Franklin, North Carolina.
Typical home $298,006 (+1.4% in a year), asking rent $1,125 .
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$957 (+157%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $4,027 +1%
- $293,979$298,006 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $76,348 +34%
- $221,658$298,006 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.
- Franklin$1,564
- North Carolina$1,743
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Franklin, NC rose 1.4% over the past year — in step with the nation.
Living in Franklin, Macon County, North Carolina
Franklin is a town of 4,175 people in Macon County. Half its households earn more than $47,888 a year and half less, against $59,061 across Macon County; 13% of its people live below the poverty line. 58% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 42% are rented. Unemployment in Macon County was 3.3% in August 2026, and the county had 2.1% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then restaurants and hotels.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Franklin is a small town in the mountains of Macon County, and its residents skew older than in most places. Incomes in town run below the county's, and a majority of homes are lived in by their owners, with a smaller group renting. Winters are cold, with only a little snow, and summers are warm; rain and melted snow add up to a good deal over the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by restaurants, hotels and entertainment, shops, and the building trades. Among the largest workplaces in Franklin are Macon County Schools, MH Angel Medical Center and Macon County government. Most people travel a modest distance to work, and only a small group works from home.
Things to do. Right in or beside town, the Cullasaja River is close at hand, and Nikwasi is an archaeological site worth knowing about. Cullasaja Falls is a waterfall a short drive away. For a longer day out, Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Nantahala National Forest are both a longer drive away.
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- 2,284households
- 26%of adults have a degree
- 13%below the poverty line
- 23 mintypical commute
- 5%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Macon County had 12,592 jobs in 2025, 2.1% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 48° and lows near 26°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 64°. About 3 inches of snow and 56 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Franklin weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Franklin
- Macon County SchoolsSchool district639FTE
- Macon CountyExecutive offices, federal, state, and local520
- MH Angel Medical Center, LLLPHospitals, general medical and surgical196
- MH Angel Medical Center LllpCritical access hospital180FTE
- Lowe's Companies, INCHomecenter138
- Hospice of Henderson CountyHospice care services, in home74
- Forest ServiceFederal government · Department of Agriculture71
- Food LionGrocery store61
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 12 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,214 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24), hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and federal offices from OPM's federal workforce data (2026); 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
- LightningRelatively high
- Strong windrelatively high in parts of FranklinRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingrelatively high in parts of FranklinRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Franklin’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 Macon County.
Franklin home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Franklin$298,006
- North Carolina$332,159
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Franklin listings, and the typical home goes pending in 36 days — 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.
- Franklin23.29%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Franklin36
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Franklin307
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Franklin65
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Franklin$291,760
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Franklin95.94%
Zip codes with a Franklin address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Franklin — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.