Forestdale, Alabama.
Typical home $170,816 (+3.3% in a year), asking rent $1,304 . Birmingham-Hoover, AL metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$432 (+93%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $5,418 +3%
- $165,398$170,816 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $20,914 +14%
- $149,902$170,816 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.
- Forestdale$897
- Alabama$1,252
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 27 years.
Typical home values in Forestdale, AL rose 3.3% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Forestdale, Jefferson County, Alabama
Forestdale, in Jefferson County, had 10,409 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $66,569 a year and half less, against $66,388 across Jefferson County; 18% of its people live below the poverty line. 69% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 31% are rented. Unemployment in Jefferson County was 3.8% in August 2026, and the county had 0.5% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then professional services.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Forestdale is a community in Jefferson County where most homes are lived in by their owners, and household incomes sit close to the county's. The typical home value is modest, and a four-year degree is held by a smaller share of adults than many people might expect. Winters are mild and rarely bring snow, summers run hot, and the year is a wet one.
Work. Residents work mainly in schools, hospitals and social care, with professional and business services, manufacturing, and restaurants and hotels also common. Among the larger workplaces in Forestdale are Walmart and AT&T. Jefferson County has added jobs slightly over the past year, though unemployment is a little higher than it was a year earlier, and most people travel a fair way to get to work.
Things to do. Birmingham's best-known sights are a short drive away, including the Birmingham Museum of Art and the Birmingham Zoo. Sloss Furnaces, a museum of the city's iron-making past, is also close by. For a day out in the country, Rickwood Caverns State Park is a longer drive away.
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- 3,966households
- 28%of adults have a degree
- 18%below the poverty line
- 26 mintypical commute
- 6%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Jefferson County had 368,875 jobs in 2025, 0.5% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 54° and lows near 35°; warmest in July, with highs near 91° and lows near 72°. About 1 inches of snow and 57 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Birmingham Airport weather station, 9 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Forestdale
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters284
- AT&TWired telecommunications carriers48
- ForestdaleMail and parcel delivery25
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 357 people in all. 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
- TornadoesRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Cold wavesrelatively high in parts of ForestdaleRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Forestdale’s census tracts, 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 Jefferson County and the Birmingham-Hoover, AL metro.
Forestdale home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Forestdale$170,816
- Alabama$238,614
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Forestdale listings — the market is heating up.
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.
- Forestdale26.36%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Forestdale37
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Forestdale11
Zip codes with a Forestdale address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Forestdale — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.