Chester, Texas.
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to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$751 (+93%) since Jan 2020.
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.
- Texas$1,556
- United States$1,922
Living in Chester, Tyler County, Texas
Chester is a town of 270 people in Tyler County. 92% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 8% are rented. Unemployment in Tyler County was 6.2% in August 2026, and the county had 0.3% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Tyler County work in schools and health care, then construction.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Chester is a very small town in Tyler County, in the piney woods of East Texas. The people who live here are older than in most of the country, and almost everyone owns the home they live in. Winters are mild, summers are hot, and the year brings plenty of rain.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, the building trades, shops, and professional and business services. Across Tyler County, some of the largest workplaces are Woodville ISD, Tyler County Hospital and Walmart. A small share of people work from home, and the county's job count has held close to steady.
Things to do. Turkey Creek and Piney Creek are both a short drive away and offer a quiet place by the water. A longer drive brings you to Angelina National Forest, a large protected area of woodland, and to Martin Dies, Jr. State Park, another protected area. Lake Livingston State Park is also a longer drive away, on the shore of a large reservoir.
Report a mistake
- 5%below the poverty line
- 7%work from home
What people in Tyler County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Tyler County had 4,091 jobs in 2025, 0.3% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 62° and lows near 40°; warmest in August, with highs near 96° and lows near 74°. About 51 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Livingston Nne weather station, 23 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Tyler County
- Woodville ISDSchool district248FTE
- Warren ISDSchool district218FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters203
- Tyler County HospitalGeneral hospital80FTE
- Spurger ISDSchool district78FTE
- Woodville II EnterprisesNursing homes67
- Colmesneil ISDSchool district64FTE
- Brookshire BrothersGrocery stores61
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 5 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 412 people in all across the county; Chester 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
- HurricanesRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively moderate
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 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 Tyler County.
Chester home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Chester6
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.