Gaston, North Carolina.
Typical home $93,411 (+9.0% in a year). Roanoke Rapids, NC metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$270 (+123%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $7,712 +9%
- $85,700$93,411 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $10,168 +12%
- $83,243$93,411 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.
- Gaston$490
- North Carolina$1,743
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 30 years.
Typical home values in Gaston, NC rose 9.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Gaston, Northampton County, North Carolina
Gaston is a town of 1,008 people in Northampton County. Unemployment in Northampton County was 4.5% in August 2026, and the county had 3.3% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Northampton County work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 24 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Gaston is a small town in Northampton County, in the northeastern part of North Carolina, home to a small community that has stayed close-knit at the last census. Household incomes across the county are modest, and typical home values here are low next to most of the country. Winters are cool, with January the coldest month, and summers are hot, with July the warmest. Rain and melted snow add up to a fair amount over the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with others in manufacturing, shops and government. Among the town's largest workplaces are KIPP Gaston College Preparatory Schools, Hampton Manor, an assisted-living facility, and MPW Industrial Services. Relatively few adults hold a four-year degree, and a typical commute is short. Across the county, unemployment has eased over the past year, though there are somewhat fewer jobs than a year earlier.
Things to do. Lake Gaston, a large reservoir, is a longer drive away and is the best known place nearby for time on the water. Medoc Mountain State Park, a protected area for walking and the outdoors, is also a longer drive. For history, Fort Christanna, an archaeological site, lies a longer drive away as well.
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- 13%of adults have a degree
- 19 mintypical commute
What people in Northampton County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Northampton County had 4,699 jobs in 2025, 3.3% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 50° and lows near 30°; warmest in July, with highs near 89° and lows near 70°. About 49 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Roanoke Rapids weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Gaston
- KIPP Gaston College Preparatory SchoolsSchool district187FTE
- Hampton ManorAssisted-living facilities without on-site nursing care facilities50
- MPW Industrial Services, Inc. - GastonCleaning new building interiors immediately after construction32
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 2 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 82 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
- Winter weatherVery high
- HurricanesRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively 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 Gaston’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 Northampton County and the Roanoke Rapids, NC metro.
Gaston home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Gaston$93,411
- North Carolina$332,159
- 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.
Zip codes with a Gaston address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Gaston — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Gaston
| Zip activate to sort by Zip | Place activate to sort by Place | Population sorted descending, activate to sort ascending | Rent activate to sort by Rent | Home value activate to sort by Home value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27832 | Gaston | 2,783 | — | $102,956 |
| 27831 | Garysburg | 2,362 | — | $78,294 |