Franklin's gated communities had 12-month medians from $1,250,000 (Avalon) to $4,675,000 (Treemont) in MLS data, but the gates differ: Laurelbrooke is the only one with a confirmed 24-hour staffed gatehouse, and Temple Hills and Fieldstone Farms are gated only in one section. Of 116 gated-community sales in the past year, 29.3% closed under $1 million and 16.4% at $3 million or more.
At a glance
| Gated-community sales, 12 months | 116 |
|---|---|
| Share under $1M | 29.3% |
| Share at $3M or more | 16.4% |
| Confirmed staffed gatehouse | Laurelbrooke (two entrances, 24 hours) |
| Not gated | Westhaven |
Franklin's gated communities compared
The table lists gated neighborhoods with closed sales in the 12 months to October 2026. Medians and dues are RealTracs MLS sales data; no HOA here publishes its dues, so treat every dues figure as what recent sellers reported, not a quote.
| Community | 12-month median | Median annual dues | Gate, where sourced |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hidden River | $4,900,000 (1 sale) | $5,400 | Gated |
| Treemont | $4,675,000 | $3,000 | Gated |
| Laurelbrooke | $2,987,500 | $5,508 | Staffed 24 hours at two entrances |
| Legends Ridge | $2,372,500 | $2,796 | Gated, no staffed gatehouse |
| Bonterra | $2,299,970 | $3,600 | Gated |
| Lynnwood Downs | $2,218,750 (2 sales) | $6,000 | Gated |
| Reserve at Spencer Creek | $1,555,000 | $1,740 | Gated section of Fieldstone Farms |
| Carronbridge and the Enclave | $1,479,000 | $2,304 | Gated |
| Carlisle | $1,310,000 | $2,400 | Gated |
| Belle Vista | $1,287,500 | $1,134 | Gated |
| Avalon | $1,250,000 | $3,260 | Gated |
| Temple Hills | About $969,000 (whole neighborhood) | $442 | Only The Reserve section |
Where the table says only "gated," the sources confirm a gate but not how it works. Ask the HOA whether entry is staffed, keypad, call box or transponder before you assume anything.
Staffed, unstaffed or partly gated
Most listings use one word, gated, for very different arrangements. The difference shows up in the dues, in how guests and contractors get in, and in what you are actually paying for.
A staffed gatehouse
Laurelbrooke has two entrances, each with a guard post staffed 24 hours a day rather than a keypad or call box. That staffing is paid for by owners: annualized dues ran $4,168 to $5,736 with a $5,508 median, and the dues cover the gate staff. It is the most expensive way to run a gate and the clearest example in Franklin.
A gate without a staff
Legends Ridge, about half a mile from Laurelbrooke, is gated but has no staffed gatehouse. Its median dues of $2,796 a year are roughly half of Laurelbrooke's, and its median price is about 26% lower. You get a controlled entrance and acre lots without paying for gate staff.
Gated in one section only
Two well-known Franklin neighborhoods are gated only in part. Temple Hills is a country club neighborhood where only The Reserve section has a gate; the rest, including most fairway homes, is open. Fieldstone Farms is a large open neighborhood with one gated section, the Reserve at Spencer Creek, where the median was $1,555,000 against $722,000 for Fieldstone Farms as a whole. If a listing says "Temple Hills, gated," check which section it is in.
Not gated: Westhaven
Westhaven comes up in gated searches because of its price range and amenities, but nothing in the developer's materials describes it as gated, and it is not. It is laid out around a town center on Front Street. See the Westhaven guide if that layout suits you better.
The $1M+ gated communities, one by one
Laurelbrooke
Southern Land Company began Laurelbrooke, off Sneed Road in ZIP 37069, in 1999. It is divided into five neighborhoods: The Woodlands, The Estates, The Reserve, The Lakes and The Boulevard, with French Chateau-style homes along the main boulevard and creeks, fountains and fishing ponds through the grounds. Fourteen homes sold in the past year from $1,750,000 to $11,710,000, the highest closed price recorded there. Houses ran 4,297 to 14,562 square feet on 0.46 to 3.06 acres, built 2000 to 2020, mostly in all-brick or brick and stone. Full detail on the Laurelbrooke page.
