Drift, Kentucky.
Typical home $72,087 (-18.8% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$80 (+27%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $16,714 -19%
- $88,801$72,087 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $14,809 -17%
- $86,896$72,087 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.
- Drift$378
- Kentucky$1,212
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Drift, KY fell 18.8% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Drift, Floyd County, Kentucky
The Census does not count Drift on its own, so the figures here are Floyd County's. Half the county's households earn more than $41,279 a year and half less; 28% of the county's people live below the poverty line. 72% of the county's homes are lived in by their owners and 28% are rented. Unemployment in Floyd County was 5.5% in August 2026, and the county had 0.5% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Floyd County work in schools and health care, then shops.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Drift sits in Floyd County in eastern Kentucky, where winters are cold and summers are warm. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and the population is middle-aged and older. Fewer adults hold a four-year degree than across most of the country, and a sizable share of households live below the poverty line.
Work. Schools, hospitals and social care, shops, restaurants and hotels, and government employ most residents. Jobs across the county eased slightly last year, though unemployment has fallen from a year earlier. Few residents work from home, so most people head out each day to reach their jobs.
Things to do. Beaver Creek, a river a short drive away, is the closest place to spend time outdoors. Breaks Interstate Park, a protected area a longer drive away, is another option for a day out. The East Kentucky Science Center, a museum a longer drive away, suits a visit when the weather turns cold.
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- 14,700households
- 42.8median age
- 15%of adults have a degree
- 28%below the poverty line
- 27 mintypical commute
- 3%work from home
What people in Floyd County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Floyd County had 11,099 jobs in 2025, 0.5% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 44° and lows near 23°; warmest in July, with highs near 86° and lows near 64°.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Prestonsburg 3WSW weather station, 13 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Floyd County
- Floyd County SchoolsSchool district912FTE
- Highlands Regional Medical CenterGeneral hospital431FTE
- Asplundh Tree Expert 'Tree and brush trimming, overhead utility line334
- Big Sandy Community and Technical CollegeTwo-year college331
- K VA T Food StoresSupermarket145
- American Medical Response135
- Mcdowell ARHCritical access hospital131FTE
- WalmartDiscount department stores124
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 22 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,228 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24), hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) 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
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Floyd County, 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 Floyd County.
Drift home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Drift$72,087
- 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.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Drift address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Drift — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.