Need advice from natives of Nashville & Burbs (Murfreesboro, Franklin: rental, home)

[slederma]

I will be moving to Nashville in July and working on Donelson Pike near the airport. Will most likely rent at first. I can spend up to $1500 a month but insist on a single family home. I have one child in middle school and one in elementary school. Good schools is my absolute #1 priority with neighborhood safety coming in at a close 2nd. I have heard rave reviews regarding the schools in Franklin / Brentwood but have my doubts about my being able to afford to rent there. I have family in both Hendersonville and Mount Juliet. I am currently leaning toward Mt Juliet for the short commute time if nothing else. I have also wondered about Smyrna or Murfreesboro as well as Goodlettsville. Can anyone shed some light on the following areas. I would be interested in hearing any opinions/arguments for or against Hendersonville vs. Mount Juliet. I appreciate any and all help and thank you for your time. I would also be interested to hear about any good rental sites you know about. Thanks again

[vivelafrance]

You can find something for 1500 in all of those places well maybe except Brentwood. Mt Juliet would be the shortest commute probably followed by Hendersonville. Murfreesboro is pretty far out and I-24 traffic is notoriously bad.

Goodlettsville would be a fairly short commute as well and the schools are good as long as you stick to the Sumner co side.

There have been many threads on here about Hendersonville v Mt Juliet and they offer a lot of good info. The two cities are pretty similar and they both have good school systems.

[DonCorleone]

I would also lean towards Mt. Juliet for a number of reasons, with the main reason being commute. Schools there are generally fine, you'll also probably not have a problem finding a home in that price range for rent. Plus MtJ has just about everything you could want in the way of conveniences/shopping/restaurants.

I live in Hendersonville and while I love it, I wouldn't want to make the commute from Donelson Pk to Hendersonville daily if I didn't have to. My guess is it would be about a 30-40 minute commute on average. Hendesonville probably has a better school system but most everything else will be about the same as MtJ.

The Sumner County side of Goodlettsville might be worth a look for schools, but again there is the commute time to consider and it might be harder to find a rental since that is smaller than Hendersonville or MtJ. Goodlettsville itself is a fairly big satellite city but most of it is in Davidson County, zoned for Metro Schools.

Smyrna might be worth a look as well, but again the commute (I think) would be the worst of those 3 options.

I'd start out in Mt. Juliet or maybe the west side of Lebanon, then look at Hendersonville and points northeast. Hope that helped.