METRO AREA · 65TH LARGEST

Cost of living in Knoxville, TN

Rent, home values, family budgets, pay and taxes for the Knoxville metro area, county by county.

The short answer: Typical rent in the Knoxville metro area is $1,747 a month, +0.7% on a year earlier. A typical home in its median county is worth $309,005. A modest budget for two adults and two children runs $94,102 a year in the median county.
Housing

What a home costs in the Knoxville area.

Across the 8 counties in the metro with their own Zillow home value, the median typical home is worth $309,005. Values changed +3.4% over the past year and +41.4% over five years at the median county. A typical home costs 3.92 years of median family income at the median county.

With 10% down at 7.03%, the average 30-year rate on September 24, 2026, that home costs about $2,455 a month with tax, insurance and mortgage insurance, which takes $105,196 a year of income under the usual 28% guideline. The median family can afford its own county's typical home in none of the 8 counties, against 44.9% of counties nationally. Try it with your own income.

The most expensive counties in the metro are Loudon County ($452,441), Blount County ($398,263) and Knox County ($381,776); the least expensive are Morgan County ($213,178), Campbell County ($243,998) and Union County ($297,661).

What a household needs

A modest budget in the Knoxville area.

The Economic Policy Institute prices what a modest but adequate standard of living costs in every county. In the median county of the metro, that comes to $47,778 a year for one adult and $94,102 for two adults and two children, of which $11,640 is childcare, against national averages of $47,367 and $101,771. Median family income is $83,649 in the median county.

Prices, pay and taxes

The state picture.

Prices across Tennessee as a whole run 8.1% below the national average and rents 20.9% below the national average, by the Bureau of Economic Analysis's state measure. Median pay across all jobs in the state is $47,380 a year. Tennessee has no state income tax on wages. These are statewide figures, not measured for the metro itself. The metro lies within Tennessee. Compare a salary with another state or work out take-home pay.

Every county in the metro

All 8 counties.

Anderson County$317,764+3.9%$1,652$83,282$97,350
Blount County$398,263+2.3%$1,850$90,224$100,678
Campbell County$243,998+3.6%—$67,252$82,099
Knox County$381,776+1.2%$1,753$94,921$103,004
Loudon County$452,441+0.9%$1,737$93,337$98,370
Morgan County$213,178+4.2%—$73,988$85,684
Roane County$300,246+4.4%$1,378$84,015$87,888
Union County$297,661+3.1%—$71,211$90,854

A dash means the source publishes no figure for that county. Metro membership follows Zillow's own county-to-metro assignment.

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See every state and metro side by side

More about Tennessee

Cost of living · Income tax · Child care costs

Metro areasNashville, TN · Memphis, TN · Knoxville, TN

Run the numbersTake-home pay in Tennessee · What a salary is worth in Tennessee · How much rent you can afford · What a car costs in Tennessee

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Where this comes from
Rent and home values
Zillow Observed Rent Index for the metro and Zillow Home Value Index by county, July 2026; changes compare the same month one and five years earlier.
Budgets and family income
Economic Policy Institute, Family Budget Calculator, 2026 edition, by county.
State figures
BEA Regional Price Parities 2024; BLS OEWS May 2025; 2026 state income tax tables.
Mortgage assumptions
Freddie Mac 30-year average of 7.03% on September 24, 2026; 10% down, 1.1% property tax, $1,700 a year of insurance, 0.75% mortgage insurance.
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