs
Oliver Springs sits about 25 miles west of Knoxville at the intersection of Anderson, Morgan, and Roane counties. The town runs about 3,200 residents in the foothills of the Cumberland Mountains. Windrock Park, a private 73,000-acre off-road recreation area immediately north, is one of the largest ATV and side-by-side trail systems in the eastern United States. The park draws regular weekend traffic and supports a small recreation-tourism economy in town.
Arrowhead Park has the family green space near the town square with baseball diamonds and a pavilion. For full acute hospital care, residents head to Oak Ridge (about 10 miles east) or Knoxville. Median home prices sit around $272,000.
Erwin
Erwin is the seat of Unicoi County in upper East Tennessee, sitting in the Nolichucky River valley between the Cherokee National Forest and the Bald Mountains. The Nolichucky has been one of the better whitewater rafting and trout-fishing rivers in the southeast for decades, and the rafting industry is the historical local draw.
Hurricane Helene hit Erwin hard on September 27, 2024, when the Nolichucky flooded catastrophically and parts of the town center and the local Impact Plastics manufacturing facility were destroyed. The town has been in active rebuilding mode since. Median home prices in the area run around $370,000, but anyone considering a move should look at current conditions, road and bridge status, and the specific properties being considered. Gentry Stadium and the downtown taproom-and-restaurant scene have reopened. Unicoi County Memorial Hospital handles local acute care.
Adamsville
Adamsville is in McNairy County in southwest Tennessee, about an hour and 40 minutes east of Memphis. Population about 2,100. The town is known nationally for Buford Pusser, the McNairy County sheriff who became famous in the 1960s and 1970s for confrontations with state-line moonshiners and gambling operators, and whose story inspired the Walking Tall films. The Buford Pusser Home and Museum on Pusser Street is the actual house he lived in, preserved as it was at the time of his 1974 death.
The Adamsville Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center serves long-term care needs. Adamsville High School anchors the local school system. Median home prices run around $259,000.
Waverly
Waverly is the seat of Humphreys County in middle Tennessee, about 65 miles west of Nashville. Population about 4,400. The town was the site of a catastrophic August 2021 flood that killed 20 people and destroyed much of the downtown, and rebuilding has continued since. Most of the central business district has been reopened.
The Humphreys County Museum covers area history including the substantial Civil War activity in the region. The Waverly Country Club runs a nine-hole course welcoming to mid-level golfers. The Waverly Senior Citizens Center runs daily programs. Ascension Saint Thomas Three Rivers in town handles acute care. Median home prices run about $359,000.
What Ties the Nine Together
Each town runs a hospital or close access to one, a senior center, a school district, and median home prices below the state average. None of them are within an hour of Nashville or Memphis. Tennessee's no-income-tax setup applies to all of them. The right pick depends on whether the priority is East Tennessee mountain country (Church Hill, Dayton, Oliver Springs, Erwin), middle Tennessee (Waynesboro, Camden, Algood, Waverly), or western Tennessee (Adamsville). Both Erwin and Waverly have been through significant flood recovery and anyone moving to either should look at current conditions before committing.
