Davidson County · Middle Tennessee
Living in Bellevue
Bellevue is a large suburban part of Nashville in the southwest corner of Davidson County, about thirteen miles from downtown along the I-40 and Highway 70 South corridor. It is not a separate city, so it carries one Metro tax bill and one permitting authority, and its retail core is less than a decade old.
- County
- Davidson, part of Metro Nashville
- Distance to downtown Nashville
- ~13 miles
- Property tax
- Metro GSD $2.782 (2025), no separate city tax
What’s actually there
- A suburban area of roughly 78,000 people across zip codes 37221 and 37209
- One Bellevue Place, the open-air center built on the site of the former Bellevue Center mall
- Ford Ice Center Bellevue, a twin-rink facility operated by the Nashville Predators
- The Harpeth River, a designated State Scenic River, and 6.4 miles of greenway along it
- Edwin Warner Park and the Warner Parks trail system on the eastern side
The housing stock
Predominantly 1970s through 2000s subdivision housing, ranch, split-level and traditional two-story, developed after I-40 was cut through in the early 1960s, with substantial new infill and multifamily following the One Bellevue Place redevelopment. Zillow put the median sale price for zip 37221 at $536,914 through the end of May 2026, with its home value index at $509,485 at the end of June 2026, down 2.5 percent year over year. Bellevue is the one area on this site where a published median is on solid ground, because the sales volume supports it.
Getting around
About thirteen miles southwest of downtown on I-40, realistically twenty minutes or so off-peak and longer at rush hour. Marketing copy for the area sometimes claims ten minutes. It is not ten minutes.
Things to do in Bellevue
Places worth knowing before you decide whether you want to live here.
Loveless Cafe
Biscuits and country ham at 8400 Highway 100, open since 1951.
One Bellevue Place
Open-air center at 7620 Highway 70 South, with Sprouts, AMC, Burlington, HomeGoods and Ulta. Opened 2017.
Ford Ice Center Bellevue
Twin-rink facility at 7638 Highway 70 South, run by the Nashville Predators, with a restaurant and pro shop.
Bellevue Community Center
Metro Parks facility at 7638A Highway 70 South, with an NBA-sized gym, fitness center, indoor and outdoor tracks and pottery studios.
Harpeth River Greenway
6.4 miles along a designated State Scenic River, with trailheads at Edwin Warner Park and the Bellevue Exchange Club Complex.
Red Caboose Park
On Colice Jeanne Road. Officially named Bellevue Park in Metro records, but nobody local calls it that.
McKay’s
Used books, movies and music at 636 Old Hickory Boulevard.
Nashville Public Library, Bellevue Branch
At 720 Baugh Road, open seven days a week.
Checked against each business as of August 14, 2026. Nashville loses restaurants faster than most cities, so if something here has closed since, tell me and I’ll get it corrected.
Subdivisions and named developments in Bellevue
Once you are actually looking, you stop searching by city and start searching by subdivision. These are the names that come up, and what is true about each one that will still be true in three years. No prices, no dues, no days on market, because those change and this page would go stale telling you about them.
River Plantation
The largest residential community in Bellevue by unit count, along Sawyer Brown Road, General George Patton Road and Old Harding Pike. Recorded in sections from before 1974 through 2001.
- About 1,521 parcels, and the Davidson County Assessor classes the overwhelming majority as residential condominium rather than single family. That changes your financing, your insurance and what you actually own.
- It is not one association. Sections 1, 4 and 11 each run their own.
- Metro’s FEMA flood layer returns 31 Zone AE polygons inside the property, so mapped Special Flood Hazard Area runs through it. Zone is parcel specific here. Check the unit, not the community.
- In May 2010 the Harpeth at Bellevue crested at 33.32 feet, nearly nine feet above the 1948 record, and the gauge itself washed away. The Harpeth Conservancy’s account of that flood says more than 146 Bellevue homes were destroyed, many of them in River Plantation.
- Metro Water Services never ran a buyout project here. Its six buyout areas were Delray Drive and West Hamilton, Hite Street, Benzing Road, Miami Avenue, Pennington Bend and Yale Avenue. Bellevue was hit hard and was not bought out, which is a different situation from the one most people assume.
Sheffield on the Harpeth
Established in 1986 and built through the 1990s, bordering the Harpeth River, with Hanover Park of Sheffield added in 1996.
- 236 homes per the association, all single family detached. Phase 1 was recorded July 24, 1986 at 66 lots, later phases ran through 1994, and Hanover Park added 51 lots in April 1996.
