Best PlacesMiddle Valley, TN Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Middle Valley, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Middle Valley ranks 3,607th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on fast internet by a wide margin, and the weather ranks lowest.

#3,607
of 50,333 towns
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 50,333 towns
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Middle Valley

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Middle Valley area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.

Middle Valley's strengths and weaknesses

Top 1%Fast internet
Top 5%State finances
Top 10%What local pay buys
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Middle Valley with other towns.

Where Middle Valley ranks high

  • Internet speedBetter than 99% of towns
  • State fiscal healthBetter than 96% of towns
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 92% of towns
  • Low vacancyBetter than 89% of towns
  • Voter turnoutBetter than 87% of towns

Where Middle Valley ranks low

  • Nice weatherabout 62 pleasant days a year, better than only 11% of towns
  • Heat safetyBetter than only 17% of towns
  • Air qualityBetter than only 19% of towns
  • QuietBetter than only 30% of towns
  • TransitBetter than only 44% of towns

What it costs to buy a home in Middle Valley

A household needs to earn about $78,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Middle Valley home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $93,925, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$78,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,821
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $309,591 home
Median rent
$1,247
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,579
Property tax$139
Homeowners insurance$103

Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Middle Valley's effective rate of 0.54%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.

Renting versus buying

At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Middle Valley

Middle Valley runs older than the country.

Median age
45
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
21%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.6
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1819%
18 to 3418%
35 to 4920%
50 to 6422%
65 and older21%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Middle Valley.


Who works in Middle Valley, and how

Work in Middle Valley centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.

Work from home
20%
above the national average
Unemployment
3.4%
below the national average
Job growth
−0.6%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social16%
Manufacturing11%
Retail trade10%
Finance & insurance10%
Professional & technical8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 79%
  • Work from home 20%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 1%

Life in Middle Valley

The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Middle Valley.


What the weather is like in Middle Valley, month by month

Middle Valley sees roughly 62 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 54, with lows near 32. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, September, and October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January54°42°32°
April77°62°49°
July93°81°72°
October79°64°52°

Flying in and out of Middle Valley

The nearest airport, Lovell Field, is about 10 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Nashville International, about 106 miles away.

Nearest airport
CHA
Lovell Field, about 10 miles
Airport size
Small hub
128th-busiest in the US, 32 nonstop destinations
Average drive
15 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Middle Valley

Schools across Middle Valley average a B+, better than 77% of towns.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Middle Valley school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Middle Valley measure by measure

Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Middle Valley against the other 50,332 towns.


Common questions about living in Middle Valley

Is Middle Valley a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Middle Valley ranks 3,607th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on fast internet, state finances, and what local pay buys, and lowest on the weather and summer heat. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Middle Valley expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $309,591. The overall cost of living runs about 20% below the national average. Set against a $93,925 median income, cost of living beats 92% of towns.

Is Middle Valley safe?

Yes, Middle Valley is safer than 85% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $255 per resident a year.


Compare Middle Valley with other towns


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Middle Valley. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Middle Valley represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.

Middle Valley detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Middle Valley: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Middle Valley: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Middle Valley: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Middle Valley: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Middle Valley detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.