These Tennessee ZIP Codes Earn More Than Triple the State Average
Tennessee’s median household income is $62,166. In one ZIP code — a hilltop community above Chattanooga with 2,100 residents — the median is $195,063. That gap, and what explains it, is what this analysis is about.
We ranked every active Tennessee ZIP code with a population above 500 by median household income using the 2023 American Community Survey estimates. The distribution isn’t smooth. A small cluster of communities sits far above the rest of the state, concentrated in four county-level areas and showing very different trajectories depending on what type of wealth they represent.
The top 10
| # | ZIP | City / County | Median HH Income | vs. State | Growth ’19–’23 | Home Value | College % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 37350 | Lookout MountainHamilton County | $195,063 | +214% | +49.5% | $761,600 | 91.6% |
| 2 | 38139 | GermantownShelby County | $174,052 | +180% | +15.7% | $540,600 | 76.5% |
| 3 | 37046 | College GroveWilliamson County | $162,712 | +162% | +48.1% | $842,900 | 66.7% |
| 4 | 37220 | Nashville — Oak HillDavidson County | $156,227 | +151% | +30.4% | $746,000 | 79.7% |
| 5 | 37027 | BrentwoodWilliamson County | $156,002 | +151% | +11.5% | $844,500 | 77.7% |
| 6 | 37215 | Nashville — Green HillsDavidson County | $151,156 | +143% | +18.8% | $959,100 | 82.4% |
| 7 | 38028 | EadsShelby County | $150,847 | +143% | +46.5% | $461,700 | 52.2% |
| 8 | 37069 | FranklinWilliamson County | $146,336 | +135% | +8.5% | $713,200 | 77.0% |
| 9 | 37135 | NolensvilleWilliamson County | $146,028 | +135% | +15.7% | $629,100 | 74.3% |
| 10 | 38017 | ColliervilleShelby County | $135,946 | +119% | +22.6% | $469,600 | 66.1% |
Four geographic clusters
Every entry in the top 10 falls into one of four county-level areas, each with a distinct economic character.
Lookout Mountain (37350)
Tennessee’s highest-income ZIP code
Lookout Mountain · Hamilton County · Chattanooga metro
Lookout Mountain ranks first by a margin — $21,000 above the second-ranked ZIP. Its profile is distinct from every other entry in this analysis. Population is 2,112. Homeownership is 93%. The college graduation rate of 91.6% is the highest of any ZIP in this analysis and more than double the Tennessee state rate of roughly 32%. Poverty sits at 2.04%.
It also posted the fastest income growth in the top 10: up 49.5% between 2019 and 2023, from $130,446 to $195,063. Whether that rate reflects genuine income growth, in-migration of higher-earning households, or sampling variation in a small-population ZIP is difficult to determine from ACS data alone. What the data shows clearly is a long-established, densely owner-occupied community with consistently high income figures.
Lookout Mountain’s 91.6% college graduation rate is the highest of any ZIP in this analysis — more than double Tennessee’s statewide rate of approximately 32%.
The Williamson County picture
Four of the top 10 ZIPs are in Williamson County. Williamson routinely places near the top of national county-level income rankings, a position built on proximity to Nashville’s employment base, corporate relocations to the broader metro, and school districts that have drawn affluent families from surrounding counties for decades.
The four Williamson ZIPs represent different stages of the same process:
Brentwood (37027) is the established end. At 61,961 residents it is the largest ZIP in the top 10 by a wide margin. It has 8,754 households earning over $200,000 annually — more than any other ZIP in this analysis. Income growth since 2019 was 11.5%, the second-slowest in the top 10. At this income level and population density, there is less room for rapid appreciation.
College Grove (37046) posted 48.1% income growth between 2019 and 2023, from $109,879 to $162,712. Median home values are $842,900. The homeownership rate is 88.9% and median age is 45.5 — consistent with established households rather than young arrivals. The growth here appears to reflect in-migration of high-earning residents into large-lot development rather than organic income gains among a stable population.
Nolensville (37135) has the youngest median age in the top 10 at 38.8 — nearly a decade younger than Lookout Mountain. More than half its housing stock was built after 2000. Poverty is 1.55%, the lowest in the top 10. Income grew 15.7% since 2019. These are figures of a community in formation.
Franklin (37069) grew slowest of the four at 8.5%. At $134,891 in 2019, it was already expensive before the growth period, and its 2023 figure of $146,336 reflects incremental appreciation rather than significant change in composition.
The Memphis east corridor
Three of the top 10 are in Shelby County — Germantown, Eads, and Collierville — forming a coherent belt of affluence east of Memphis that receives less national attention than the Williamson ZIPs.
Germantown (38139) has the highest homeownership rate of any ZIP in this analysis at 96.85%. Median income is $174,052. With 2,505 households earning over $200,000 annually and a poverty rate of 0.93% — the lowest in the top 10 — it is a tightly owner-occupied suburb with income figures that have been high for decades.
Collierville (38017) is the largest of the three at 56,427 residents, comparable in scale to Brentwood. Median income is $135,946 with 6,156 households over $200,000. Income grew 22.6% since 2019.
