Helena, Alabama.
Typical home $365,238 (+2.6% in a year), asking rent $1,905 . Birmingham-Hoover, AL metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$984 (+106%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $9,344 +3%
- $355,893$365,238 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $59,993 +20%
- $305,244$365,238 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.
- Helena$1,917
- Alabama$1,252
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 19 years.
Typical home values in Helena, AL rose 2.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Helena, Shelby County, Alabama
Helena is a city of 20,914 people in Shelby County. Half its households earn more than $115,139 a year and half less, against $97,961 across Shelby County; 3% of its people live below the poverty line. 91% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 9% are rented. Unemployment in Shelby County was 2.8% in August 2026, and the county had 0.5% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then finance and property.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Helena is a city in Shelby County where nearly everyone owns the home they live in, far more than across most of the country. Household incomes run well above the county's, and very few residents live below the poverty line. A good share of adults hold a four-year degree, and residents are somewhat older than the typical American.
Work. Residents most often work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by banks, insurance and property, professional and business services, and shops. Across Shelby County, the largest workplaces include Shelby County Schools, Alabama Power Company and the University of Montevallo. Commutes are on the long side, and a fair number of people work from home.
Things to do. Oak Mountain State Park is a protected area just a short drive away, and Alabama Adventure & Splash Adventure, an amusement park, is also close by. A longer drive brings you to Barber Motorsports Park, a race track, and the Birmingham Zoo. Winters are cool and summers hot, with plenty of rain through the year.
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- 7,613households
- 51%of adults have a degree
- 3%below the poverty line
- 31 mintypical commute
- 20%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Shelby County had 84,778 jobs in 2025, 0.5% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 55° and lows near 35°; warmest in July, with highs near 92° and lows near 71°. About 56 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Helena weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Shelby County
- Shelby County SchoolsSchool district2,563FTE
- Vulcan Industrial ContractorsBoiler and pipe insulation installation940
- Alabama Power CompanyElectric power distribution816
- Alabaster City SchoolsSchool district799FTE
- University of MontevalloUniversity or college608
- Process EquipmentCommercial and industrial machinery repair and maintenance services566
- J&M Tank LinesGeneral freight trucking553
- Shelby Baptist Medical CenterGeneral hospital530FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 166 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 19,071 people in all across the county; Helena has two of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24), colleges from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); 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
- TornadoesVery high
- LightningRelatively high
- Cold wavesrelatively high in parts of HelenaRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Helena’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 Shelby County and the Birmingham-Hoover, AL metro.
Helena home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Helena$365,238
- Alabama$238,614
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Helena listings, and the typical home goes pending in 26 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.
- Helena28.88%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Helena26
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Helena144
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Helena39
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Helena$340,970
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Helena98.68%
Zip codes with a Helena address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Helena — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.