Yes, substantially more, and Brentwood is the rare market where the size of the premium can be stated from a sample rather than guessed. New construction in ZIP 37027 sold from 2,304,000 dollars to 7,000,000 dollars in 2025 to 2026, including 7,000,000 dollars in the Governors Club and 5,200,000 dollars on Franklin Road (Nashville Home Guru, 2026). Across 117 sampled older homes, the average older home changed hands at 39.6 percent of the price of a new build on a comparable lot, which inverts to a simple statement: buyers pay roughly two and a half times as much for the new product as for the older home on similar ground (Frontier Capitals, 2026). The worked example in the research file prices the gap exactly: where a new Brentwood home sells for 3,000,000 dollars, the older home on a comparable lot changed hands for about 1,188,000 dollars, a development spread of roughly 1,800,000 dollars (Frontier Capitals, 2026). The other half of the story matters just as much. That 39.6 percent ratio is the highest in the study batch, so Brentwood older homes hold their value against new construction better than older stock almost anywhere else in the research.
Key Findings
- New Brentwood construction sold between 2,304,000 dollars and 7,000,000 dollars in 2025 to 2026, the finished price band against which all older home comparisons here are made (Nashville Home Guru, 2026).
- Sampled older homes averaged 39.6 percent of new build prices on comparable lots, so buyers pay about 2.5 times more for new construction on similar ground (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
- At a 3,000,000 dollar new build price, the comparable older home figure is roughly 1,188,000 dollars, leaving a development spread near 1,800,000 dollars (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
- The 39.6 percent ratio is the highest in its study batch, meaning Brentwood older homes resist the new construction discount better than older homes elsewhere in the research (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
- Brentwood medians of 1,400,000 dollars citywide and 1,300,000 dollars for ZIP 37027 sit far below the new construction band, showing how much of the market still trades in older stock (Redfin, 2026).
What exactly are buyers paying the premium for?
Not the land, because the comparison is made on comparable lots, and not age as an abstraction. The premium buys current construction at current cost: modern structure and systems, a floor plan designed for present day family life, energy performance a 1970s or early 1980s brick traditional cannot match without deep work, and the certainty of occupying a finished home without a project. The residual illustration in the research file shows where the money sits. On a 3,500,000 dollar finished sale, roughly 1,400,000 dollars is hard and soft construction cost and a margin near 20 percent stands between the build and the land residual of 1,350,000 dollars to 1,500,000 dollars (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Much of the new versus old gap is simply the cost of producing the new house, recovered at sale.
National new residential sales reporting tracks the same product category at national scale, where new single family sales are counted separately from resales precisely because the two products price differently (U.S. Census Bureau, 2026). Brentwood expresses that national distinction at luxury scale. The finished band begins at 2,304,000 dollars, a figure that already exceeds the city median by more than 900,000 dollars, and ends at a 7,000,000 dollar ceiling that no resale of an older home in the record approaches (Nashville Home Guru, 2026; Redfin, 2026).
Immediacy is the part of the premium sellers most often underestimate. A buyer who purchases the new build skips the renovation timeline, the contractor risk and the interim period entirely. For households relocating into Williamson County school zones on a school calendar, that immediacy has a cash value, and it is priced into every top band closing from the Governors Club to Franklin Road.
Why do Brentwood older homes hold 39.6 percent when older homes elsewhere hold less?
Three local traits support the older stock. The first is the stock itself: Brentwood older homes are largely 1970s and early 1980s brick traditionals, bigger and more livable than the small aging cabins and cottages that anchor the low ratios in resort and estate markets. A house a family can genuinely live in has a household buyer, and a household buyer pays for rooms as well as ground. The second trait is demand depth: an affluent, owner occupied community profile keeps family bidding strong for exactly that livable product (U.S. Census Bureau, 2025). The third trait is the land floor itself, since a Brentwood lot under large lot zoning, in a chased school zone, underpins the older home price even where the structure contributes little.
The renovation illustration shows the living value working. A 100,000 dollar kitchen and bath update on a 1979 brick traditional might add 70,000 dollars to 90,000 dollars when the buyer intends to live in the home, a return pattern the research file calls better than in most builder markets, and it adds 0 dollars when the buyer intends to redevelop (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Markets where older homes are barely livable do not produce that first figure at all. Brentwood does, because its family buyers will pay for an updated older home as a real alternative to new construction at two and a half times the price.
