Chester, South Carolina.
Typical home $140,327 (-7.6% in a year). Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$419 (+132%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $11,531 -8%
- $151,857$140,327 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $18,138 +15%
- $122,188$140,327 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.
- Chester$737
- South Carolina$1,597
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 25 years.
Typical home values in Chester, SC fell 7.6% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Chester, Chester County, South Carolina
Chester is a city of 5,269 people in Chester County. Half its households earn more than $46,138 a year and half less, against $52,458 across Chester County; 19% of its people live below the poverty line. 59% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 41% are rented. Unemployment in Chester County was 5.3% in August 2026, and the county had 1.7% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 24 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Chester is a small city in the South Carolina Piedmont, and it is a town where a majority of homes are lived in by their owners. Household incomes run below the county's, and a good share of residents live below the poverty line. Few adults hold a four-year degree, and typical home values are modest. Winters are mild and short, with January the coldest month and freezing nights common, while July brings hot summer days. Rain and melted snow add up to a fair amount over the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, transport and warehousing, and shops also employing many. Boise Cascade, which makes softwood veneer and plywood, and Walmart are among the largest workplaces in town, along with the internet provider TruVista Communications. Unemployment in Chester County is higher than most would like but has eased from a year earlier, and the county has added a few more jobs. Commutes are on the longer side, and very few people work from home.
Things to do. Chester State Park sits in or beside town, as does the Chester City Hall and Opera House, a theatre. A short drive away is the Sandy River. Farther out by car, Great Falls is a waterfall and Sumter National Forest is a large protected area.
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- 2,115households
- 14%of adults have a degree
- 19%below the poverty line
- 28 mintypical commute
- 2%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Chester County had 10,583 jobs in 2025, 1.7% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 52° and lows near 30°; warmest in July, with highs near 90° and lows near 69°. About 46 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Chester Southeast weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Chester
- Boise Cascade CoSoftwood veneer and plywood manufacturing258
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters196
- TruVista CommunicationsInternet service providers, using own operated wired telecommunications infrastructure160
- ChesterMail and parcel delivery27
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 4 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 641 people in all. 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
- Ice stormsRelatively 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 Chester’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 Chester County and the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC metro.
Chester home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Chester$140,327
- South Carolina$304,319
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Chester 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.
- Chester26.73%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Chester49
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Chester9
Zip codes with a Chester address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Chester — 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.