Alto, Texas.
Typical home $210,869 (-8.8% in a year). Jacksonville, TX metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$273 (+33%) since Feb 2022.
- 1 year
- Down $20,415 -9%
- $231,285$210,869 since Sep 2025
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Alto$1,107
- Texas$1,556
- United States$1,922
Typical home values in Alto, TX fell 8.8% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Alto, Cherokee County, Texas
Alto is a town of 1,027 people in Cherokee County. Unemployment in Cherokee County was 4.7% in August 2026, and the county had 0.2% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Cherokee County work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Alto is a small East Texas town in Cherokee County, and its residents are younger on the whole than in most American towns. Homes here cost less than the typical home across the country, and household incomes in the county run below the Texas average. Winters are mild and rarely bring snow, summers are hot, and the rainfall through the year is generous.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with others in manufacturing, shops and the building trades. The biggest workplaces in Alto include Alto ISD, Pearman Motor Company and Brookshire Brothers. The usual trip to work is a fairly short drive, which suggests that plenty of people travel beyond town for their jobs. Job numbers across the county have barely changed from the year before, and unemployment is the same as it was a year ago.
Things to do. Caddo Mounds State Historic Site, a museum devoted to the region's early Native American history, is a short drive away. For time outdoors, Davy Crockett National Forest and Mission Tejas State Park are both protected areas a longer drive away, with woods to walk and camp in. Ellen Trout Zoo, also a longer drive away, gives a different kind of outing.
Report a mistake
- 28 mintypical commute
What people in Cherokee County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Cherokee County had 14,947 jobs in 2025, 0.2% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 56° and lows near 37°; warmest in August, with highs near 92° and lows near 72°. About 50 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Rusk weather station, 12 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Alto
- Alto ISDSchool district98FTE
- Pearman Motor CompanyLight utility truck dealers, new only or new and used26
- Brookshire BrothersGrocery stores23
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 2 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 49 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- Strong windRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Alto’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively low. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Cherokee County and the Jacksonville, TX metro.
Alto home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Alto$210,869
- Texas$296,424
- United States$366,157
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Alto14
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Alto address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Alto — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.