Cities in Tennessee by housing units authorized by building permits, 2025

Nashville, TN had the highest housing units authorized by building permits of 58 cities in 2025, at 5,555. Union City, TN had the lowest, at 3. The median was 130 and the figure for Tennessee was 43,374. Source: the U.S. Census Bureau.

Highest5,555Nashville, TN

Lowest3Union City, TN

Median13058 cities

Tennessee43,374History

All cities, 2025

count. Source: Invokely calculation with data from U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Full ranking

Rank	Cities	2025 count	Change on 2024
1	Nashville, TN Estimated	5,555	-18.3%
2	Gallatin, TN Estimated	2,267	+119%
3	Clarksville, TN Estimated	2,256	+9%
4	Murfreesboro, TN Estimated	1,529	+39.5%
5	Knoxville, TN Estimated	1,439	-31.3%
6	Lebanon, TN Estimated	924	-23.4%
7	Chattanooga, TN Estimated	893	-13.9%
8	Mount Juliet, TN Estimated	676	+173.7%
9	Spring Hill, TN Estimated	630	-5.3%
10	Franklin, TN Estimated	584	-38.2%
11	Cleveland, TN Estimated	572	+24.1%
12	Columbia, TN Estimated	548	-29.5%
13	Smyrna, TN Estimated	504	-57%
14	Lenoir City, TN Estimated	474	+190.8%
15	White House, TN Estimated	434	-27.7%
16	Kingsport, TN Estimated	408	+147.3%
17	Johnson City, TN Estimated	350	-43.1%
18	Cookeville, TN Estimated	321	-23.9%
19	Dickson, TN Estimated	320	+357.1%
20	La Vergne, TN Estimated	303	+39.6%
21	Fairview, TN Estimated	252	+44.8%
22	Tullahoma, TN Estimated	237	+169.3%
23	Oak Ridge, TN Estimated	226	-1.7%
24	Oakland, TN Estimated	213	+1,021.1%
25	Morristown, TN Estimated	197	-16.2%
26	Hendersonville, TN Estimated	192	-34%
27	Shelbyville, TN Estimated	191	-21.7%
28	Jackson, TN Estimated	155	-2.5%
29	Brentwood, TN Estimated	132	+9.1%
30	Crossville, TN Estimated	128	+12.3%
31	Bristol, TN Estimated	127	-12.4%
31	Farragut, TN Estimated	127	+19.8%
33	Winchester, TN Estimated	122	-22.3%
34	Sevierville, TN Estimated	121	-78.5%
35	Portland, TN Estimated	120	+224.3%
36	Manchester, TN Estimated	114	+12.9%
37	Maryville, TN Estimated	107	+67.2%
38	Collierville, TN Estimated	98	-45.9%
39	Springfield, TN Estimated	82	-12.8%
40	Greeneville, TN Estimated	78	-45.8%
41	McMinnville, TN Estimated	61	+41.9%
42	Nolensville, TN Estimated	55	-11.3%
43	East Ridge, TN Estimated	53	+10.4%
44	Clinton, TN Estimated	48	+45.5%
44	Goodlettsville, TN Estimated	48	+20%
46	Athens, TN Estimated	43	+43.3%
46	Soddy-Daisy, TN Estimated	43	+10.3%
48	Atoka, TN Estimated	37	-9.8%
48	Bartlett, TN Estimated	37	-5.1%
50	Collegedale, TN Estimated	34	+161.5%
50	Dyersburg, TN Estimated	34	-33.3%
50	Red Bank, TN Estimated	34	+3%
53	Lawrenceburg, TN Estimated	32	+18.5%
54	Elizabethton, TN Estimated	31	+29.2%
55	Paris, TN Estimated	18	-5.3%
56	Alcoa, TN Estimated	17	-79.3%
57	Martin, TN Estimated	15	-34.8%
58	Union City, TN Estimated	3	0%

Other periods

About this ranking

Number of new privately owned housing units authorized by building permits in the year or month, from the US Census Bureau Building Permits Survey. Annual totals for the nation, states and counties; monthly counts for the nation and states.

Counts housing units, not buildings, starts, completions or sales. Monthly counts are not seasonally adjusted and do not add up exactly to the annual total, which includes later corrections; the national seasonally adjusted annual rate in the monthly New Residential Construction release is a different measure.

Every value in the ranking comes from the same publisher and the same period, so the cities are compared on one definition. 3 cities with data in other periods have no value for 2025 and are left out rather than filled from another source. Equal values share a rank.

How to cite

U.S. Census Bureau. Building Permits Survey: final annual estimates of new privately owned housing units authorized by permit-issuing place, including imputation. https://www2.census.gov/econ/bps/Place/South%20Region/so2025a.txt. Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Citation styles

The publisher is the author. Invokely is named only as the place the figures were read, where a style asks for it.

