Credit to: Allison Kiehl, Knoxville News Sentinel, January 6th, 2026.
There are very real and tangible ramifications of housing inflation in Knoxville and Knox County today.
An average of 43.6% of Knoxville and Knox County renters are cost-burdened, meaning the household spends more than one-third of its income on rent or mortgage payments. For those who can’t afford to live in Knox County, they’re being pushed to surrounding regions to find more affordable housing or are edged into homelessness.
Here’s some insight as to why.
A recent University of Tennessee study reports that Knox County had a net population growth of 5,172 people from July 2023 to July 2024. People are moving to Knoxville from all parts of the country, according to data from the Sycamore Institute.
Data shows salaries and housing costs are much higher in the origin counties of many newcomers to East Tennessee than they are here. That means new arrivals who are looking to buy a house in Knox County have more money and a higher purchasing power, according to the Sycamore Institute study. They have the money to buy houses in Knoxville.
“What’s happening in the city is that people are being pushed out of the city and pushed out of Knox County because of the pricing,” said Maria McHale, governmental affairs and policy director for East Tennessee Realtors.
McHale was quick to say that the intensified competition in the housing market is not the fault of newcomers to East Tennessee, but instead is caused by the lack of available housing inventory. She reiterated the need for a variety of housing at a range of prices, not just cheaper homes.
Data from the Sycamore Institute shows Knox County residents are being pushed into five surrounding counties: Anderson, Blount, Loudon, Sevier and Roane.
In 2021 and 2022, more than 6,000 residents moved from Knox County to a nearby area, the data shows. The same trend is happening in major cities across the state, including Memphis and Nashville.
“Both the city and county have done an amazing job of drawing employers to the area and now we’ve got to make sure that the community has the infrastructure for those workers to be able to take those jobs,” said Erin Read, executive director of the Knoxville-Knox County Office of Housing Stability.
Nearly half of renters are cost-burdened, meaning they spend at least 30% of their income on just housing costs, according to the East Tennessee Realtors 2025 state of housing report.
One-fourth of Knoxville renters are extremely cost-burdened, meaning those households spend half their gross monthly income on rent.
Broken down by income bracket, the Knoxville renters who are struggling the most make between $20,000 and $35,000 per year, according to the state of housing. More than 77% of people in this income range are cost-burdened.
Individuals making less than $20,000 are not far behind, with 67% spending more than one-third of their income on rent.
Not only are community members cost-burdened or being pushed out of Knox County, some are being priced out of housing altogether due to the recent housing inflation.
High housing costs and rent prices are driving an increase in homelessness in Knoxville and across the country.
In 2018, around 1,000 people were accessing homeless services in Knoxville and Knox County on an average day. At the start of 2025, that number more than doubled, according to Read. In the first quarter of 2025, about 2,300 people accessed homeless services each day. There were approximately 300 chronically homeless people in Knoxville in 2025, meaning individuals who have been without housing for longer than one year and have a disabling condition. The average period of homelessness in the Knoxville region is 280 days, according to the Knoxville-Knox County Homeless Coalition.
“Of people who are becoming homeless in our community, about two-thirds of them report that it’s for economic reasons,” Read said. “Either they can’t find affordable housing, they were evicted, they can’t find a job or they don’t have a job.”
Homelessness is intertwined with the real estate and rental markets. Read says the wave of homelessness has been building since the economic downturn in the early 2000s.
Most aren’t addicted to drugs or have a mental illness. They’re losing access to a home because prices are up and they were on the edge financially, for whatever reason.
“The housing crisis touches a lot of people at a lot of different income levels in our community,” Read said. “I have been alarmed at the number of families with children who are getting evicted, who are seeking resources to get housed again quickly.”