Eads (38028) is discussed separately below — its profile departs from the others in ways worth examining.
Income vs. home value
The highest-income ZIP is not the highest home-value ZIP. That divergence is consistent across the top 10 and reflects different types of wealth in different markets.
Green Hills (37215) leads on home value at $959,100 despite ranking sixth on income — a ratio of 6.3× income to home value. That premium reflects Nashville’s urban land scarcity. Lookout Mountain, with the highest income, has a more moderate ratio of 3.9×, consistent with a suburban-scale community where land values haven’t been compressed by urban density.
The Shelby County ZIPs cluster at the lower end of the home-value scale relative to income. A Germantown household earning $174,052 lives in a home worth $540,600 — a 3.1× ratio. A Green Hills household earning $151,156 lives in a home worth $959,100 — a 6.3× ratio. Same income tier, different capital allocation between earnings and real estate.
vs. 3.1× in Germantown (38139), at similar income levels
Education vs. income
Education levels are high across all 10 ZIPs — but they don’t map cleanly onto income rank. One ZIP breaks the pattern in a way worth examining.
Every ZIP except one has a college graduation rate above 66%. The exception is Eads (38028) at 52.2% — 14 points below the next lowest entry. Eads achieves a $150,847 median income with a lower credential rate, suggesting a different income composition: more business owners, skilled trades, and dual-income households rather than the professional-degree concentration that characterizes Germantown or Green Hills. Its homeownership rate of 94.02% is the second highest in the top 10, and income grew 46.5% since 2019, the third-fastest in the group.
The Eads outlier: High income, high homeownership, fast growth — but a college graduation rate 20 points below its peer ZIPs. It’s the one entry in this analysis that doesn’t fit the professional-degree template common to high-income suburban ZIP codes.
Age and income growth
The relationship between median age and income growth across the top 10 is not straightforward. The fastest-growing ZIPs are not the youngest ones.
Nolensville is the youngest community at 38.8 median age, consistent with its newer housing stock. But its income growth of 15.7% is in the middle of the pack. The fastest growth belongs to older communities: Lookout Mountain (49.0, +49.5%) and College Grove (45.5, +48.1%). These aren’t young communities absorbing new arrivals in large numbers. The growth in both cases likely reflects either significant in-migration of higher-earning households or real income gains among established residents during a period of strong professional-sector wage growth.
The slowest growth is in the most established Williamson suburbs — Brentwood (+11.5%) and Franklin 37069 (+8.5%) — where incomes were already high in 2019 and the resident composition has been relatively stable.
Commute patterns and remote work
Tennessee’s statewide work-from-home rate is 11.4%. Every ZIP in the top 10 except Eads exceeds that figure. The variation across the group reveals meaningfully different economic structures.
The Williamson County ZIPs — Nolensville, College Grove, Brentwood, and Franklin — cluster between 25% and 31% remote-work rates, roughly 2–3× the statewide figure. Nolensville presents a specific pattern worth noting: 31% work from home and 44% have commutes over 30 minutes. That combination points to a workforce split between full remote workers and in-person workers making a long daily drive into Nashville — consistent with a suburb at the outer edge of practical commuting range.
Eads is again the outlier. Its remote-work rate is 9.4% — close to the statewide average and far below its peers. 87% of Eads workers drive alone, and 52.1% commute over 30 minutes. It is a car-dependent community with a predominantly in-person workforce, which makes its high income level more notable: it achieves $150,847 median income without the remote-work flexibility that characterizes most of its peer ZIPs.
Green Hills (37215) shows the opposite: 25% remote work and only 12% with commutes over 30 minutes. Its location inside Nashville’s urban core means in-person workers have short drives, and remote workers have proximity to everything else.
Income growth, 2019 to 2023
The fastest income growth belongs to communities that were not the most prominent names in 2019. Lookout Mountain grew from $130,446 to $195,063 — a $64,617 absolute gain. College Grove grew from $109,879 to $162,712. Eads grew from $102,961 to $150,847.
The slowest growth is in Franklin (37069) at 8.5% and Brentwood at 11.5% — both communities where income was already high and the trajectory appears to be consolidation rather than acceleration.
Where growth is heading
The 2019-to-2023 growth figures suggest the top 10 is not static. Two Knox County ZIPs are approaching the current cutoff:
Knoxville (37934) grew from $102,472 in 2019 to $135,472 in 2023, a 32.2% increase, with a population of 28,237. Knoxville (37922) grew from $109,065 to $126,638, with 39,013 residents. Both are now at the edge of the top 10 by income, and Knox County’s growth trajectory suggests the Knoxville metro may be developing an affluent suburban corridor at lower absolute income levels than Williamson or eastern Shelby, but with meaningful upward momentum.
Methodology
Rankings are based on median household income from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, 2023 release (Table B19013). ZIP codes with active status and a population of at least 500 were included. Income growth comparisons use ACS 2019 5-year estimates as the baseline. ACS estimates carry margins of error that increase for small-population ZIPs — Lookout Mountain (37350) at 2,112 residents carries higher uncertainty than larger ZIPs in this analysis. Full demographic data for every Tennessee ZIP is available on individual ZIP pages on this site.