APA 7

U.S. Census Bureau. (2026). Building Permits Survey: final annual estimates of new privately owned housing units authorized by permit-issuing place, including imputation (Cities in Tennessee by housing units authorized by building permits, 2025) [Data set]. Retrieved October 12, 2026, from https://www2.census.gov/econ/bps/Place/South%20Region/so2025a.txt

MLA 9

Building Permits Survey: final annual estimates of new privately owned housing units authorized by permit-issuing place, including imputation, Cities in Tennessee by housing units authorized by building permits, 2025. U.S. Census Bureau, 14 May 2026, https://www2.census.gov/econ/bps/Place/South%20Region/so2025a.txt. Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/building-permit-housing-units/tennessee-cities. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.

Chicago (author-date)

U.S. Census Bureau. 2026. Building Permits Survey: final annual estimates of new privately owned housing units authorized by permit-issuing place, including imputation. Cities in Tennessee by housing units authorized by building permits, 2025. Dataset. Accessed October 12, 2026. https://www2.census.gov/econ/bps/Place/South%20Region/so2025a.txt. Also distributed by Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/building-permit-housing-units/tennessee-cities.

Harvard

U.S. Census Bureau (2026) Building Permits Survey: final annual estimates of new privately owned housing units authorized by permit-issuing place, including imputation, Cities in Tennessee by housing units authorized by building permits, 2025 [Dataset]. Available at: https://www2.census.gov/econ/bps/Place/South%20Region/so2025a.txt, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/building-permit-housing-units/tennessee-cities (Accessed: 12 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{census_cities_in_tennessee_by_2025,
  author = {{U.S. Census Bureau}},
  title = {{Building Permits Survey: final annual estimates of new privately owned housing units authorized by permit-issuing place, including imputation: Cities in Tennessee by housing units authorized by building permits, 2025}},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Data set},
  url = {https://www2.census.gov/econ/bps/Place/South%20Region/so2025a.txt},
  urldate = {2026-10-12},
  note = {Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/building-permit-housing-units/tennessee-cities. Publisher attribution: U.S. Census Bureau. Building Permits Survey: final annual estimates of new privately owned housing units authorized by permit-issuing place, including imputation. https://www2.census.gov/econ/bps/Place/South\%20Region/so2025a.txt. Retrieved 2026-10-12.},
}

RIS

TY  - DATA
AU  - U.S. Census Bureau
TI  - Building Permits Survey: final annual estimates of new privately owned housing units authorized by permit-issuing place, including imputation: Cities in Tennessee by housing units authorized by building permits, 2025
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/05/14
PB  - U.S. Census Bureau
DB  - Invokely
UR  - https://www2.census.gov/econ/bps/Place/South%20Region/so2025a.txt
L2  - https://invokely.ai/rankings/building-permit-housing-units/tennessee-cities
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/building-permit-housing-units/tennessee-cities.
N1  - Publisher attribution: U.S. Census Bureau. Building Permits Survey: final annual estimates of new privately owned housing units authorized by permit-issuing place, including imputation. https://www2.census.gov/econ/bps/Place/South%20Region/so2025a.txt. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
ER  -

Embed this chart

Paste this code into a web page or a blog post. The chart shows the latest figures as they are published, with the source and a link back to this page.

Embed code

<iframe src="https://invokely.ai/embed/rankings/building-permit-housing-units/tennessee-cities" width="760" height="500" title="Cities in Tennessee by housing units authorized by building permits, 2025, chart from Invokely" loading="lazy" style="border:0;width:100%;max-width:760px" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin"></iframe>

Sites that read oEmbed links, such as WordPress, can show the chart when you paste the link to this page.

Use this data in your AI agent

Invokely serves this figure to AI assistants through MCP and to code through a REST API, with the source and citation attached. Ask your assistant:

Rank Cities in Tennessee by housing units authorized by building permits using official data, and cite the source.

rank_places {"indicator":"building_permit_units","level":"municipality","within":"Tennessee","limit":10}
GET https://invokely.ai/api/v1/rank?indicator=building_permit_units&level=municipality&within=Tennessee&limit=10

Connect Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor in one step. The trial answers 25 calls a day without an account.

Questions

Which city has the highest housing units authorized by building permits?

Nashville, TN, with 5,555 in 2025, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Which city has the lowest housing units authorized by building permits?

Union City, TN, with 3 in 2025.

Where does this ranking come from?

Every value comes from one source and one period, so the places are comparable: U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey: final annual estimates of new privately owned housing units authorized by permit-issuing place, including imputation. Retrieved 2026-10-12. 3 cities have no value for 2025 and are not ranked.