Hudson, North Carolina.
Typical home $260,589 (+0.6% in a year). Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$765 (+127%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $1,636 +1%
- $258,953$260,589 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $47,887 +23%
- $212,701$260,589 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.
- Hudson$1,368
- North Carolina$1,743
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 17 years.
Typical home values in Hudson, NC rose 0.6% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Hudson, Caldwell County, North Carolina
Hudson is a town of 3,780 people in Caldwell County. 81% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 19% are rented. Unemployment in Caldwell County was 3.5% in August 2026, and the county had 0.8% fewer 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Hudson is a small town in Caldwell County, North Carolina, and most homes here are lived in by their owners, a larger share than is typical across the country. Household incomes in the county sit below those in much of the nation, and the town has a four-year degree among fewer adults than elsewhere. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, while July is warm. Snow is light, and rain falls steadily through the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by restaurants, hotels and entertainment, banks, insurance and property, and shops. Among the largest workplaces in Hudson are Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute, Walmart and Shurtape Technologies. Job numbers across Caldwell County slipped a little last year, and the county's unemployment rate has eased over the past year. Most people have a commute of a fairly typical length, and some work from home.
Things to do. McGalliard Falls, a waterfall, is a short drive away, as is the Hickory Aviation Museum. A longer drive brings you to South Mountains State Park, a protected area, and to Lake James, a reservoir. Waterfalls such as Linville Falls and High Shoals Falls are also within a longer drive.
Report a mistake
- 1,529households
- 22%of adults have a degree
- 14%below the poverty line
- 22 mintypical commute
- 9%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Caldwell County had 25,294 jobs in 2025, 0.8% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 49° and lows near 27°; warmest in July, with highs near 88° and lows near 67°. About 4 inches of snow and 50 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Lenoir weather station, 5 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Hudson
- Caldwell Community College and Technical InstituteTwo-year college627
- Skill Creations-Community Ops. West (Morganton, MDP, Respite, MGT)Intellectual and developmental disability facilities, residential325
- WalmartSupermarkets and other grocery stores141
- Sealed AirCustom compounding of purchased plastics resins100
- Shurtape TechnologiesConverted paper product manufacturing80
- Food LionGrocery stores71
- NA HudsonAdhesive manufacturing34
- SattlerTextile mills, broadwoven fabrics31
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 7 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 782 people in all. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24). 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
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Hudson’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 Caldwell County and the Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC metro.
Hudson home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Hudson$260,589
- North Carolina$332,159
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Hudson listings — 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.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Hudson19
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Hudson address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Hudson — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zillow publishes no zip-level series with this city on the address.