Best PlacesVanderbilt-West End, Nashville, TN Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville ranks 4,182nd of 5,983 U.S. neighborhoods on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on short commutes by a wide margin, and empty homes are the weak spot.

#4,182
of 5,983 neighborhoods
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 5,983 neighborhoods
Your rank
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The best neighborhoods in Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville 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.

Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville's strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%Short commutes
Top 3%State finances
Top 10%Population health
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville with other neighborhoods.

Where Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville ranks high

  • Short commute14.1 minutes each way, better than 99% of neighborhoods
  • State fiscal healthBetter than 98% of neighborhoods
  • Health outlookBetter than 91% of neighborhoods
  • Local economyBetter than 90% of neighborhoods
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than 88% of neighborhoods

Where Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville ranks low

  • Low vacancyBetter than only 1% of neighborhoods
  • Housing crash safetyBetter than only 4% of neighborhoods
  • Voter turnoutBetter than only 5% of neighborhoods
  • Crime safetyBetter than only 6% of neighborhoods
  • Healthcare accessBetter than only 14% of neighborhoods

What it costs to buy a home in Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville

A household needs to earn about $127,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $59,073, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$127,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$2,966
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $502,255 home
Median rent
$1,873
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$2,561
Property tax$237
Homeowners insurance$167

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 Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville's effective rate of 0.57%, 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 10 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 Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville

Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville runs younger than the country, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
23
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
2%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
1.4
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1818%
18 to 3469%
35 to 498%
50 to 643%
65 and older2%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville.


Who works in Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville, and how

Work in Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville centers on education and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
24%
above the national average
Unemployment
1.5%
below the national average
Job growth
+3.4%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Education34%
Health care & social15%
Hospitality & food14%
Retail trade9%
Professional & technical7%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 45%
  • Work from home 24%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 31%

Life in Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville

Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville has more restaurants and bars per resident than 86% of neighborhoods. That concentrates in some parts of Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
89
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 145.6 per 10,000 residents, more than 86% of neighborhoods
Coffee shops
23
about 37.6 per 10,000 residents, more than 93% of neighborhoods
Living on campus
3,634
students living in college or university housing

What the weather is like in Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville, month by month

Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville sees roughly 69 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 32. The comfortable stretch runs April, 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
January49°39°32°
April72°61°50°
July91°80°71°
October74°63°52°

Flying in and out of Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville

Nashville International sits about 7 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 12.6 million passengers in 2025, with 158 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
BNA
Nashville International, about 7 miles
Airport size
Large hub
25th-busiest in the US, 158 nonstop destinations
Average drive
10 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville

Schools across Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville average a C−, better than 21% of neighborhoods.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

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


Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville 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 Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville against the other 5,982 neighborhoods.


Common questions about living in Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville

Is Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville ranks 4,182nd of 5,983 neighborhoods. It scores highest on short commutes, state finances, and population health, and lowest on empty homes and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $502,255. The overall cost of living runs about 4% above the national average. Set against a $59,073 median income, cost of living beats 14% of neighborhoods.

Is Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville safe?

Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville is safer than 6% of neighborhoods. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $1,305 per resident a year.


Compare Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville with other neighborhoods


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville 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.

Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

Vanderbilt-West End, Nashville 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.