Nashville, TN → Phoenix, AZ
Moving to Phoenix costs you $92 a month
−$1,104 a year for the same registered nurse, the same household size, and the same number of bedrooms.
In 2022-2023, 353 households moved Nashville → Phoenix (avg AGI $157,856). 588 went the other way. The whole move →
| Per month | Nashville | Phoenix | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross pay | $7,583 | $7,583 | $0 |
| Income and payroll tax | $1,550 | $1,709 | +$159 |
| Take-home pay | $6,034 | $5,875 | −$159 |
| Rent | $1,399 | $1,276 | −$123 |
| Getting around | $559 | $586 | +$27 |
| Groceries | $388 | $396 | +$8 |
| Healthcare | $437 | $446 | +$9 |
| Utilities | $243 | $248 | +$5 |
| Everything else | $340 | $347 | +$7 |
| Left over | $2,669 | $2,577 | −$92 |
To break even in Phoenix, you'd need to earn
$92,500
Household gross, versus $91,000 today. That's the salary that leaves you exactly as much at the end of the month as Nashville does now.
The tax difference alone
−$1,910
A year, in state and local income tax. Effective rates: 20.4% in Nashville, 22.5% in Phoenix.
More about Phoenix
Nashville, TN in full
No income tax and a real music and healthcare economy; traffic is the tax.
Phoenix, AZ in full
A 2.5% flat income tax, cheap housing for a big metro, and a genuinely dangerous July.
The reverse move
Same two cities, but starting from Phoenix on Phoenix wages.
Phoenix → Nashville →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.