Williamson County is directly south of Nashville, and Franklin is its county seat. It is not one kind of place: one county line holds a courthouse-square town, a large-lot suburb on Nashville's doorstep, two small towns carrying much of the new building, a city split across the Maury line, a nature-park town, and a rural southern half. Williamson County Schools is the county district, part of Franklin sits in a separate PreK-8 district, and the 2025 county property tax rate is $1.30 per $100 of assessed value before any city rate is added.
Where is Williamson County, and what towns are in it?
Williamson sits directly south of Davidson County. The incorporated municipalities on the state's certified 2025 tax table are Franklin, Brentwood, Nolensville, Thompson's Station, Fairview and Spring Hill — and Spring Hill's limits cross into Maury County, so it is listed under both. Arrington and College Grove are not on that table at all — there is no municipal row for either.
At the 2020 Census: Franklin 83,454, Brentwood 45,373, Nolensville about 13,829, Thompson's Station 7,485. Fairview runs about 10,500 on a 2024 estimate, not a Census count. Haven't picked a county yet? Start a rung up at the Middle Tennessee map, or read Sumner County or Williamson County.
What is Franklin like to live in?
Franklin is the county seat, and its downtown is built around the old courthouse square — 19th-century architecture lined with shops and restaurants, with antebellum homes and Victorian cottages on the streets around it. The Civil War history is physically present: the Carter House, Carnton and the Lotz House all date to the era of the 1864 Second Battle of Franklin, and the Fuller Story statue honoring United States Colored Troops was installed downtown in 2021.
Away from the square, Franklin's housing form is master-planned. Westhaven, Berry Farms, Ladd Park and Monticello are the recurring community names, and Westhaven's new-construction entry point was reported at $648,500 as of June 2026. More: the Franklin town guide · Moving to Franklin.
What is Brentwood like to live in?
Brentwood's form is the opposite of Franklin's, and the city's own history page explains why: it incorporated in 1969 with 3,378 residents, and about 90 percent of its acreage is zoned residential at a density standard of one dwelling unit per acre. The recurring housing form is custom-built homes on large lots, and the recurring neighborhood names are Governor's Club, Annandale, Taramore, Brenthaven and Sherwood Green Estates — with much current activity in residential communities in development along the Split Log Road corridor (Owl Creek, Tamore, Raintree Forest) and infill tear-down projects.
Public space is a large part of the city's form: 14 parks and greenways totaling nearly 1,000 acres, with more than 12 miles of paved multi-use trails. Tractor Supply Company and Delek US Holdings are both headquartered here. More in the Brentwood town guide and Franklin or Brentwood.
What are Nolensville and Thompson's Station like?
Nolensville sits entirely inside Williamson County — no county-line split, and the Comptroller's certified table lists it under Williamson only. It was established in 1797 by Revolutionary War veteran William Nolen, and the historic main-street area still carries the small-town character. Nolensville Town Square, a 25-acre mixed-use development of homes, retail and dining, began Phase 2 vertical construction in fall 2025, with Phase 3 scheduled for fall 2026. The town provides no utilities of its own: per its own services page, electric comes from Middle Tennessee Electric, water from Nolensville College Grove Utility District, sewer from Metro Water Services and gas from Atmos Energy.
Thompson's Station incorporated in 1990 and sits between Franklin and Spring Hill, about 25 miles south of Nashville by the town's own history page, with Preservation Park — more than 200 acres with an extensive trail system. One detail to settle before you write an offer there: the town provides sewer only in Allenwood, Avenue Downs, Bridgemore Village, Fields of Canterbury, Littlebury, Tollgate Village and Whistle Stop. Everywhere else is a septic question.
Next: Moving to Nolensville · Moving to Thompson's Station
What is the rural southern half like — Arrington and College Grove?
South and east of Franklin the subdivisions thin out. Arrington is a rural corner of south-central Williamson County where most properties sit on one to five-plus acres and homes are often custom-built to order rather than bought as spec inventory — few active listings, and longer timelines than a high-volume subdivision. College Grove is the equestrian side: farmland, horse properties with acreage, newer development mixed in.
Neither appears as a municipality on the state's certified 2025 table, so an address in either carries the county rate alone — $1.30 for 2025 — with no city rate stacked on top.
If you buy in Spring Hill, which county are you actually in?
Spring Hill straddles the Williamson–Maury county line, with the line crossing the city roughly along its middle. Which county a parcel sits in is a deed-and-tax-bill fact, and it sets both the county tax rate and which district serves the address — Williamson County Schools or Maury County Public Schools. Confirm it first.
For 2025 the certified city rate is $0.739 on both sides. The county share differs: $1.27 on the Williamson side ($2.009 combined) against $1.91 on the Maury side ($2.649 combined). At Tennessee's 25% residential assessment, a $550,000 home runs roughly $2,760 a year on the Williamson side against roughly $3,640 on the Maury side — about $880 apart. That is arithmetic from the certified 2025 rates.
Utilities split too — water is the city's own Spring Hill Water, and electric depends on the address. The city's history page places Spring Hill 35 miles south of Nashville, and General Motors' plant here employs more than 5,000 people. More in Moving to Spring Hill.
What is Fairview like, out on the western edge?
Fairview sits in the northwest corner of Williamson County. The city's own General Data page places it 20 miles southwest of downtown Nashville, with the city limits about a mile southwest of the Nashville–Davidson County line, and names Interstate 40, State Routes 100 and 96, and TN-840 as the roads that serve it; State Route 100 is also the direct link to the Natchez Trace Parkway. Its defining feature is Bowie Nature Park — a city-managed park of about 722 acres with roughly 17 miles of trails and five lakes, at no charge to local residents. Farms are still mixed among newer subdivisions, and with limited employment in town most residents commute out.
