Best PlacesSewanee, TN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Sewanee, 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.
Sewanee ranks 7,552nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on an educated workforce by a wide margin, and civic engagement ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Sewanee
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.
Sewanee's strengths and weaknesses
Where Sewanee ranks high
- Educational attainmentBetter than 98% of towns
- Short commute15.8 minutes each way, better than 96% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 96% of towns
- BikingBetter than 96% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 90% of towns
Where Sewanee ranks low
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 8% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 17% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 28% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 31% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 32% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Sewanee
A household needs to earn about $98,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Sewanee home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $106,231, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
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 Sewanee's effective rate of 0.43%, 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.
Who lives in Sewanee
Sewanee runs younger than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Sewanee.
Who works in Sewanee, and how
Work in Sewanee centers on education and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 62%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 26%
Life in Sewanee
Sewanee has more parkland per resident than 95% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Sewanee and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Sewanee, month by month
Sewanee sees roughly 89 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 50, with lows near 32. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 50° | 40° | 32° |
| April | 72° | 60° | 50° |
| July | 89° | 78° | 70° |
| October | 74° | 62° | 52° |
Flying in and out of Sewanee
The nearest airport, Lovell Field, is about 41 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Nashville International, about 78 miles away.
The best schools in and around Sewanee
Schools across Sewanee average a C, better than 38% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Sewanee ElementaryA− · 60% proficient
- Whitwell ElementaryB · 45% proficient
Top middle schools
- Jasper Middle SchoolC− · 28% proficient
- South Middle SchoolD · 21% proficient
Top high schools
- Whitwell High SchoolC+ · 35% proficient
- Franklin Co High SchoolD · 23% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Sewanee school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Sewanee 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 Sewanee against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Sewanee
Is Sewanee a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Sewanee ranks 7,552nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on an educated workforce, short commutes, and state finances, and lowest on civic engagement and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Sewanee expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $396,727. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $106,231 median income, cost of living beats 88% of towns.
Is Sewanee safe?
Sewanee is safer than 31% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $518 per resident a year.
Compare Sewanee with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Sewanee. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Sewanee 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.
Sewanee detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Sewanee: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Sewanee: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Sewanee: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Sewanee: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Sewanee detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- 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.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.