Thousands of Americans have relocated to the nation's country music capital in recent years, but Nashville's housing market has struggled to shelter the wave of new residents.

To address this issue, Nashville and the greater Davidson County area need to build at least 90,000 housing units — both renter and owner-occupied — by 2035, a March housing study suggested. The study — crafted by Nashville's Planning Department — recommends that the city create 9,000 new units per year. For context, the metro Nashville area produces about 7,000 new units a year on average, a department official said in an email.

Building 90,000 units is a great goal to have, but it's not a realistic plan considering all the hurdles homebuilders face today, said Murat Arik, an economic researcher at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. The rising cost of building materials, interest rates above 6%, the shortage of developable space, and the cost of labor and zoning laws that dictate what can be built where in Nashville make it "difficult to envision" the city building 9,000 per year and keeping up its current pace, Arik said.

"When you add all of those elements together — and then look at what's currently going on with tariffs because it affects the cost of building — it's becoming really difficult to address the housing-related challenges, especially affordable housing-related challenges, in a place like Nashville," Arik said in an interview. "We'll probably get a fraction of that [90,000] in the coming years."

The study lands at a time when Nashville finds itself in desperate need of housing. The city's population grew 15% between 2010 and 2024, adding almost 90,000 newcomers, according to the study. Nearly half of that growth, 40,0000, happened between 2019 and 2022.

The population growth has fueled demand for new and existing homes to go on sale, causing prices of those on the market to soar. The median home sales price for Nashville hit $565,000 at the end of March, up from $499,000 the year prior, according to Homes.com data. If the city can meet its 9,000-per-year goal, the study recommends 54% of the new homes be for-sale units.

Home prices have soared so much that a growing number of Tennesseans are buying properties in neighboring Rutherford, Sumner and Williamson counties, then commuting to Nashville for work, said Arik, who publishes a quarterly economic report that examines the city's housing market.

The Planning Department's findings came from "a much-needed study" that roadmaps exactly what the city needs to do so all Nashvillians can afford a home, said Collyn Wainwright, president of Greater Nashville Realtors.

“This is about more than just keeping up with demand," Wainwright said in a statement. "It’s about ensuring that the teachers, healthcare workers, first responders, and service industry professionals who make Nashville vibrant and successful have access to housing in the communities they serve.”

Still, the city must be careful with how and where it places new housing, the study concluded, because adding more units could overstress Nashville's already outdated infrastructure. In the city, the stormwater systems are decades old, but in the suburbs, housing developments have been built on winding streets and cul-de-sacs. The rural sections of Davidson County can be tricky to develop because parts of it are hilly and other pockets are zoned either industrial or used as farmland.

"Because of this, adding housing often means rebuilding infrastructure in a way that older cities like Memphis, Chicago or Philadelphia often do not need to do," the study states. "The hub and spoke system of Nashville’s arterials and interstates also means that regional growth alone can overwhelm Nashville roads."

To encourage more housing production, the study recommends that city leaders create an incentive program for developers who include affordable units inside their market-rate housing developments. The city should also consider revising some of its building and zoning laws so more homeowners can add a second, smaller dwelling on their land.

If the laws are not changed, Nashville is on track to build only 70,000 housing units over the decade, falling short by tens of thousands of homes, the study said.