Forest City, North Carolina.
Typical home $189,083 (+3.8% in a year). Forest City, NC metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$530 (+115%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $6,915 +4%
- $182,168$189,083 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $33,000 +21%
- $156,082$189,083 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.
- Forest City$992
- North Carolina$1,743
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 18 years.
Typical home values in Forest City, NC rose 3.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Forest City, Rutherford County, North Carolina
Forest City is a town of 7,377 people in Rutherford County. Half its households earn more than $35,524 a year and half less, against $51,410 across Rutherford County; 32% of its people live below the poverty line. 45% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 55% are rented. Unemployment in Rutherford County was 4.1% in August 2026, and the county had 0.9% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in restaurants and hotels, 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Forest City is a small town in Rutherford County, in the foothills of western North Carolina. Incomes here run well below the county's, and a larger share of residents live below the poverty line than you would find in most places. Fewer homes are lived in by their owners than you might expect, so renting is common, and relatively few adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are mild but cold enough for frost, summers are hot, and rain and melted snow add up to a good deal over the year.
Work. Many residents work in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, in shops, in schools, hospitals and social care, or in manufacturing. Among the larger workplaces in town are Rutherford County Schools, Walmart and Parker Hannifin, which makes fluid power valves and fittings. The typical commute is a moderate one, and few people work from home. Unemployment across the county has eased compared with a year earlier, and the county has added a few more jobs.
Things to do. Catheys Creek runs in or beside town, and the Green River is a short drive away. For a longer day out, Chimney Rock State Park and South Mountains State Park are protected areas in the surrounding hills, and Hickory Nut Falls is a waterfall that takes a longer drive to reach. Cowpens National Battlefield, an historic battlefield site, is also a longer drive away.
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- 2,681households
- 15%of adults have a degree
- 32%below the poverty line
- 26 mintypical commute
- 6%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Rutherford County had 18,151 jobs in 2025, 0.9% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 52° and lows near 27°; warmest in July, with highs near 89° and lows near 67°. About 52 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Forest City West weather station, 7 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Forest City
- Rutherford County SchoolsSchool district1,108FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters402
- Town of Forest CityGeneral public administration191
- Ingles MarketsSupermarkets and other grocery stores187
- Parker HannifinManufacturing fluid power valves and fittings178
- American Greetings Forest CityStore display fixtures manufacturing141
- Danfoss Power SolutionsPlastics and rubber belts and hoses manufacturing140
- Lowe's Companies, INCHomecenter135
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 14 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,784 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 windVery high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- EarthquakesRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Forest City’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 Rutherford County and the Forest City, NC metro.
Forest City home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Forest City$189,083
- North Carolina$332,159
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Forest City 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.
- Forest City30.04%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Forest City95
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Forest City19
Zip codes with a Forest City address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Forest City — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.