Housing prices may be a barrier too high for younger families in Williamson County

Stock photo of a house for sale (Photo by Pixabay/Pexels)

Six years ago, a young family hoping to move to Williamson County, Tennessee faced a real estate market where the median home sales price was $521 thousand dollars. Today that number has exploded to $1 million according to real estate data from April 2025.

Education leaders say the jump has made an impact in the classrooms for what has traditionally been a county families move to for high-performing schools.

David Snowden (center) and Jason Golden (right) taking part in Friday’s forum (Photo by Sky Arnold)

Williamson County Superintendent Jason Golden told community leaders at a school policy talk forum Friday that the housing price jump is making a noticeable difference in the number of families with elementary school-aged children enrolling.

“Most every grade level is growing but we have more seniors graduating than kindergartners coming in and our middle schools are growing but our elementary schools in the aggregate countywide are shrinking,” said Golden. “I think the most likely reason for that is cost of housing. We have folks moving in with their children just a tiny bit older right now.”

Golden said the district projects a .44 percent decrease from its 42,000-student enrollment next school year.  He told attendees the decrease isn’t impacting all regions of the district the same, as some areas are seeing a larger reduction while some, including the Arrington region in southeast Williamson County, are growing.

Nevertheless, the change is impacting building and expansion plans for schools.

“Our plans are not on hold, but we’ve stretched the length of time for some of those projects. We have a five-year capital plan,” said Golden.

Franklin Special School District Director of Schools David Snowden told attendees at the forum that his district is noticing similar trends, though the overall 3,300 enrollment of the K-8 grade district is not expected to change.

“The cost of housing, especially in our district is significant,” said Snowden. “People with small children struggle to purchase homes and then apartments, if you’ve looked at renting an apartment in this area it’s expensive as well. It’s difficult for young families without some significant dollars put away to really live here and to come to move here.”