At Copper Petal, a fashionable boutique on walkable Franklin road in the middle of the downtown area Clarksville, creator Megan Baggett, 25, sits on a plush green couch against an Instagram-ready grayscale background. Above their head are vibrant green terminology “Community + Esteem.” Baggett, a Clarksville homeowner since she ended up being six months outdated, knows anything or two about getting a property in this Tennessee city: she along with her spouse Luke, who’s the third generation in a household of Clarksville homes designers, lately bought their earliest room — and also that they had to move fast.

“The housing marketplace is insane immediately,” Baggett claims. “You can scarcely actually keep a property obtainable for longer than each week earlier sells.” To maintain with demand, she states, the lady husband was doing strengthening six different houses. The town of Clarksville discusses an extremely wider geographical region, and contains neighborhoods featuring an array of households: brand-new Craftsman-style, grand locations, duplexes, apartment complexes, and much more.

And, yes, you can actually afford to inhabit one of those.

Clarksville, Tennessee won’t be on your radar but, but it is, also it’s Money’s #1 number 1 place to reside in 2019. To all the millennials relocating, the town of about 160,000 someone is actually somewhere they could afford to grow down origins. An average age of a Clarksville homeowner is 29, around a decade young compared to condition of Tennessee as a whole. And do you know what? They’re really purchasing residences. Between might and July 2019, about one in every two Clarksville mortgage loans got sealed by a millennial, per Ellie Mae. That’s maybe not surprising, considering that the average Clarksville homes ended up selling just for under $156,000 in 2018, according to Attom facts — and that’s almost $100,000 below the U.S. median residence rate in identical 12 months.

“Everyone knows about San Francisco and LA and Boston and New York,” says Kenneth Rosen, manager regarding the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban business economics on institution of Ca, Berkeley. These cities tend to be preferred, but they’re furthermore costly and produce a barrier that helps to keep completely novice homebuyers.

“During The locations that people always reside in, the standard of lifetime things a lot and cost of houses issues a large number,” Rosen claims. That’s why, as home values increase nationwide — the average home ended up selling for $248,000 in 2018, right up 5.5% from the seasons previous, according to Attom information — millennials want in alleged “secondary markets,” in claims like Tennessee, Fl, and Colorado. “They’re relocating to spots the spot where the price of houses is half or even significantly less than the coastal metro places,” Rosen states.

That’s precisely why contained in this year’s ideal Places to live on positioning, we attempt to get a hold of places in which affordability happens in conjunction with a superior quality of life. Whether you’re looking an urban area or town whereby to buy your basic room or intend on renting forever, our annual checklist is designed to help you flourish and conserve on top of that.

After crunching some 159,844 information details, 100 stores nationally made on their own known as places with exemplary work increases, variety, and a great deal of things to do — all at an affordable price point.

Also because urban centers could feeling overwhelming, we launched a unique geography sort this current year, and regarded particular neighborhoods also. (Fifteen neighborhoods produced our very own final record.) You can read much more about our strategy here, to check out Money’s full positioning of the finest locations to reside The usa.

But Clarksville stood out one of the a huge selection of locations we regarded.

Fifty miles northwest of this neon bulbs of Nashville, it’s a spot where pure beauty coexists with an expanding economy, distinctive small enterprises were flourishing, an inexpensive dish out seldom costs significantly more than $12, and there’s constantly a trivia nights, society event or performance in the diary.

Present near Kentucky’s Fort Campbell, one of the largest military basics during the U.S., Clarksville has long been a beacon for servicemembers in addition to their households. A lot more than 68,000 retired military people phone Clarksville homes, per a Tennessee office of financial and Community Development document. According to neighborhood lore, Jimi Hendrix himself decided briefly in Clarksville after becoming discharged from Fort Campbell, and got a frequent performer in the downtown area clubs before transferring to New York.

You will find an increasing number of reasons to reside in Clarksville outside the army. “We actually got somebody can be found in probably 90 days before from Atlanta,” says Baggett. “They were looking to move right here and they didn’t come with connection here. They Simply came in addition they truly enjoyed they.”