Clinton, North Carolina.
Typical home $156,375 (+1.8% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$433 (+112%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $2,723 +2%
- $153,653$156,375 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $32,260 +26%
- $124,115$156,375 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.
- Clinton$821
- North Carolina$1,743
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 15 years.
Typical home values in Clinton, NC rose 1.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Clinton, Sampson County, North Carolina
Clinton is a city of 8,383 people in Sampson County. Half its households earn more than $44,953 a year and half less, against $52,432 across Sampson County; 24% of its people live below the poverty line. 49% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 51% are rented. Unemployment in Sampson County was 3.6% 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 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Clinton is a small city and the seat of Sampson County in eastern North Carolina. Its residents are a little younger than the typical American, and incomes in the city run below the county's, with more households living in poverty than many nearby places. Fewer homes are lived in by their owners than across much of the country, so renting is common. Winters are cool and short, with snow rare and brief, summers are hot, and rain falls through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by manufacturing, shops, and restaurants and hotels. Among the largest workplaces in Clinton are Smithfield Clinton, a pork processing plant, Sampson Regional Medical Center, and Clinton City Schools. Most people have a short drive to work, and job numbers across Sampson County have been edging up.
Things to do. The outdoors is the main draw, and each of these is a longer drive away. Jones Lake State Park and Singletary Lake State Park are protected areas with lakes, and the Northeast Cape Fear River is a river for paddling and fishing. For history, Bentonville Battlefield is an archaeological site tied to the Civil War, and Harper House is a museum.
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- 2,987households
- 24%of adults have a degree
- 24%below the poverty line
- 20 mintypical commute
- 8%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Sampson County had 17,386 jobs in 2025, 1.7% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 53° and lows near 32°; warmest in July, with highs near 90° and lows near 70°. About 2 inches of snow and 51 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Clinton Northeast weather station, 4 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Clinton
- Smithfield ClintonPork carcasses, half carcasses, and primal and sub-primal cuts produced in slaughtering plants1,289
- Sampson Regional Medical CenterGeneral hospital408FTE
- Clinton City SchoolsSchool district387FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters279
- DuBose National Energy ServicesMetals service centers145
- CCL Industries WorldwideExtrusion billet, aluminum, made in integrated secondary smelting and rolling mills138
- Schindler Clinton Escalator PlantVertical transportation company136
- Fortrex - 0234 Smithfield Fresh Meats Corp. - ClintonJanitorial services124
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 21 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,381 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and school districts 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
- HurricanesVery high
- Winter weatherVery high
- Strong windVery high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Clinton’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 Sampson County.
Clinton home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Clinton$156,375
- North Carolina$332,159
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Clinton listings — the market is cooling.
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.
- Clinton27.13%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Clinton79
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Clinton15
Zip codes with a Clinton address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Clinton — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.