Cherokee, Oklahoma.
Typical home $56,690 (-16.7% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$18 (+6%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $11,335 -17%
- $68,026$56,690 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $36,099 -39%
- $92,790$56,690 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.
- Cherokee$298
- Oklahoma$1,159
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Cherokee, OK fell 16.7% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Cherokee, Alfalfa County, Oklahoma
Cherokee is a city of 1,476 people in Alfalfa County. Half its households earn more than $58,860 a year and half less, against $64,615 across Alfalfa County; 22% of its people live below the poverty line. 71% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 29% are rented. Unemployment in Alfalfa County was 2.7% in August 2026, and the county had 4.4% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then transport and warehouses.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Cherokee is a small city in northwestern Oklahoma and the seat of Alfalfa County. Residents are older than in most American communities, and most homes are lived in by their owners. Incomes run below the county's as a whole, and a good share of residents live below the poverty line. Homes here cost far less than in most of the country. Winters are cold, with highs that stay well above freezing in January but nights that dip below it, and summers turn hot by July.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with others in transport, warehouses and utilities, in shops, or in farming. Across Alfalfa County, the largest workplaces include Timberlake Schools, Alfalfa Electric Cooperative and Cherokee Schools. Unemployment in the county is low, though the county had fewer jobs last year than the year before. Few people work from home, and a typical commute is short.
Things to do. Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge, a protected area, is a short drive away, as is Great Salt Plains Lake, a reservoir. The Medicine Lodge River is also close by. Farther afield, a longer drive brings you to Great Salt Plains State Park and Gloss Mountain State Park.
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- 683households
- 30%of adults have a degree
- 22%below the poverty line
- 22 mintypical commute
- 4%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Alfalfa County had 1,149 jobs in 2025, 4.4% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 48° and lows near 24°; warmest in July, with highs near 95° and lows near 71°.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Cherokee 1SSW Mesonet weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Alfalfa County
- Timberlake SchoolsSchool district65FTE
- Alfalfa Electric CooperativeDistribution of electric power57
- Cherokee SchoolsSchool district55FTE
- Burlington SchoolsSchool district44FTE
- Aline-cleo SchoolsSchool district33FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 1 workplace with 20 or more staff, 57 people in all across the county; Cherokee has two 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
- Ice stormsVery high
- Cold wavesVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Cherokee’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 Alfalfa County.
Cherokee home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Cherokee$56,690
- Oklahoma$220,801
- 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.
- Cherokee6
Zip codes with a Cherokee address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Cherokee — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zillow publishes no zip-level series with this city on the address.