Barlow, Kentucky.
Typical home $130,816 (-7.3% in a year). Paducah, KY-IL metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$373 (+119%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $10,247 -7%
- $141,063$130,816 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $22,930 +21%
- $107,887$130,816 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.
- Barlow$687
- Kentucky$1,212
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 18 years.
Typical home values in Barlow, KY fell 7.3% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Barlow, Ballard County, Kentucky
Barlow is a city of 653 people in Ballard County. Unemployment in Ballard County was 4.4% in August 2026, and the county had 3.8% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Ballard 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Barlow is a very small city in Ballard County, in the far western corner of Kentucky. Homes here cost well below what is typical across the country, and household incomes in the county run a little below the state's. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month and nights dropping below freezing, while July brings hot days. Rain and melted snow fall steadily through the year.
Work. Most people in town work in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, transport and warehousing, and shops also employing many residents. Very few work from home. Few adults hold a four-year degree. Across Ballard County, the largest workplaces include Phoenix Paper Company, Ballard County Schools and the Ingevity carbon plant at Wickliffe. Jobs in the county slipped last year, and unemployment is a little lower than it was a year ago.
Things to do. The Barlow House Museum is in or beside town. A short drive away, Wickliffe Mounds is an archaeological site, and Swan Lake offers a place to be on the water. Axe Lake Swamp State Nature Preserve, also a short drive off, is protected wetland. For a longer outing, the Tennessee River is a longer drive away.
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- 267households
- 6%of adults have a degree
- 2%work from home
What people in Ballard County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Ballard County had 1,923 jobs in 2025, 3.8% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 43° and lows near 26°; warmest in July, with highs near 89° and lows near 70°. About 51 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Cairo 3N weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Ballard County
- Mission Conversion Services AllianceHydrofluoric acid manufacturing443
- Phoenix Paper CompanyPulp and paper combined manufacturing325
- Mid-America Conversion ServicesMfgr. of hydrofluoric acid224
- Ballard County SchoolsSchool district171FTE
- Ingevity - Wickliffe Carbon PlantActivated carbon or charcoal manufacturing104
- Life Care Center of La CenterSkilled nursing facilities93
- American River Transportation Co40
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 6 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,229 people in all across the county; Barlow has none of its own. 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
- DroughtRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Barlow’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively high. 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 Ballard County and the Paducah, KY-IL metro.
Barlow home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Barlow$130,816
- Kentucky$230,909
- 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.
- Barlow6
Zip codes with a Barlow address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Barlow — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.