Market performance data fits the picture. Brentwood homes achieved 97.4 percent to 97.8 percent of list in August 2026, on average market time of 61 to 64 days, behaviour consistent with older stock that buyers actually want rather than merely tolerate (Redfin, 2026). The premium for new construction is therefore a premium for specification and immediacy, charged on top of a healthy older home market, not a discount imposed on a failing one. The relationship runs the other way too, and the report on how new construction sale prices affect the value of older Brentwood homes follows the effect of each new ceiling sale on the older homes around it.
How does the premium vary across Brentwood?
The band tells the story. At the top, the Governors Club new build at 7,000,000 dollars implies, at the sampled ratio, an older home value near 2,770,000 dollars on a comparable lot, the highest older home territory in the ZIP (Nashville Home Guru, 2026; Frontier Capitals, 2026). Along Franklin Road, the 5,200,000 dollar build implies an older home figure near 2,060,000 dollars on comparable ground. Across Callie Lane, Honeyman, Champagne, Briarmont and Geralds, finished sales of 2,304,000 dollars to 3,350,000 dollars imply older home values from about 910,000 dollars to about 1,330,000 dollars, the working heart of the replacement market.
Those implied figures are translations of a ZIP wide average, not street measurements, and individual parcels move around them with lot size, school zone, topography and the condition of the house. Recently sold records for the ZIP show both products trading side by side, new builds at the band and resales nearer the 1,300,000 dollar ZIP median (Redfin, 2026). Valuation platforms reading the same ZIP blend the two products together, which is why their estimates for an older home beside a new build deserve the caution discussed in the analysis of how accurate Zillow home estimates are in Brentwood (Zillow, 2026).
Financing widens or narrows the felt premium by buyer. A family comparing a 1,188,000 dollar older home with a 3,000,000 dollar new build at a 30 year fixed rate averaging 7.28 percent faces a monthly payment gap that makes the older home the rational choice for many households (Freddie Mac, 2026). A cash buyer at the Governors Club level barely feels the rate at all. The premium is one number in the record and several different numbers in lived budgets.
What does the premium mean for an older home seller?
It means the seller owns the input to an expensive product, and should price accordingly without confusing the input with the product. The land channel value of an older Brentwood home is set by the residual: the finished price a builder can achieve, less construction cost, less margin, less site preparation of 40,000 dollars to 80,000 dollars (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Where that residual exceeds the household price, the premium for new construction is, in effect, paying the seller for permission to create it. Builders acted on that logic in 31 of the 117 sampled cases, a 26.5 percent acquisition rate that makes Brentwood the most selective builder market in the study on its deepest sample (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
It also means the household channel deserves a fair hearing, because 39.6 percent is a strong ratio and the family market pays it willingly for the right house. National profile research on buyers and sellers describes a resale market in which finished and well presented older homes still command committed offers, and Brentwood family demand for school zone addresses gives that national pattern local force (National Association of Realtors, 2025). County permit records let a seller watch which channel is more active on the street itself, since replacement filings show builder intent in real time (Williamson County, 2026).
The cost ledger then arbitrates. A listed sale at 1,200,000 dollars surrenders 60,000 dollars to 72,000 dollars in commissions at 5 percent to 6 percent, adds seller closing costs of 1 percent to 2 percent, invites inspection concessions and repair credits of 12,000 dollars to 30,000 dollars on older inventory, and can add 25,000 dollars to 50,000 dollars of holding cost over three to six months. An older home that eventually sells to a builder after that process has paid household channel costs for a builder channel outcome.
Frontier Capitals sources off market deals to builders as a wholesaler, placing agreed purchases with the builders who produce the new construction, and it never claims to be a builder itself. For the older home seller, the five benefits are stated at Brentwood levels. Privacy is complete, with zero showings and zero open houses, so the sale stays out of public view until the deed records even on a watched street. Flexibility is built into the timetable, with closing in 7 to 21 days when speed matters or months out with a leaseback when it does not, instead of the 60 to 120 plus days a listed older home commonly takes. No commissions are charged, preserving the 60,000 dollars to 72,000 dollars the benchmark listed sale surrenders. No seller closing costs are charged, removing the further 1 percent to 2 percent, and the purchase is as is, with no inspections and no repair credits, so the price reflects the lot and the location that the new construction premium is really paying for. The conversation opens at 401-219-4207 or [email protected], and owners can compare channels through the report on whether selling a Brentwood house to a builder is more profitable than selling to a homebuyer.
How does the comparison play out street by street for a real owner?
