Detroit, MI → Nashville, TN
You'd keep $170 more a month in Nashville
+$2,040 a year for the same registered nurse, the same household size, and the same number of bedrooms.
In 2022-2023, 345 households moved Detroit → Nashville (avg AGI $83,099). 158 went the other way. The whole move →
| Per month | Detroit | Nashville | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross pay | $7,625 | $7,547 | −$78 |
| Income and payroll tax | $2,049 | $1,539 | −$510 |
| Take-home pay | $5,576 | $6,008 | +$432 |
| Rent | $1,194 | $1,399 | +$205 |
| Getting around | $560 | $559 | −$1 |
| Groceries | $372 | $388 | +$16 |
| Healthcare | $419 | $437 | +$18 |
| Utilities | $233 | $243 | +$10 |
| Everything else | $326 | $340 | +$14 |
| Left over | $2,473 | $2,643 | +$170 |
To break even in Nashville, you'd need to earn
$87,500
Household gross, versus $91,500 today. That's the salary that leaves you exactly as much at the end of the month as Detroit does now.
The tax difference alone
+$5,847
A year, in state and local income tax. Tennessee has no wage income tax.
More about Nashville
Detroit, MI in full
Engineering wages against some of the cheapest urban housing in America.
Nashville, TN in full
No income tax and a real music and healthcare economy; traffic is the tax.
The reverse move
Same two cities, but starting from Nashville on Nashville wages.
Nashville → Detroit →Rent is Zillow's asking rent for each metro; taxes and living costs are modelled. An estimate, not a quote or tax advice. How this is calculated.