- HOA with a salt chlorinated pool, two lighted tennis courts, a lighted beach volleyball court, a lighted basketball court, a playground, and a lake with a fountain and a paved walking path.
- Metro’s FEMA layer returns 23 polygons over the footprint, 15 of them Zone X and eight Zone AE. Flood zone changes sharply lot to lot here.
- No authoritative source names Sheffield in 2010 flood damage, and Metro’s buyout program has no Bellevue project, so treat the AE mapping as a parcel question rather than a verdict on the neighborhood.
Poplar Creek Estates
Off Poplar Creek Road, sitting between Montcastle Estates and Amber Hills. Recorded in two distinct waves, the mid 1980s and then the mid 1990s through 2003.
- Roughly 415 platted lots across the phases, about 464 parcels today, all single family detached per the Assessor.
- Phase 1 recorded September 24, 1985 at 67 lots and Phase 2 in June 1987 at 240, then phases 3 through 5 between 1996 and 2003. Two houses here can be fifteen years apart.
- Active HOA under recorded covenants, with architectural review. Autumnwood Park is the community’s own park and where its events are held.
- Metro’s FEMA layer returns only Zone X over the footprint. No Special Flood Hazard Area is mapped inside the subdivision.
Boone Trace
Far western Bellevue off Newsom Station Road, near the Harpeth. Recorded from 1994 through 2004, with the later sections platted under the name Boone Trace at Biltmore.
- About 324 platted lots, roughly 347 parcels today, all single family detached.
- Phase 1 recorded February 2, 1994 at 68 lots. Sections 3 through 7 came between 1998 and 2001 under the Biltmore name, and Section 8 finished in 2003 and 2004.
- HOA.
- Metro’s FEMA layer returns 21 polygons over the footprint, 15 Zone X and six Zone AE, which fits its position near the Harpeth at Newsom Station. Verify the parcel.
- Newsom’s Mill, a state historic area on the river, and the Newsom House on Newsom Station Road are both right here.
Traceside
Off Highway 100 in southern Bellevue, directly south of Poplar Creek Estates. Recorded across eleven sections between 1995 and 2002.
- About 393 platted lots, roughly 406 parcels today, all single family detached.
- Sections 1 through 11 were recorded in a tight run from April 1995 to January 2002, so the housing stock here is unusually consistent in age.
- Metro’s FEMA layer returns 16 polygons over the footprint, ten Zone X and six Zone AE. This is the one that surprises people: Traceside is not a river front neighborhood and it still has mapped Special Flood Hazard Area inside it. Verify the parcel before you waive anything.
- HOA status is not something I can confirm from an authoritative source, so ask rather than assume.
Cross Timbers
The oldest subdivision on this list, fronting Highway 70 South in central Bellevue, recorded in five sections between 1965 and 1970.
- 270 platted lots, and the Assessor’s current parcel count is exactly 270, which is unusual and useful.
- Section 1 recorded October 15, 1965. Section 5 closed it out in March 1970.
- Mixed stock: the Assessor classes parcels on Cross Timbers, Carriage, Bridle, Harness, Harrow and Stacy as both single family and duplex, so confirm which one a given address is before you compare it to anything.
- Metro’s FEMA layer returns only Zone X over the footprint. No Special Flood Hazard Area is mapped inside.
- The Horn House at 145 Cross Timbers was built in the 1830s or 1840s by George W. Harding, nephew of John Harding of Belle Meade. A 1960s subdivision was laid out around a standing antebellum house.
Harpeth Trace
On the Warner Parks side of Bellevue, well east of everything else on this list, founded as a non profit association in 1977. Despite the name, it is not on the Harpeth River.
- More than 300 homes plus five condominium associations, including a 39 unit high rise. Mixed single family and condominium, so read the classification on the specific unit.
- Phase 1 recorded December 29, 1978. Phase 3 added 75 lots in April 1984, with infill re subdivisions as recent as 2019.
- The Harpeth Trace Services Association runs the community, with five separate condominium associations under it. The parks next door are the real amenity: Warner Parks run to more than 2,500 acres of hiking and bridle trails, an equestrian center, golf and a mountain bike trail.
- Metro’s FEMA layer returns only Zone X over the footprint. No Special Flood Hazard Area is mapped inside.
Montcastle Estates
A late 1980s subdivision on Montcastle Drive and Montcastle Court, off Poplar Creek Road.
- Two plats recorded June 3, 1987, totaling 46 lots, with a re subdivision of two lots in 1990. About 50 parcels carry the name today.
- All single family detached per the Assessor. Individual parcels observed run from about a quarter acre to just under half an acre.