Take a single Brentwood street where both products can be seen from one driveway. The new build carries a price inside the recorded band of 2,304,000 dollars to 7,000,000 dollars, and the older brick traditional two doors down carries a household value built from the medians and the ratio rather than from the band itself (Nashville Home Guru, 2026; Redfin, 2026). The owner of the older home who lists it as if it were competing with the new build will usually wait, because family buyers cross shop it against other livable homes near the 1,300,000 dollar ZIP median, not against a finished luxury product. The same owner who prices it honestly as a strong older home, or who tests the land channel against the residual the new build itself proves, meets a buyer quickly. The premium documented in this report is thus not a taunt aimed at older homes. It is a sorting device, and owners who let it sort their property into the correct channel, household or builder, are the ones who convert it from a statistic into a result.
Methodology and limitations
The premium in this report is measured from the dated new construction sales record for Brentwood (Nashville Home Guru, 2026) and the 117 home sample whose older homes averaged 39.6 percent of new build prices on comparable lots (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Market context comes from August 2026 medians, market time and sale to list reporting (Redfin, 2026), national new sales context from federal construction reporting (U.S. Census Bureau, 2026), and demographic background from census material (U.S. Census Bureau, 2025).
The limits are straightforward. The 39.6 percent figure is a sample average across ZIP 37027, not a price rule for any individual pair of houses, and street level translations of it are arithmetic illustrations rather than measurements. The sample covers older homes, principally pre 1981 stock, so the comparison describes that segment and not newer Brentwood resales. The residual illustration is labelled a simplified illustration in the research file. No property was inspected and no appraisal was performed.
Conclusion
Buyers are paying more for new construction than for older Brentwood homes by a measured factor of about two and a half, with new builds selling from 2,304,000 dollars to 7,000,000 dollars while comparable older homes average 39.6 percent of those prices (Nashville Home Guru, 2026; Frontier Capitals, 2026). The premium pays for current specification, replacement cost and immediacy. Yet Brentwood older homes resist that premium better than older stock anywhere else in the study batch, because their size, livability and land keep both a family channel and a builder channel open at once. The seller task is not to resent the gap or to chase it, but to identify which side of it the property is really priced on.
When a buyer pays two and a half times more for the new house across the street, how much of that difference is the house itself, and how much is the ground your own home is already standing on?
Frequently Asked Questions
How much more do buyers pay for new construction in Brentwood?
About two and a half times the older home price on comparable ground, the inverse of the sampled finding that older homes averaged 39.6 percent of new build prices across 117 sampled homes (Frontier Capitals, 2026). In dollars, new builds sold from 2,304,000 dollars to 7,000,000 dollars (Nashville Home Guru, 2026).
What is the clearest single illustration of the gap?
The research file worked example: a new Brentwood home selling for 3,000,000 dollars corresponds to an older home at roughly 1,188,000 dollars on a comparable lot, leaving a development spread of about 1,800,000 dollars (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
Why is the Brentwood gap smaller than in many markets?
Because Brentwood older homes are newer, larger and more livable than the aging stock in resort and estate markets, and family demand for them is deep. The resulting 39.6 percent ratio is the highest in the study batch (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
Does the premium mean older homes are bad value for families?
The opposite reading is available: at a 7.28 percent average mortgage rate, a family can buy the older home in the same school zone for a fraction of the new build payment, which is one reason older Brentwood stock keeps its ratio (Freddie Mac, 2026).
How can an older home seller capture part of the premium?
Through the land. Builders pay the residual under the finished price, and 31 of 117 sampled older homes were acquired on that logic (Frontier Capitals, 2026). County permit records show where that demand is active street by street (Williamson County, 2026).
Sources
- Frontier Capitals, 2026. 189 neighborhood builder acquisition sample: 117 homes sampled in 37027, 31 acquired by builders, average older home price 39.6 percent of new build. Market data.
- Nashville Home Guru, 2026. Dated new-construction sales, Brentwood / 37027. Market data.
- Redfin, 2026. Brentwood housing market, August 2026: median sale price and days on market for Brentwood and 37027. Market data.
- Redfin, 2026. Recently sold homes and new construction, ZIP code 37027, Brentwood TN. Market data.
- U.S. Census Bureau, 2026. New Residential Sales, August 2026. Government data.
- U.S. Census Bureau, 2025. QuickFacts: Brentwood, Tennessee. Government data.
- Zillow, 2026. Home values and recently sold, 37027. Market data.
- National Association of Realtors, 2025. Highlights from the Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. Industry report.
- Freddie Mac, 2026. Primary Mortgage Market Survey, October 1, 2026: 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 7.28 percent. Market data.
- Williamson County, 2026. Property records and permits, Brentwood TN. Official record.