Dobson, North Carolina.
Typical home $258,474 (+8.3% in a year). Mount Airy, NC metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$869 (+178%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $19,761 +8%
- $238,713$258,474 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $79,136 +44%
- $179,338$258,474 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.
- Dobson$1,357
- North Carolina$1,743
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 9 years.
Typical home values in Dobson, NC rose 8.3% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Dobson, Surry County, North Carolina
Dobson is a town of 1,462 people in Surry County. 49% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 51% are rented. Unemployment in Surry County was 3.3% in August 2026, and the county had 1.5% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Surry County 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Dobson is a small town in Surry County, North Carolina, and it is the county seat. Its residents are younger than the typical American, and renters and owners share the town's homes in close to equal measure. Winters are cold, with some snow, and summers are warm; rain falls fairly evenly through the year.
Work. Most residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by manufacturing, shops and professional and business services. Among the largest workplaces in town are Surry County Schools, Wayne Sanderson Farms and Surry Community College. A four-year degree is held by a minority of adults, and few work from home.
Things to do. A handful of creeks, including Burris Creek and Beaver Creek, lie a short drive away and make for quiet time by the water. Farther afield, a longer drive brings you to Stone Mountain State Park, a protected area with waterfalls such as Tory's Falls, and to North Wilkesboro Speedway, a race track.
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- 593households
- 24%of adults have a degree
- 5%work from home
What people in Surry County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Surry County had 28,718 jobs in 2025, 1.5% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 47° and lows near 25°; warmest in July, with highs near 86° and lows near 63°. About 8 inches of snow and 50 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Mount Airy West weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Dobson
- Surry County SchoolsSchool district1,017FTE
- Wayne Sanderson FarmsPoultry processing733
- Surry Community CollegeTwo-year college435
- Surry-Yadkin Electric MembershipDistribution of electric power80
- Food LionGrocery stores62
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 875 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and colleges from IPEDS (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
- Cold wavesVery high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- HailRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Dobson’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 Surry County and the Mount Airy, NC metro.
Dobson home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Dobson$258,474
- North Carolina$332,159
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Dobson 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.
- Dobson19.41%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Dobson25
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Dobson7
Zip codes with a Dobson address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Dobson — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.