Metro Nashville has kept short-term rental records since April 2015. 6,996 permits are live today, and 71% of them are for homes the owner does not live in. New addresses are running at less than a quarter of the 2018 pace.
Published November 5, 2026 by Cavmir Research · All research
2,078 addresses appeared in the register for the first time in 2018, the record year. January through October 2026 brought 374, against 481 over those months of 2025. Total records have held steadier, 781 over the latest year and 782 the year before that, because an address can come back with a new permit.
Multi-unit buildings file in batches, and each unit counts as its own address. November 2018 shows 412 new addresses, and 278 of them sit in one building in ZIP code 37203. October 2024 shows 228, and two buildings account for 150, in ZIP codes 37210 and 37228. 175 of that month's 228 new addresses now read Expired.
| Month | Records entered | New addresses | New, owner occupied | New, not owner occupied | First issued a permit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 2024 | 69 | 51 | 25 | 26 | 145 |
| Dec 2024 | 54 | 40 | 13 | 27 | 72 |
| Jan 2025 | 101 | 74 | 20 | 54 | 84 |
| Feb 2025 | 73 | 55 | 16 | 39 | 62 |
| Mar 2025 | 58 | 39 | 11 | 28 | 40 |
| Apr 2025 | 71 | 60 | 24 | 36 | 47 |
| May 2025 | 62 | 39 | 11 | 28 | 45 |
| Jun 2025 | 65 | 51 | 16 | 35 | 44 |
| Jul 2025 | 70 | 46 | 11 | 35 | 46 |
| Aug 2025 | 51 | 34 | 17 | 17 | 39 |
| Sep 2025 | 59 | 48 | 20 | 28 | 42 |
| Oct 2025 | 49 | 35 | 14 | 21 | 30 |
| Nov 2025 | 67 | 42 | 12 | 30 | 26 |
| Dec 2025 | 77 | 52 | 16 | 36 | 45 |
| Jan 2026 | 62 | 47 | 12 | 35 | 36 |
| Feb 2026 | 71 | 49 | 15 | 34 | 44 |
| Mar 2026 | 102 | 66 | 30 | 36 | 40 |
| Apr 2026 | 82 | 41 | 19 | 22 | 32 |
| May 2026 | 77 | 42 | 16 | 26 | 35 |
| Jun 2026 | 49 | 22 | 11 | 11 | 18 |
| Jul 2026 | 45 | 27 | 17 | 10 | 20 |
| Aug 2026 | 64 | 40 | 7 | 33 | 35 |
| Sep 2026 | 51 | 21 | 7 | 14 | 38 |
| Oct 2026 | 34 | 19 | 10 | 9 | 16 |
Of 6,996 live permits, 5,001 are not owner occupied and 1,995 are owner occupied. Metro's permit page says new not-owner-occupied permits are not allowed in AR2A, R, RS or RM zoning, that existing holders there may renew, and that those permits don't transfer when the property is sold or transferred.
Not-owner-occupied permits still make up most new addresses: 296 of 468 in the last 12 months.
| Year | Records | Not owner occupied | Owner occupied | Median days to issue | Now cancelled |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 1,368 | 908 | 460 | 0 | 212 |
| 2016 | 1,612 | 991 | 621 | 21 | 270 |
| 2017 | 1,890 | 1,080 | 810 | 17 | 233 |
| 2018 | 2,399 | 1,367 | 1,032 | 22 | 347 |
| 2019 | 2,148 | 1,266 | 882 | 17 | 322 |
| 2020 | 974 | 676 | 298 | 23 | 174 |
| 2021 | 1,539 | 1,155 | 384 | 20 | 235 |
| 2022 | 1,995 | 1,455 | 540 | 12 | 218 |
| 2023 | 1,082 | 618 | 464 | 2 | 139 |
| 2024 | 1,187 | 823 | 364 | 6 | 94 |
| 2025 | 803 | 564 | 239 | 3 | 17 |
| 2026 | 641 | 428 | 213 | 7 | 16 |
Issuing has sped up. The median gap from entry to issue was 22 days for records entered in 2018 and 3 days for 2025.
The three planning areas of East Nashville, Downtown and Green Hills - Midtown hold 63% of live permits between them.
Each permit placed with the latitude and longitude in the register, inside Metro's Community Planning Areas.
