Best Places to Buy Rental Property in Tennessee (2026)

Cheap is not the same as high-yield in Tennessee. Dyersburg has the lowest median price on this list at $135,000 and ranks third; Memphis, where a $152,000 home asks $1,395 a month, ranks first at 11.0 percent gross. Second is Loudon: 9.7 percent gross, $310,000 to buy, $2,500 a month to rent. Measured against the whole state, these are cheap markets: a median of $292,500 here against $364,990 statewide. The table shows the 20 highest-yielding markets among 67 Tennessee cities meeting the coverage requirements; the yield range above describes the markets shown. A second table lists four cities with enough closings to price but too few rental listings to rank.

The ranking

Gross yield here is an asking rental yield screen: twelve times the median asking rent over the median closed price, before taxes, insurance, vacancy, management or repairs. Sales use municipal boundaries. Rental listings use the associated city name and may cover a wider postal area. The ratio therefore compares related, but not perfectly matched, market samples, and a home bought at the median price does not necessarily earn the median rent. Confirmed-close medians appear where at least 30 confirmed lease closes were recorded in the window.

City by city

1. Memphis, 11.0 percent gross

Homes in Memphis closed at a median of $152,000 over the last six months and the median asking rent in the last twelve months was $1,395, a gross yield of 11.0 percent. Houses there closed at about $106 per square foot. The Memphis market page carries the monthly figures.

2. Loudon, 9.7 percent gross

Rent is what puts Loudon second here; on price alone it would sit twelfth of 20. Homes in Loudon closed at a median of $310,000 over the last twelve months and the median asking rent in the last twelve months was $2,500, a gross yield of 9.7 percent. Houses there closed at about $203 per square foot. Full detail is on the Loudon market page.

3. Dyersburg, 8.9 percent gross

Dyersburg clears the rental bar narrowly, with 63 listings behind its $1,000 median, so its 8.9 percent yield deserves a wider margin of error than the bigger samples here. Homes in Dyersburg closed at a median of $135,000 over the last twelve months and the median asking rent in the last twelve months was $1,000, a gross yield of 8.9 percent. The Dyersburg market page carries the monthly figures.

4. Lewisburg, 8.3 percent gross

At $259,900 to buy and $1,800 a month to rent, Lewisburg yields 8.3 percent gross on 153 tracked closings. Houses there closed at about $187 per square foot. The Lewisburg market page carries the monthly figures.

5. Cordova, 7.9 percent gross

The numbers: $288,750 median closed price across 644 closings, $1,900 median asking rent across 2,762 listings, 7.9 percent gross. Houses there closed at about $141 per square foot. Full detail is on the Cordova market page.

6. Bartlett, 7.8 percent gross

Bartlett ranks sixth on yield but only fourteenth on entry price: the $2,150 median asking rent is doing the work, not a cheap purchase. The numbers: $330,000 median closed price across 220 closings, $2,150 median asking rent across 198 listings, 7.8 percent gross. Houses there closed at about $151 per square foot. See the Bartlett page for the property mix and the price band.

7. Bristol, 7.8 percent gross

A low entry price does not carry Bristol far: it is third cheapest on this list and seventh on yield, with rent of $1,495 against a $230,000 median price. Homes in Bristol closed at a median of $230,000 over the last six months and the median asking rent in the last twelve months was $1,495, a gross yield of 7.8 percent. Houses there closed at about $158 per square foot. Full detail is on the Bristol market page.

8. Powell, 7.3 percent gross

Rent is what puts Powell eighth here; on price alone it would sit sixteenth of 20. At $360,000 to buy and $2,190 a month to rent, Powell yields 7.3 percent gross on 317 tracked closings. Houses there closed at about $203 per square foot. The Powell market page carries the monthly figures.

9. Knoxville, 7.2 percent gross

Knoxville ranks ninth on yield but only thirteenth on entry price: the $1,900 median asking rent is doing the work, not a cheap purchase. At $315,000 to buy and $1,900 a month to rent, Knoxville yields 7.2 percent gross on 1,758 tracked closings. See the Knoxville page for the property mix and the price band.

10. Antioch, 7.2 percent gross

Rent is what puts Antioch tenth here; on price alone it would sit eighteenth of 20. At $365,000 to buy and $2,185 a month to rent, Antioch yields 7.2 percent gross on 599 tracked closings. Houses there closed at about $206 per square foot. Full detail is on the Antioch market page.

11. Dickson, 7.0 percent gross

Homes in Dickson closed at a median of $295,000 over the last six months and the median asking rent in the last twelve months was $1,725, a gross yield of 7.0 percent. Houses there closed at about $216 per square foot. See the Dickson page for the property mix and the price band.

12. Soddy Daisy, 7.0 percent gross

Only 87 rental listings sit behind Soddy Daisy's $1,695 median; the yield is real but less settled than in cities with hundreds. The numbers: $289,900 median closed price across 195 closings, $1,695 median asking rent across 87 listings, 7.0 percent gross. See the Soddy Daisy page for the property mix and the price band.

