All you have to do is look at Austin to see what's coming/already here. Rather than gentrifying a portion of the city/county, they're gentrifying all of it - it'll be nothing but "young hip professionals" before long (with, of course, long-time residents being priced out of the market and having to move). The worst part is that once the transformation is complete, it's off to the next city & Nashville will be left as it stands, devoid of much of its original charm.
I've thought about this subject at length as I have been an observer or "victim" depending on your perspective more than once. As a resident and/or speculator at different times, I have come to the conclusion that this (gentrication) is another form of evolution, specific to real estate. This is not a new phenomenon, this has been going on for a long time. Long before me or you. I lived in NYC for many years. It is almost unimaginable for me to say this but there are literally no longer any "bad" neighborhoods left in Manhattan. For those that are familiar; the Bowery aka "Skid Row", "Alphabet City", Harlem, Spanish Harlem, Times Square, etc. are all million dollar neighborhoods. The West (Greenwich) Village, long a bastion of the LGBT/bohemian crowd has been bought up by trendy designers like Jimmy Choo, Herme, and the like. This destroyed the flavor of the neighborhood. The elements that made it special, no longer exist. I would hardly call it a neighborhood any longer. I lived in a section of Queens, one stop from midtown Manhattan. At the turn of the century it was known as "Germantown". When I lived there it was a largely Southern European, predominantly Greek neighborhood. When I saw the Greeks beginning to move, I took it as my cue. I sold my 1200sf row house with no parking for a "fortune" ($260K, lol). 20 years later, my next door neighbor who stuck it out sold earlier this year for $1.75 million! Meanwhile I moved to a great neighborhood near the water on Long Island. I thought I would never move. It was great for 20 years until it was "discovered" by the stock broker crowd and lost its flavor for me. I moved again to my current location about 7 years ago. I love it here, but realize there really isn't any place you can really call a "forever home". You can complain about it, cry about it, stomp your feet, but the fact is real estate is a dynamic environment. It may become a hipster place now, but will eventually change again. Enjoy where you live. If you stop enjoying it, move. There is no longer "legacy" housing, passed down from generation to generation. Migration is the new normal. In the future, we may come to find that Covid may exacerbate this. I hope I am happy here until I pass. If not, I hope I am able to move. Life does not come with any guarantees, including your neighborhood remaining the same. Yes, sometimes it is a shame. Sometimes, it is for the better. Hopefully the end result will be you finding your new "favorite" place. The bottom line is the tide changes and no man can stop it. All we can do is try to make the best of where we are when we are there. I apologize for the length of this post.
