Dawson, Alabama.
Typical home $203,464 (+6.0% in a year). Fort Payne, AL metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$605 (+130%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $11,592 +6%
- $191,872$203,464 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $42,607 +26%
- $160,856$203,464 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.
- Dawson$1,068
- Alabama$1,252
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 15 years.
Typical home values in Dawson, AL rose 6.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Dawson, DeKalb County, Alabama
The Census does not count Dawson on its own, so the figures here are DeKalb County's. Half the county's households earn more than $51,204 a year and half less; 22% of the county's people live below the poverty line. 78% of the county's homes are lived in by their owners and 22% are rented. Unemployment in DeKalb County was 3.2% in August 2026, and the county had 2.1% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in DeKalb County work in manufacturing, then schools and health care.
Written by AI Claude Haiku 5.5 wrote this on 22 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Dawson sits in DeKalb County in northeast Alabama, where most homes are lived in by their owners. Across the county, incomes run below the national typical level, and a larger share of residents live below the poverty line than across the country as a whole. Winters are cold with little snow, summers are warm, and rain falls heavily through the year, more than in most of the country.
Work. Manufacturing, schools, hospitals and social care, retail shops and the building trades provide much of the county's work. Jobs grew across the county over the past year, though unemployment has risen since last year. Fewer adults hold a four-year degree than across the country, and few people work from home, far fewer than in most places.
Things to do. A longer drive away, Little River Falls is a waterfall and Little River Canyon National Preserve is a protected area. Guntersville Lake, a reservoir, is also a longer drive away.
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- 26,181households
- 39.5median age
- 14%of adults have a degree
- 22%below the poverty line
- 25 mintypical commute
- 4%work from home
What people in DeKalb County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. DeKalb County had 23,861 jobs in 2025, 2.1% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 49° and lows near 30°; warmest in July, with highs near 88° and lows near 68°. About 1 inches of snow and 57 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Sand Mount Substn weather station, 5 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in DeKalb County
- TerexGarbage truck bodies manufacturing1,239
- DeKalb County SchoolsSchool district999FTE
- Koch FoodsChickens, processing, fresh, frozen, canned, or cooked693
- Moriroku Technology North America Inc. - RainsvilleMotor vehicle moldings and extrusions, plastics, manufacturing571
- Renfro Brands LLC- Ft. Payne PlantAthletic socks, knitting or knitting and finishing456
- PlayCore Southern Fulfillment CenterGymnasium and playground equipment, manufacturing450
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters385
- Fort Payne City SchoolsSchool district363FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 53 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 8,590 people in all. 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 windRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across DeKalb County, 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 DeKalb County and the Fort Payne, AL metro.
Dawson home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Dawson$203,464
- Alabama$238,614
- 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.
- Dawson5
Zip codes with a Dawson address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Dawson — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.