Columbia, Kentucky.
Typical home $160,961 (-11.8% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$446 (+112%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $21,439 -12%
- $182,401$160,961 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $14,969 +10%
- $145,992$160,961 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.
- Columbia$845
- Kentucky$1,212
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 36 years.
Typical home values in Columbia, KY fell 11.8% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Columbia, Adair County, Kentucky
Columbia is a city of 4,845 people in Adair County. Half its households earn more than $47,299 a year and half less, against $53,553 across Adair County; 18% of its people live below the poverty line. Unemployment in Adair County was 4.2% in August 2026, and the county had 2.8% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then shops.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Columbia is a small city in Adair County, Kentucky, where household incomes run below the county's and a good number of residents live below the poverty line. Homes are modestly priced, and most people get to work in a short drive. Winters are cold but not severe, summers are hot, and rain and melted snow fall steadily through the year.
Work. Most residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by shops, manufacturing, and professional and business services. Among the largest workplaces in Columbia are Lindsey Wilson College, Adair County Schools and McCloud. Unemployment in the county has eased a little over the past year, and the county has added jobs.
Things to do. Water is the main draw nearby. Lake Cumberland, a large reservoir, and Green River Lake, another reservoir, are both a longer drive away. Lake Cumberland State Resort Park and Seventy Six Falls, a waterfall, are also a longer drive away.
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- 1,567households
- 25%of adults have a degree
- 18%below the poverty line
- 15 mintypical commute
- 17%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Adair County had 5,091 jobs in 2025, 2.8% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 45° and lows near 26°; warmest in July, with highs near 88° and lows near 67°. About 52 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Greensburg weather station, 15 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Columbia
- Lindsey Wilson CollegeUniversity or college472
- Adair County SchoolsSchool district391FTE
- McCloudMedical286
- Circor Pumping TechnologiesManufacturing128
- Signature HealthcareSkilled nursing facilities87
- TJ Health ColumbiaGeneral hospital55FTE
- Morgan Smith IndustriesMillwork, custom architectural, manufacturing35
- Lewis TransportTanker trucking, local31
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 7 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 686 people in all. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24), school districts 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
- Strong windRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Columbia’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 Adair County.
Columbia home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Columbia$160,961
- Kentucky$230,909
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Columbia 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.
- Columbia32.06%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Columbia60
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Columbia14
Zip codes with a Columbia address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Columbia — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.