13. Athens, 7.0 percent gross

A low entry price does not carry Athens far: it is fifth cheapest on this list and thirteenth on yield, with rent of $1,400 against a $240,000 median price. The numbers: $240,000 median closed price across 152 closings, $1,400 median asking rent across 121 listings, 7.0 percent gross. Houses there closed at about $161 per square foot. Full detail is on the Athens market page.

14. Elizabethton, 6.8 percent gross

A low entry price does not carry Elizabethton far: it is third cheapest on this list and fourteenth on yield, with rent of $1,300 against a $230,000 median price. Homes in Elizabethton closed at a median of $230,000 over the last twelve months and the median asking rent in the last twelve months was $1,300, a gross yield of 6.8 percent. See the Elizabethton page for the property mix and the price band.

15. La Vergne, 6.8 percent gross

The numbers: $360,000 median closed price across 285 closings, $2,030 median asking rent across 1,115 listings, 6.8 percent gross. Houses there closed at about $203 per square foot. The La Vergne market page carries the monthly figures.

16. Millington, 6.7 percent gross

A low entry price does not carry Millington far: it is seventh cheapest on this list and sixteenth on yield, with rent of $1,550 against a $278,995 median price. At $278,995 to buy and $1,550 a month to rent, Millington yields 6.7 percent gross on 218 tracked closings. Houses there closed at about $172 per square foot. See the Millington page for the property mix and the price band.

17. Madison, 6.7 percent gross

The numbers: $359,900 median closed price across 267 closings, $1,995 median asking rent across 614 listings, 6.7 percent gross. Houses there closed at about $221 per square foot. See the Madison page for the property mix and the price band.

18. Crossville, 6.6 percent gross

Crossville is cheaper than its yield rank suggests: tenth on price, eighteenth on yield, because a $290,000 home there rents for only $1,600. Homes in Crossville closed at a median of $290,000 over the last twelve months and the median asking rent in the last twelve months was $1,600, a gross yield of 6.6 percent. The Crossville market page carries the monthly figures.

19. Old Hickory, 6.6 percent gross

At $395,000 to buy and $2,170 a month to rent, Old Hickory yields 6.6 percent gross on 303 tracked closings. See the Old Hickory page for the property mix and the price band.

20. Pigeon Forge, 6.6 percent gross

Pigeon Forge clears the rental bar narrowly, with 92 listings behind its $2,500 median, so its 6.6 percent yield deserves a wider margin of error than the bigger samples here. The numbers: $455,143 median closed price across 326 closings, $2,500 median asking rent across 92 listings, 6.6 percent gross. Houses there closed at about $347 per square foot. See the Pigeon Forge page for the property mix and the price band.

Priced, but too few rentals to rank

Resideline can price these cities but cannot yet rank them on rent: each has 100 or more closings and fewer than 50 rental listings in the window.

How this ranking is built

• •Cities: every Tennessee city where Resideline tracked at least 100 closings inside the municipal boundary in its reporting window (six or twelve months) and at least 50 rental listings under the city's name since September 10, 2025: 67 cities qualify and the table shows the 20 highest-yielding.
• •Prices: the median price homes closed at inside the city limits, from Resideline's tracked closings; the state comparison uses the statewide median of $364,990 across 67,886 closings.
• •Rents: the median advertised rent on rental listings Resideline tracked in the last twelve months, all property types, measured on the listings that carry the city's name (a postal footprint, wider than the city line in some places).
• •Confirmed-close medians: Observed rent blends two kinds of record: confirmed lease closes extracted from property records, and the final asking rent on listings that left Resideline tracking without a recorded close. Where a city has at least 30 confirmed closes in the window, their median is printed beside the asking figure; in the last twelve months about a quarter of Resideline's close episodes are confirmed closes. The asking and confirmed-close samples are separate, not paired, so a difference between their medians is not a measured gap on the same listings.
• •What is missing: taxes, insurance, vacancy, management and repairs, which turn a gross yield into a net one, and the unit mix, which differs between what sells and what rents.

Sources and related pages

• •Resideline tracked closings inside city limits (window per city, updated September 10, 2026) and rental listings since September 10, 2025; confirmed lease closes extracted from property records.
• •More Tennessee rankings: Cheapest cities to buy a house in Tennessee ranks the same kind of list with each city's price per square foot for houses, realized appreciation and days to contract beside the median, and Cap Rate by City ranks the Tennessee cities Resideline tracks by gross rental yield. The Tennessee housing market hub carries the statewide figures and the largest Tennessee markets by closings.
• •Asking rent vs observed rent compares live asking rents with final asking rents under that study's own definition; it says nothing about confirmed lease closes.

Prepared with Resideline's research pipeline and reviewed by Jeffrey Batista, Resideline's founder.