Bryson City, North Carolina.
Typical home $320,328 (+0.4% in a year). Cullowhee, NC metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$973 (+137%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $1,173 +0%
- $319,154$320,328 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $68,780 +27%
- $251,548$320,328 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.
- Bryson City$1,681
- North Carolina$1,743
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 14 years.
Typical home values in Bryson City, NC rose 0.4% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Bryson City, Swain County, North Carolina
Bryson City is a town of 1,558 people in Swain County. Half its households earn more than $44,167 a year and half less, against $52,349 across Swain County. Unemployment in Swain County was 3.0% in August 2026, and the county had 39.2% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Swain County work in schools and health care, then restaurants and hotels.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Bryson City is a small mountain town in Swain County, North Carolina, home to only a modest number of people. Household incomes here run below the county's, while the typical home is worth a good deal. Winters are cold, with January the chilliest month, and summers are warm but not hot. Rain and melted snow add up to a fair amount over the course of a year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, in government, and in shops. Among the largest workplaces in town are Swain County Schools, Ingles Markets and Swain County Hospital. Commutes are short, and very few people work from home. Unemployment in the county is low, though the county had far fewer jobs this year than the year before.
Things to do. Bryson City Island Park is a park in or beside town, and Kituwa, an archaeological site, is also in or beside town. A short drive away, the Museum of the Cherokee People tells the story of the region's first inhabitants, and the Oconaluftee River offers a place to be beside the water. Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a longer drive away.
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- 806households
- 26%of adults have a degree
- 16 mintypical commute
- 1%work from home
What people in Swain County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Swain County had 6,871 jobs in 2025, 39.2% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 48° and lows near 26°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 63°. About 59 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Bryson City weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Bryson City
- Swain County SchoolsSchool district280FTE
- Ingles MarketsSupermarkets and other grocery stores129
- Swain County HospitalCritical access hospital87FTE
- Mountain View of Bryson CityNursing homes55
- Bryson Senior LivingAssisted-living facilities without on-site nursing care facilities24
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 208 people in all. 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
- Cold wavesVery high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Landslidesrelatively high in parts of Bryson CityRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Bryson City’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 Swain County and the Cullowhee, NC metro.
Bryson City home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Bryson City$320,328
- North Carolina$332,159
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 6 Bryson City listings — the market is heating up.
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.
- Bryson City17.79%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Bryson City133
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Bryson City20
Zip codes with a Bryson City address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Bryson City — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Bryson City
| Zip activate to sort by Zip | Place activate to sort by Place | Population sorted descending, activate to sort ascending | Rent activate to sort by Rent | Home value activate to sort by Home value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28713 | Bryson City | 8,425 | — | $319,111 |
| 28702 | Almond | 588 | — | $269,495 |