Legends Ridge
Legends Ridge, also off Sneed Road in 37069, is the acre-lot option: recent sales sat on 0.89 to 1.30 acres, with a 0.96-acre median. Thirteen homes sold from $1,600,000 to $5,500,000, and only two went above $3 million. Most were five-bedroom houses of 4,502 to 9,844 square feet. Amenities recorded across sales include a pool, tennis courts, a clubhouse and a playground. The Vanderbilt Legends Club is next door, with membership kept separate from the dues. See the Legends Ridge guide.
Treemont
Treemont had the highest median of any Franklin gated community with more than one sale: $4,675,000, with median dues of $3,000 a year. Ask the HOA what the dues cover and how the gate is run.
Hidden River
Hidden River recorded one sale in the gated-community data, at $4,900,000, and one at $4,100,000 in a separate MLS summary, so treat its median as a single data point rather than a trend. Listings there describe community horse trails, and dues ran about $5,400 a year.
Bonterra
Bonterra's recent sales include a run of new construction. Its gated-community median was $2,299,970 with $3,600 in annual dues. Among homes built in 2023 or later, Bonterra's eight sales had a $2,374,995 median, closed at a median 95.6% of first asking price and took a median 148 days to go under contract. More on new builds in the new construction guide.
Lynnwood Downs
Listings describe Lynnwood Downs as a gated equestrian community with multi-acre lots. Only two homes sold in the period, at a $2,218,750 median, and its $6,000 median dues were the highest of any community in the table. If you are buying for horses, ask the HOA what the dues cover (shared trails, fencing, barns) and what the covenants allow on your lot.
Avalon
Avalon's figures depend on how it is counted. The gated-community data gives a $1,250,000 median over 20 sales, which appears to include smaller sections, while a separate summary of 16 house sales gives $2,100,000. Avalon also produced Franklin's top house sale of the year, about $11.8 million for a 14,876-square-foot home on five acres. Ask which section a home sits in before comparing it with another.
Carronbridge, Carlisle and Belle Vista
These three are the gated entry point above $1 million. Carronbridge and the Enclave had a $1,479,000 median with $2,304 dues; Carlisle $1,310,000 with $2,400; Belle Vista $1,287,500 with $1,134, the lowest dues among the $1M+ gated communities. Sales counts were not published for each, so ask for the comparable sales behind any list price.
Stockett Creek
Stockett Creek is a gated Williamson County community that had no closed sale in the 12-month period, so there is no recent median to quote. If a home comes up there, the comparable sales will have to come from other neighborhoods.
The Grove in College Grove
Outside Franklin, The Grove in College Grove (ZIP 37046) is a private, gated golf community around a Greg Norman course, with a recent median above $3 million and monthly HOA fees of $237 to $400 in MLS data. It is covered on its own page for The Grove and alongside Troubadour on the golf course communities page.
Gated homes under $1 million
About three in ten gated sales in Franklin closed below $1 million, mostly in townhome and smaller-home communities: Ashton Park at a $759,900 median, Millgate at $620,450, Residences of Grant Park at $485,000 and Parkside at Aspen Grove at $430,000. In several of these, dues of $4,572 to $5,940 a year cover exterior maintenance, which is why they look high next to the price. This site covers homes from $1 million, so they are listed here only to explain why gated search results mix prices so widely.
How a gate affects HOA dues
Dues track what the association pays for, not the price of the homes. Across Franklin's gated communities, annual dues ran from about 0.05% of the median price in Temple Hills to 1.38% in Parkside at Aspen Grove. The two things that push dues up are staff (a manned gate) and exterior maintenance (townhome-style communities). A $5 million house behind a keypad can carry lower dues than a $1.3 million house behind a guard.
Gated communities can also own their streets. When roads are private, the association pays to resurface them, run the gate equipment and light the entrances, and those costs come from dues or a special assessment. Ask whether the streets are public or private and how the reserve fund is set aside for them.
