Kiplinger — Best Value Cities of 2011

Best Value Cities 2011: No. 3, Nashville, Tenn.

Booming entertainment, health care and education sectors are music to the ears of its residents.

Nashville is home to the Grand Ole Opry and countless country stars (plus a few rock idols), and it has the highest concentration of record labels, recording studios, and music publishers and distributors in the na-tion. But Music City also means business. The area is making a strong comeback from the recession and is expected to add more than 151,000 jobs by 2019 -- an annual rate that’s higher than the national average.

The majority of the new openings will be in the education and health-services fields, although the city has a slug of workers in manufacturing as well. Top employers include Vanderbilt University (Nashville has 21 four-year and postgraduate institutions), Hospital Corporation of America and Nissan North America.

Even during the recession, new businesses opened and existing ones expanded. And Mayor Karl Dean says Nashville also has one of the nation’s most aggressive open-space plans, calling for the preservation of 22,000 acres of public and private land. And it will be adding 3,000 acres of parkland over the next ten years.

The music industry gives the city a buzz and energy that lures people from across the country. A budding technology industry helps draw bright young minds. "People come to Nashville and just fall in love with it," Dean says.

Nashville’s cost of living is about 10% below the national average; housing costs are 28% less. The city has held the property tax rate steady for the past four years, and Tennessee has no state income tax.

Nashville, of course, oozes music. You can listen to up-and-coming bands play seven days a week at the honky-tonks downtown without paying a cover charge. The Tennessee Performing Arts Center attracts Broadway acts. There are jazz concerts on the lawn of Belle Meade Plantation from June through August. The city has 11,000 acres of public parks, a zoo, two lakes, and 192 miles of trails Plus, Nashville has five professional sports teams and one of the South’s biggest film festivals.