Clay, Kentucky.
Typical home $133,182 (+9.8% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$409 (+141%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $11,907 +10%
- $121,275$133,182 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $33,627 +34%
- $99,554$133,182 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.
- Clay$699
- Kentucky$1,212
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Clay, KY rose 9.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Clay, Webster County, Kentucky
Clay is a city of 1,031 people in Webster County. Half its households earn more than $61,250 a year and half less, against $59,628 across Webster County; 10% of its people live below the poverty line. Unemployment in Webster County was 4.1% in August 2026, and the county had 5.9% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Clay is a small city in Webster County, Kentucky, where people tend to know one another. Residents are somewhat younger than in many small towns, and household incomes run a little above the county's. Homes here are modest in price, and winters are cold while summers turn hot, with a good deal of rain and melted snow through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by the building trades, manufacturing, and transport, warehouses and utilities. Across Webster County, the largest workplaces include Webster County Schools, Pioneer Plastics and Houchens Food Group. Few people work from home, and the typical commute is a long one, so most travel some distance to their jobs.
Things to do. For time outdoors, the Wabash River is a river a longer drive away, and Cave-in-Rock State Park is a protected area, also a longer drive away. Pennyrile State Forest is another protected area a longer drive off, with woods to explore.
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- 413households
- 18%of adults have a degree
- 10%below the poverty line
- 35 mintypical commute
- 3%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Webster County had 2,855 jobs in 2025, 5.9% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 43° and lows near 25°; warmest in July, with highs near 90° and lows near 69°. About 49 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Providence weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Webster County
- Webster County SchoolsSchool district326FTE
- Pioneer PlasticsUtility containers, plastics, manufacturing62
- Houchens Food GroupSupermarkets and other grocery stores28
- Lew Thompson & Sons- SebreeTrucking, specialized freight, long-distance26
- S&D SmithBricklaying contractors25
- S. Clark ElectricElectrical contractors25
- Tyson ChickenOther animal food manufacturing25
- Palmer Place Assisted 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: 10 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 282 people in all across the county; Clay has one 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
- Strong windVery high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- EarthquakesRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
- HailRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Clay’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 Webster County.
Clay home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Clay$133,182
- Kentucky$230,909
- 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.
- Clay14
Zip codes with a Clay address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Clay — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.