States · Alabama · Clay County

Ashland, Alabama.

Typical home $177,228 (+6.8% in a year).

What it costs per month · Ashland $930/mo

to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$488 (+110%) since Jan 2020.

What the home itself did
1 year
Up $11,223 +7%
$166,005$177,228 since Sep 2025
5 years
Up $31,095 +21%
$146,133$177,228 since Sep 2021

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.

$500 $1,000 $1,500 $2,000 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022 2026 Ashland $930 Alabama $1,252 United States $1,922
$500 $1,000 $1,500 $2,000 2002 2010 2018 2026
  • Ashland$930
  • Alabama$1,252
  • United States$1,922

At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 18 years.

Typical home values in Ashland, AL rose 6.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.

Living in Ashland, Clay County, Alabama

Ashland is a town of 1,984 people in Clay County. Unemployment in Clay County was 4.2% in August 2026, and the county had 0.1% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Clay County work in manufacturing, then schools and health care.

People 1,984 in the 2020 census
Household income Too few homes in Ashland for the Census survey to measure.
Unemployment 4.2% Clay County, August 2026; 2.8% a year before
Homes Too few homes in Ashland for the Census survey to measure.

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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Ashland is a small town and the seat of Clay County, in the hills of east-central Alabama. Homes here are valued well below what is typical across the country, and household incomes across Clay County run below the national level. Fewer adults than in most places hold a four-year degree, and many people make a modest commute to work.

Work. Across Clay County, the biggest workplaces include Wellborn Cabinet, Koch Foods of Alabama and Clay County Schools. Residents work most often in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, in the building trades, and in transport, warehouses and utilities. Unemployment across the county has risen over the past year, and the number of jobs has slipped slightly.

Things to do. Cheaha State Park is a protected area of high, wooded ground, and Talladega National Forest offers more of the same, both a longer drive away. Lake Wedowee is a reservoir for time on the water, also a longer drive off. Winters are cool, with only a dusting of snow, summers are hot, and rain falls plentifully through the year.

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  • 828households
  • 17%of adults have a degree
  • 22 mintypical commute
  • 4%work from home

What people in Clay County work in

  • Manufacturing29%
  • Schools, hospitals and social care18%
  • Building trades13%
  • Transport, warehouses and utilities8%
  • Shops (retail)6%
  • Other services5%

Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Clay County had 4,238 jobs in 2025, 0.1% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).

Weather through the year

Average daily high and low for each month: coldest in January, 55° and 31°; warmest in July, 90° and 67° 30° 40° 50° 60° 70° 80° 90° J 55° 31° F M A M J J 90° 67° A S O N D
Average daily high and low for each month: coldest in January, 55° and 31°; warmest in July, 90° and 67° 30° 40° 50° 60° 70° 80° 90° J 55° 31° F M A M J J 90° 67° A S O N D

Coldest in January, with highs near 55° and lows near 31°; warmest in July, with highs near 90° and lows near 67°. About 2 inches of snow and 60 inches of rain and melted snow a year.

Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Ashland Ene weather station, 4 miles away (NOAA).

Largest workplaces in Clay County

  1. Wellborn CabinetKitchen cabinets, stock or custom wood, manufacturing1,340
  2. Koch Foods of AlabamaChickens, slaughtering and dressing480
  3. Integrity CabinetsBathroom vanities, stock or custom wood, manufacturing217
  4. Clay County SchoolsSchool district188FTE
  5. Clay County HospitalGeneral hospital163FTE
  6. Lineville Health and RehabilitationSkilled nursing facility116
  7. Integrity Cabinets AceCabinets, kitchen, stock or custom wood, manufacturing55
  8. Integrity Cabinets LLC AshlandCabinets, kitchen, stock or custom wood, manufacturing44

Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 6 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,252 people in all across the county; Ashland has two of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); 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

  1. TornadoesVery high
  2. Cold wavesRelatively high
  3. WildfireRelatively moderate
  4. Strong windRelatively moderate
  5. LightningRelatively moderate
  6. Inland floodingRelatively moderate

FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Ashland’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. 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 Clay County.

Ashland home values

Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.

$100,000 $200,000 $300,000 2018 2020 2022 2024 2026 Ashland $177,228 Alabama $238,614 United States $366,157
$100,000 $200,000 $300,000 2018 2022 2026
  • Ashland$177,228
  • Alabama$238,614
  • United States$366,157

Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Ashland listings — the market is roughly in balance.

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.

JFMAMJJASOND
2026
2025
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
falling flat warming hot overheating runaway

Market heat, inside the city limits

Share of listings with a price cut

The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.

22% 24% 26% 2026 Ashland 21.74% United States 26.90%
22% 24% 26% 2026
  • Ashland21.74%
  • United States26.90%

Homes for sale

Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.

5 10 15 20 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 Ashland 20
5 10 15 20 2022 2024 2026
  • Ashland20

Zip codes with a Ashland address

A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Ashland — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.

Zip codes in Ashland