Bluff City, Tennessee.
Typical home $266,628 (+2.6% in a year). Kingsport-Bristol, TN-VA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$781 (+126%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $6,666 +3%
- $259,961$266,628 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $68,147 +34%
- $198,481$266,628 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.
- Bluff City$1,399
- Tennessee$1,737
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Bluff City, TN rose 2.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Bluff City, Sullivan County, Tennessee
Bluff City is a city of 1,822 people in Sullivan County. Half its households earn more than $61,059 a year and half less, against $58,807 across Sullivan County; 15% of its people live below the poverty line. Unemployment in Sullivan County was 3.5% in August 2026, and the county had 0.3% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in manufacturing, then shops.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Bluff City is a small city in Sullivan County, in the hills of northeast Tennessee. Household incomes run a little above the county's, though a noticeable part of residents live below the poverty line, and relatively few adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold, with some snow, and summers are warm, with rain and melted snow spread through the year.
Work. Residents work mainly in manufacturing, shops, professional and business services, and restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Across Sullivan County, some of the largest workplaces are Eastman Kingsport Site, a cellulosic fibers and filaments maker, along with Kingsport Schools and Holston Valley Hosp & MED CTR. The typical commute is a fairly long one, and the county's job count has edged up over the past year.
Things to do. Bristol Motor Speedway, a race track, is a short drive away, as is Boone Lake, a reservoir good for time on the water. For local history, Fort Watauga, a fort, and Sycamore Shoals State Historic Area, a protected area, are both a short drive away. The Watauga River also lies a short drive from town.
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- 830households
- 15%of adults have a degree
- 15%below the poverty line
- 26 mintypical commute
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Sullivan County had 70,470 jobs in 2025, 0.3% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 46° and lows near 26°; warmest in July, with highs near 86° and lows near 65°. About 9 inches of snow and 44 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Bristol Tri City Airport weather station, 7 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Sullivan County
- Eastman Kingsport SiteCellulosic fibers and filaments manufacturing6,883
- Kingsport SchoolsSchool district1,287FTE
- Sullivan County SchoolsSchool district1,208FTE
- Holston Valley Hosp & MED CTRGeneral hospital1,136FTE
- Bristol Regional Medical CenterGeneral hospital1,020FTE
- HSNGeneral warehousing and storage841
- Ballad HealthPhysicians' offices785
- Bristol SchoolsSchool district561FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 134 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 24,371 people in all across the county; Bluff City has one 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
- LightningRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Bluff City’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 Sullivan County and the Kingsport-Bristol, TN-VA metro.
Bluff City home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Bluff City$266,628
- Tennessee$330,844
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 2 Bluff City 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.
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.
- Bluff City42.03%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Bluff City36
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Bluff City9
Zip codes with a Bluff City address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Bluff City — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.