Two homes closed on the same street in Westhaven this year, within weeks of each other, at nearly identical asking prices. One sold in under a week at full price. The other sat for more than a month and closed almost $200,000 lower. Same neighborhood. Same school zone. Same golf course a short walk in either direction. The gap had nothing to do with location and everything to do with how each home was priced and prepared before it hit the market.
That gap is the real story behind Franklin's median home price this year, and it's worth understanding before you compare listings on a spreadsheet.
Over the three months ending June 2026, the median sale price for a home in Franklin sat at $864,000, up 5.3 percent from the same period the year before, with homes moving in an average of 48 days. Widen the window to six months and the figure climbs closer to $970,000. Neither number is wrong. They're both blended averages pulled from neighborhoods that operate by almost entirely different rules, and if you're comparing Franklin communities using the citywide median as your yardstick, you're measuring the wrong thing.
Here's what that number is actually made of.
| Area | Median sale price | Price per square foot | Typical days on market | Monthly HOA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Franklin citywide | $864,000 (three months ending June 2026) | $325 | 48 days | Varies by neighborhood |
| Westhaven | About $1.33 million (12 months through May 2026) | $473 to $509 | Roughly 40 to 50 days on average, split sharply between under a week and over a month | $107 to $800+ |
| Berry Farms | $710,000 blended across condos, townhomes, and single-family homes (12 months through January 2026) | Diverges sharply by product type | Condos moving quickly; single-family homes slower | $272 to $408 |
| Historic Downtown Franklin | $675,000 median, $927,000 average (12 months through May 2026) | $185 to $886, the widest range in the county | Limited comparable sales make timing less predictable | Few HOAs in the historic core |
Westhaven: the premium is for speed, not square footage
Westhaven's median sale price over the twelve months through May 2026 ran close to $1.33 million, and price per square foot has been landing between $473 and $509. That's meaningfully above Franklin's broader $325 average, and it's tempting to read that gap as pure prestige pricing. It isn't. It's a market where roughly a third of homes close in about a week at full asking price or better, while a comparable share sit for a month or longer before they sell, often for tens of thousands less than list.
The difference between those two outcomes rarely comes down to the house itself. It comes down to which section of the neighborhood the home sits in, how close it is to the Village Center, and whether the listing was priced against the last six months of closed comps or against what the seller hoped the market still supported. Westhaven has enough recent sales data that pricing mistakes get punished fast, and pricing accuracy gets rewarded just as fast.
One detail buyers routinely miss until closing: Westhaven carries a capital transfer fee of about 0.3 percent of the sale price, paid at closing, on top of monthly HOA dues that range from around $107 in some sections up to $800 or more for homes closer to the golf course and Residents' Club. On a $1.3 million purchase, that transfer fee alone runs close to $4,000. It isn't hidden, but it's easy to overlook if you're only budgeting against the sale price on the listing sheet.
Berry Farms: one HOA gate, two different markets inside it
Berry Farms carries a blended median of $710,000 across all property types over the twelve months through January 2026, and that single number flattens two markets moving in opposite directions. Condos and smaller attached units are the strongest performers in the community, with medians up 12.5 percent year over year. A one-bedroom condo that sold for around $420,000 a year ago is trading closer to $490,000 now. Walkability to Berry Farms Town Center is doing most of the work here.
Single-family homes at the $1 million-plus tier tell a different story. Prices there slipped about 1.7 percent year over year, and the community saw only seven single-family sales in the past year compared to twelve the year before. That isn't a market in decline. It's a market where buyers at the higher price point are taking their time, and sellers who price patiently and market well are still finding buyers, just on a longer timeline than the condo segment next door.
If you're comparing Berry Farms to Westhaven on the strength of one median number, you're missing that Berry Farms is really two markets sharing an HOA, a dog park, and two resort-style pools, with monthly dues running $272 to $408 depending on unit type.
Historic Downtown Franklin: zoning sets the ceiling, not the buyer
Downtown Franklin's numbers look strange until you understand the mechanism behind them. Over the twelve months through May 2026, the historic core logged 401 closed sales at a median of $675,000, but an average sale price of $927,000. When the average sits that far above the median, a handful of very large transactions are usually pulling the number up, and in downtown Franklin that's exactly what's happening. Price per square foot in the district ranges from $185 to $886, the widest spread of any market in the county, because a fully renovated estate on Lewisburg Avenue and an original cottage a few blocks off Main Street are technically in the same district and nowhere near the same product.
The reason downtown behaves this way isn't demand alone. It's the Historic Preservation Overlay District, which requires approval for exterior modifications and effectively caps how much new inventory can enter the core no matter how strong demand runs. Supply can't expand to meet demand the way it can in a master-planned community still adding phases. That scarcity is also why the district's one major new construction project, The Margin District, a $165 million mixed-use development one block south of Five Points, is drawing attention out of proportion to its size: 25 condominiums, pricing starting above $2 million, and 13 of those units already presold as of early 2026 with delivery targeted for 2027. Buyers who want a downtown address without inheriting a hundred-year-old roof are watching that project closely because there is almost nowhere else in the historic core to put that kind of money to work.
What this actually means if you're comparing neighborhoods
The citywide median is a fine headline and a poor decision tool. Before you weigh one Franklin neighborhood against another, it helps to ask three narrower questions instead of one broad one.
- Am I buying into a market where pricing accuracy determines the outcome, the way it does in Westhaven, or into a market where the product type I want is moving on its own timeline, the way condos and single-family homes do in Berry Farms?
- Is the supply I'm competing against fixed by zoning, the way it is downtown, or still expanding in phases, the way it is in most master-planned Franklin communities?
- What ongoing costs, HOA dues, transfer fees, or historic overlay approval requirements come with the address, and are they built into the number I'm comparing against other neighborhoods?
None of these questions show up in a citywide median. All three show up in the closing documents.
A few common questions
Why does downtown Franklin's average price run so far above its median? A small number of very large historic estate sales, some on multi-acre lots along streets like Lewisburg Avenue, pull the average well above what a typical buyer will actually pay. The median is the more honest number for a typical purchase in the district.
Are transfer fees like Westhaven's common across Franklin? No. Transfer fees and their size are set by each community's HOA covenants, not by the city. Ask for the covenants and a current HOA statement before you write an offer, regardless of which Franklin neighborhood you're considering.
Will more inventory come to any of these three areas soon? Berry Farms and Westhaven are both still building out in phases, so new listings will keep arriving there. Downtown Franklin's preservation overlay means new construction will stay limited to projects like The Margin District rather than broader expansion.
Where to go from here
A median price tells you what Franklin cost on average last month. It doesn't tell you whether you're stepping into a neighborhood where preparation wins, where product type dictates the timeline, or where the zoning itself is the scarcity. The Kenny Stephens Team spends its days inside these distinctions, comps in hand, so you don't have to guess which Franklin market you're actually buying into. If you're ready to look past the median and find the neighborhood that fits how you actually want to buy or sell, Find Your Dream Home.