Downtown slowed sharply, from 66 new addresses to 28 in the last 12 months. East Nashville fell from 147 to 100. Bordeaux - Whites Creek - Haynes Trinity held near its level, 86 to 78, so an area with 5.7% of live permits now has 16.7% of new addresses. ZIP code 37207 rose from 91 to 122, and Council District 2 from 57 to 93.
| Planning area | Records, all years | Different addresses | Unexpired permits | New addresses, last 12 months | New addresses, 12 months before |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Nashville | 4,093 | 3,396 | 1,487 | 100 | 147 |
| Downtown | 2,830 | 2,310 | 1,472 | 28 | 66 |
| Green Hills - Midtown | 4,110 | 3,256 | 1,428 | 78 | 81 |
| North Nashville | 2,050 | 1,522 | 917 | 52 | 46 |
| South Nashville | 1,140 | 958 | 440 | 52 | 47 |
| Bordeaux - Whites Creek - Haynes Trinity | 678 | 557 | 399 | 78 | 86 |
| Donelson - Hermitage - Old Hickory | 709 | 626 | 252 | 22 | 25 |
| West Nashville | 899 | 728 | 241 | 15 | 19 |
| Madison | 233 | 205 | 95 | 13 | 25 |
| Southeast | 392 | 354 | 90 | 11 | 16 |
| Antioch - Priest Lake | 246 | 218 | 90 | 10 | 9 |
| Parkwood - Union Hill | 128 | 112 | 47 | 5 | 4 |
| Bellevue | 110 | 97 | 28 | 3 | 1 |
| Joelton | 20 | 18 | 10 | 1 | 0 |
| ZIP | Records | Addresses | Unexpired permits | New, last 12 months | New, 12 months before |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 37203 | 3,500 | 2,806 | 1,706 | 69 | 68 |
| 37207 | 1,624 | 1,315 | 807 | 122 | 91 |
| 37208 | 1,556 | 1,228 | 723 | 53 | 41 |
| 37206 | 1,969 | 1,656 | 658 | 30 | 54 |
| 37212 | 1,421 | 1,138 | 461 | 19 | 30 |
| 37209 | 1,284 | 954 | 444 | 19 | 44 |
| 37201 | 705 | 504 | 346 | 3 | 14 |
| 37210 | 847 | 716 | 336 | 19 | 28 |
| 37216 | 999 | 822 | 310 | 19 | 40 |
| 37211 | 589 | 502 | 192 | 34 | 24 |
A quarter of the addresses from the program's first three years still hold a live permit: 25.8% for 2015, 24.9% for 2016 and 26.0% for 2017. Among addresses that first appeared in 2022 it is 67.6%.
Live means Metro shows the permit as ISSUED with an expiration date after November 5, 2026.
The register also carries 8,060 records marked expired, 2,277 cancelled and 164 revoked.
Metro Codes Administration publishes Residential Short Term Rental Permits on Nashville's open data portal, under the city's Open Data Executive Order, and describes it as current and historical details of applications and issued permits since the start of the program. We queried that layer on November 5, 2026 for permit number, type, entry, issue and expiration dates, status, street address, ZIP, Council district and coordinates. The same layer also has applicant and contact columns, and we did not read them.
The Date_Entered column dates every row, so nothing was dropped: all 17,638 records are in the totals. 31 rows repeat another row's permit number. A new address is the earliest record at a street address and unit after upper-casing and standardizing street words. The subtype column spells not owner occupied in two ways, and we merged them. Planning areas come from Metro's Community Planning Areas layer, and every record fell inside one.
Verified live: 26 of 26 comparisons with Metro's own count and statistics queries agreed, on the total, each status, each year from 2015 to 2026, June 2022 and the unexpired count. Metro's website blocks automated reading, so the permit rules above were read through a search index copy of that page.
No addresses or names in any file. Reuse them under CC BY 4.0 and link here.
Cavmir Research, Nashville Short-Term Rental Permits, November 5, 2026, from Metro Nashville Codes Administration records. https://cavmir.com/resources/research/nashville-short-term-rental-permits/
6,996 permits were issued and unexpired on November 5, 2026, according to Metro Codes. 5,001 are not owner occupied and 1,995 are owner occupied. The full register holds 17,638 records going back to April 2015.
Yes, more slowly. 468 addresses entered the register for the first time between November 2025 and October 2026, compared with 572 the year before and 2,078 in 2018.
East Nashville has 1,487 unexpired permits, Downtown has 1,472 and Green Hills - Midtown has 1,428. ZIP code 37203 alone has 1,706.
East Nashville led over the latest year with 100 first-time addresses. Bordeaux - Whites Creek - Haynes Trinity had 78, which is 16.7% of the new addresses from an area with 5.7% of current permits.
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