- Metro’s FEMA layer returns only Zone X over the footprint. No Special Flood Hazard Area is mapped inside, and no Metro, FEMA or news source ties Montcastle to the 2010 flood or to any buyout.
- No HOA I can verify, no published amenities, no builder on record. Worth saying plainly, because the pages that currently rank for this name cannot tell you any of the four facts above either.
Amber Hills
An early 1990s subdivision on Amber Hills Lane and Amber Court off Poplar Creek Road, just northeast of Poplar Creek Estates.
- The revised plat was recorded May 1, 1992 with 37 lots. About 39 parcels carry the name today.
- All single family detached per the Assessor. Sampled parcels run roughly a quarter acre to a third of an acre.
- Metro’s FEMA layer returns only Zone X over the footprint. No Special Flood Hazard Area is mapped inside, and no government or news source ties Amber Hills to the 2010 flood or to any buyout.
- HOA and builder are not verifiable from any authoritative source, so I will not tell you either way.
Westfield
A condominium community on Westfield Drive in northern Bellevue, in the Old Hickory Boulevard and Highway 70 South quadrant. The densest footprint on this list.
- 237 parcels, every one classed a residential condominium by the Assessor, which means a unit owners association and a very different closing than a detached house.
- No lot and block plat appears in Metro’s subdivision layer, which is normal for a condominium regime, because those are recorded as declarations instead. That is also why I cannot state a build year.
- Metro’s FEMA layer returns only Zone X over the footprint. No Special Flood Hazard Area is mapped inside.
- Association name, amenities and build decade are not published anywhere I can verify. Ask me to pull the declaration rather than trusting a portal on this one.
Schools
Metro Nashville Public Schools
Look up an address with the district →
Served by Metro Nashville Public Schools. Bellevue is part of Nashville proper rather than a satellite city, so there is no separate district and no separate city government. Metro zones by address, so two houses on the same block can differ. There is also a separate choice and magnet application. Verify the address in the district’s own Zone Finder.
I publish district and school zoning as published fact and nothing more. No ratings, no rankings, no comparisons. School zones are set by the district, assigned by address rather than by subdivision or city name, and they change. Confirm any address with the district itself, and evaluate the schools yourself against what matters to your family.
What a buyer needs to know here
Flood is the conversation to have here, and the honest version is more useful than the reassuring one. On May 2, 2010, the Harpeth River flooded Bellevue badly, and homes that were not mapped in a floodplain and carried no flood insurance took on water. In June 2024, FEMA issued letters of map change that removed many Bellevue properties from high-risk flood zones, which ends the federal insurance mandate for those homes. That is real relief and it is not the same as the risk disappearing. Metro Water’s own guidance is that roughly thirty percent of flood insurance claims happen outside the mapped special flood hazard area. So on any Bellevue address I pull the current flood zone and any letter of map change for that specific parcel, look at an elevation certificate, and price flood insurance before contingencies come off, even on a house that is now technically out of the zone. The second thing worth knowing is why Bellevue prices lagged and then moved. The enclosed Bellevue Center mall opened in 1990, closed in 2008, lost its last anchor in 2015 and was demolished. One Bellevue Place opened on the site in 2017. That means this area went roughly a decade without a retail center, and its current amenity base, the grocery, the cinema, the ice center and the community center, is under ten years old. That history explains both the earlier price lag and the recent trajectory better than any market commentary.
Common questions
Does Bellevue still flood?
The mapping improved and the risk did not vanish, and you should hear both halves. The Harpeth flooded Bellevue severely in May 2010, including homes that were not in a mapped floodplain. In June 2024 FEMA removed many Bellevue properties from high-risk zones, which ends the federal insurance requirement on those houses. But Metro Water says roughly thirty percent of flood claims occur outside the mapped zone. I pull the parcel’s current zone and any map change letter, look at an elevation certificate, and price the insurance before contingencies come off.
What happened to the Bellevue mall?
It opened in 1990, was undercut almost immediately by Cool Springs and Green Hills, closed in 2008, lost Sears in 2015 and was demolished. One Bellevue Place opened on the site in 2017. The practical point for a buyer is that Bellevue spent roughly a decade with no retail center and everything you see there now is under ten years old, which explains a lot about how prices here behaved.
Is Bellevue cheaper than the areas around it?
Meaningfully, yes. Zillow put the zip 37221 median sale price at $536,914 through May 2026, against seven-figure medians in the satellite cities a few miles east. You are trading drive time and a simpler tax picture for it, because Bellevue is straight Metro with one tax bill and one permitting office.
Thinking about Bellevue?
What are some of your must haves to make it a perfect home for you in this neighborhood?