That page states the distance in miles and gives no drive time, and we are not going to substitute a figure off a routing site. Drive it yourself, at the hour you would actually leave. One tax note — the city stopped accepting property tax payments as of July 1, 2022, and all payments now go through the Williamson County Trustee. More in Moving to Fairview.
How much is property tax in Williamson County?
Three mechanics, and most people get the second one wrong. The rate is quoted per $100 of assessed value. Assessed value for a residence is 25% of appraised value. County and city rates stack.
Two primaries carry the table below. The county's own 2025 rate sheet publishes the county-side blocks and the city rates; the Tennessee Comptroller's certified 2025 table publishes the combined totals. (FSSD = Franklin Special School District.)
| Where the address is | Combined 2025 rate |
|---|---|
| Unincorporated county | $1.30 |
| Thompson's Station | $1.403 |
| Brentwood | $1.49 |
| Franklin, outside the FSSD | $1.566 † |
| Nolensville | $1.64 |
| Outside Franklin city limits, inside the FSSD | $1.7973 |
| Fairview | $1.8904 |
| Spring Hill, Williamson side | $2.009 |
| Franklin, inside the FSSD | $2.0633 |
† The Comptroller's certified table has no Franklin-outside-the-FSSD row. The $1.566 is arithmetic from the certified 2025 rates: the $1.27 county rate inside the Franklin and Spring Hill city limits, plus Franklin's $0.296 city rate.
The county sheet sets the county share block by block: $1.30 for Williamson County and inside the city limits of Brentwood, Fairview, Thompson's Station and Nolensville; $1.27 inside the city limits of Franklin and Spring Hill with no FSSD; $1.21 outside Franklin city limits but inside the FSSD; and $1.18 inside Franklin with the FSSD. The FSSD levies $0.5873 of its own in both FSSD blocks. City rates for 2025: Thompson's Station $0.103, Brentwood $0.19, Franklin $0.296, Nolensville $0.34, Fairview $0.5904, Spring Hill $0.739.
Worked example: an $800,000 appraised home in Nolensville is assessed at $200,000; $200,000 × $1.64 ÷ 100 is roughly $3,280 a year — arithmetic from the certified 2025 rate.
Two Franklin addresses a few streets apart can carry different rates. The county sheet marks 2025 as a reappraisal year, showing $1.30 against $1.88 for 2024 — confirm current figures with the Williamson County Trustee. For market figures, see the Williamson County market report.
Where is the new construction actually being built?
Our Williamson County new-construction dataset, compiled June 2026, tracks 106 communities — 105 of them across eight places: Franklin 22, Thompson's Station 21, Nolensville 19, Brentwood 12, Fairview 12, College Grove 8, Spring Hill 6, Arrington 5. The 106th is filed to the county with no town assigned. The distribution is the point: Franklin and Brentwood together hold 34 of the 106, about a third, and the rest sits in the smaller towns and out on the county's edges. See Williamson County new construction and buying new construction here.
How do you look up schools and crime data for a Williamson County address?
We do not rate schools or safety. We hand you the official sources and stay out of the conclusion.
Williamson County Schools is the county district, covering Franklin, Brentwood, Nolensville, Fairview, Thompson's Station and the Williamson side of Spring Hill. Two exceptions matter: part of Franklin lies in the separate Franklin Special School District for grades PreK-8, and a Spring Hill address can fall under Williamson County Schools or Maury County Public Schools depending on the side of the line. Assignment is by address, and the district's own zoning page says zones may change when a school goes over capacity or when a new one opens — so confirm any address with the district, not with a listing. For the schools themselves, Tennessee publishes the TN State Report Card by school and district, and the federal NCES public-school search covers the same schools; both are free lookups you run yourself, and we do not interpret them for you.
For crime data, the FBI Crime Data Explorer publishes agency-level counts by month and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation publishes the state series. The Williamson County Sheriff's Office and each city police department report as separate agencies, so pick the one whose jurisdiction covers the address. The FBI asks users not to rank or compare places with this data, and we follow that. Every source: School & crime data.
Who should look at a different county?
If waterfront, a dock or a boat ramp is why you are moving, look north and east instead. Our Old Hickory Lake dataset carries 44 communities and not one of them sits in Williamson County — all 44 are in Sumner County, at Hendersonville, Gallatin and Castalian Springs. Old Hickory is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir, and the Corps governs dock and shoreline rights — the detail that decides what you can actually build at the water. Start with Sumner County or which towns actually sit on a lake.
And if your work anchor is east or northeast of the city, look at the geometry first: Williamson is south of Davidson, so Nashville itself sits between a Williamson address and a Wilson or Sumner desk. So take this as it is meant: when Williamson is not your county, we will say so.
What should you do next?
- Pin the address to a county and a school zone: Williamson County Schools zones, the FSSD map, and for Spring Hill, Maury County Public Schools.
- Pull the tax rate yourself from the Williamson County 2025 rate sheet or the Tennessee Comptroller's certified table.
- Pull school and crime data yourself from the sources page, and check sewer versus septic and the utility provider by address.
- Call us at 615-265-1000 for the part that does not fit in a spreadsheet — contracts, inspections, builder agreements, negotiation. We represent buyers at little or no cost to you.
The Will Johnson Team is brokered by eXp Realty, with $27.7 million in volume and 64 transactions as of 2026.