Property tax is separate from all of this and depends on the parcel's city or county status; the Williamson County property tax guide has the rates and example bills.
Where Franklin's gated communities sit
The highest-priced gated neighborhoods cluster north of downtown in the Grassland area, off Sneed Road in ZIP 37069: Laurelbrooke, Legends Ridge and the gated Reserve section of Temple Hills are all within a short drive of each other. One published neighborhood guide puts historic downtown Franklin about ten minutes from Laurelbrooke and Nashville roughly 25 minutes north. Zillow's typical home value for 37069 was $1,023,572 in August 2026, the highest of Franklin's three main ZIP codes, which says more about the area's acre lots and older estates than about any single street.
The Franklin ZIP code guide compares 37064, 37067 and 37069, and the Franklin housing market page has the monthly trend.
Gated community HOA dues as a monthly cost
Annual dues read small next to a $2 million price, so it helps to see them the way you will pay them. The figures below divide each community's median annual dues from MLS records by twelve and set them against its median price.
| Community | Median dues per year | Per month | Share of median price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lynnwood Downs | $6,000 | $500 | 0.27% |
| Laurelbrooke | $5,508 | $459 | 0.18% |
| Bonterra | $3,600 | $300 | 0.16% |
| Avalon | $3,260 | $272 | 0.26% |
| Treemont | $3,000 | $250 | 0.06% |
| Legends Ridge | $2,796 | $233 | 0.12% |
| Carlisle | $2,400 | $200 | 0.18% |
| Carronbridge and the Enclave | $2,304 | $192 | 0.16% |
| Reserve at Spencer Creek | $1,740 | $145 | 0.11% |
| Belle Vista | $1,134 | $95 | 0.09% |
Over ten years, the gap between Laurelbrooke's median dues and Legends Ridge's comes to about $27,000. Laurelbrooke's dues pay for its staffed gate; ask either HOA for its budget to see what else they cover, and for the last few years' budgets to see which way dues are moving.
How fast gated homes sell
Price bands behave differently. Across Franklin, about 35% of listings above $3 million failed to sell in the past year, against about one in eight below $1 million. Within gated neighborhoods, the pace varies just as widely.
In Laurelbrooke, the median home went under contract in 38 days, but the range ran from 1 day to 210, and homes closed anywhere from 86.7% to 105.5% of first asking price. Legends Ridge was slower: a median 68 days to contract, and ten addresses produced thirteen cancelled or expired listings in the same period. Its per-foot prices also split by age, from about $261 to $366 for the original late-1990s houses to $563 for a 2025 build.
For a buyer, that means room to negotiate on homes that have sat, and a reason to ask for the listing history. For a seller, it means pricing against recent closed sales in your own section. The guide to selling a $1M+ home in Franklin covers that in more detail.
What to check before buying in a gated community
- The gate itself. Staffed, keypad, call box or transponder, and the hours it is staffed if at all.
- Current dues in writing. The MLS figures above are history. Ask for this year's budget, the billing schedule (monthly or quarterly) and what the dues include.
- Reserve study and special assessments. Ask when the reserve study was last done, how much is in reserve, and whether any assessment is planned for roads, gates or amenities.
- Who owns the roads. Private streets are maintained by the association, not the city.
- Guest and contractor access. How deliveries, rideshares, cleaners and builders get through, and whether there is a list or app to manage it.
- Transfer and capital fees. Many associations charge a one-time fee at closing. Ask for the amount before you write the offer, and see the Tennessee closing costs guide for who usually pays what.
- Covenants. Read the restrictions on fences, outbuildings, rentals, horses and exterior changes, and how the architectural committee approves them.
- Schools. Never rely on a listing for school assignment. Franklin addresses are served by Franklin Special School District or Williamson County Schools; check the address with the district, starting from the Franklin schools guide.
I can send you the recent sales and the dues reported for any of these communities before you tour.
