Change the Only Constant in Nashville

"Nashville is growing and changing fast, and the nation has taken notice," writes David Plazas in a large, photo supplemented feature for The Tennessean.

Plazas endeavors to describe the flip side of the city's rapid growth, summarized thusly: "for people who can no longer afford to live in Nashville because of the hot real estate market, the 'it city' dream is elusive."

Data backs the narrative described from multiple angles in the article:

The census reported that from 2011 to 2015, the average home price in the Nashville area was $167,500. That jumped to $266,408 in December 2016, according to monthly data tracked by the Greater Nashville Realtors.

Real Estate website Zillow even named Nashville the hottest real estate market in 2017.

Meanwhile African-American neighborhoods near downtown undergoing a wave of displacement and "[a]ffordable housing for lower-income families is now in the suburbs, in places such as Antioch, Bellevue and Madison," writes Plazas. "In some cases, that is causing a concentration of poverty in outlying areas of the city."

Rev. Bill Barnes, whose name is also found on city's affordable housing trust fund, is quoted in the article describing the "suburbanization of poverty" and the "homogenization" of neighborhoods, "where poorer children have inequitable access to quality schools, transportation and opportunities."

Plazas also discussed the affordable housing agenda laid out in the 2015 NashvilleNext comprehensive plan. For more on the community engagement process that led to the approval of that plan, read a Planetizen feature from August 2014.

The feature article by Plazas is the first in a monthly series on "growth, housing, displacement and the future of Nashville’s neighborhoods."