The most expensive gated neighborhoods in Franklin
By median price over the past year, the top of the market behind a gate is Treemont ($4,675,000), Laurelbrooke ($2,987,500 over 14 sales) and Legends Ridge ($2,372,500), with Hidden River's single sale at $4,900,000. By single sale, Avalon holds the top house sale in Franklin for the year at about $11.8 million, and Laurelbrooke's $11,710,000 sale is its highest on record. These are home values, not a judgment on which neighborhood is better; the Franklin neighborhoods guide compares gated and open neighborhoods side by side.
Common questions
Which gated communities in Franklin, TN have a staffed gate?
Laurelbrooke is the Franklin community with a confirmed staffed gate: two entrances with guard posts staffed 24 hours a day, paid for through dues that ran a median $5,508 a year in MLS records. Legends Ridge is gated without a staffed gatehouse. For the other gated communities, sources confirm a gate but not how it is run, so ask the HOA.
How much are HOA fees in Franklin's gated communities?
In MLS records from the past year, median annual dues ran from $1,134 in Belle Vista to $6,000 in Lynnwood Downs among $1M+ gated communities, with Laurelbrooke at $5,508 and Legends Ridge at $2,796. Dues follow what the association pays for, such as gate staff or exterior upkeep. Ask the HOA for the current budget in writing, since none of these publishes its dues.
Is Westhaven a gated community?
No. Westhaven is a master-planned community by Southern Land Company with a town center, pools, trails and a golf club, but it is not gated and its developer does not describe it as gated. Buyers who want a gate at a similar price often compare Avalon, Carlisle, Carronbridge or the Reserve at Spencer Creek, the gated section of Fieldstone Farms.
Is Temple Hills in Franklin gated?
Only in part. Temple Hills is a country club neighborhood off Sneed Road, and only The Reserve section is gated. The older sections and most of the fairway homes are not behind a gate. The neighborhood's median sale price was about $969,000 over the past year, with $1M+ homes concentrated in The Links and Country Club Estates.
What is the richest neighborhood in Franklin, Tennessee?
Measured by home prices, the highest medians belong to gated neighborhoods: Treemont at $4,675,000 and Laurelbrooke at $2,987,500 over 14 sales in the past year, with Hidden River's one sale at $4,900,000. Avalon recorded Franklin's top house sale of the year at about $11.8 million on five acres, according to RealTracs MLS sales data.
What is the nicest neighborhood in Franklin, TN?
That depends on what you want from the property. For a staffed gate, Laurelbrooke is the clear example; for acre lots behind a gate, Legends Ridge; for horse property, Lynnwood Downs; for a walkable town plan without a gate, Westhaven. Compare recent sales, lot sizes and dues for each rather than relying on a ranking.
What are the best gated communities in Tennessee?
There is no official ranking. Around Franklin, the gated communities with the highest recent medians are Treemont, Laurelbrooke and Legends Ridge, and The Grove in College Grove is a gated golf community with a median above $3 million. Brentwood is a separate market and is not covered here. Compare gate type, dues and lot size rather than a list.
Sources
- Nashville Home Guru (Compass): Franklin gated homes, RealTracs MLS rolling 12 months
- Nashville Home Guru (Compass): Laurelbrooke Franklin TN, RealTracs MLS rolling 12 months
- Nashville Home Guru (Compass): Legends Ridge Franklin TN, RealTracs MLS rolling 12 months
- Nashville Home Guru (Compass): Luxury homes in Franklin TN, RealTracs MLS 12 months ending Sept 28, 2026
- Nashville Home Guru (Compass): New construction homes Franklin TN (homes built 2023+), RealTracs MLS rolling 12 months
- Nashville Home Guru (Compass): Temple Hills Franklin TN, RealTracs MLS rolling 12 months
- Westhaven: Home
- Nashville Home Guru: The Grove vs. Troubadour Club (RealTracs MLS, rolling 12 months to Aug 20, 2026)
Brianna Morant
I have worked in real estate for more than 20 years. In 2013 I founded Oak Street Real Estate Group with Benchmark Realty, and I lead every listing the team takes on. Here I focus on homes from $1 million in Franklin, Leiper's Fork and College Grove. If you are thinking of selling, I would be glad to tell you what your home could sell for.
Realtor®, Benchmark Realty, LLC. General information, not legal, tax or lending advice.
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