Independence, Kentucky.
Typical home $328,415 (+3.0% in a year), asking rent $2,000 (+5.6%). Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$942 (+121%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $9,482 +3%
- $318,932$328,415 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $66,183 +25%
- $262,232$328,415 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.
- Independence$1,724
- Kentucky$1,212
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 15 years.
Typical home values in Independence, KY rose 3.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Independence, KY rose 5.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Independence runs $344/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $390 in Mar 2025.
That is $2,344 a month against $2,000 rent: a $1,724 mortgage payment, plus $268 property tax and $352 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Independence
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$2,344
- Renting$2,000
- Mortgage only$1,724
Property tax · $268/mo 0.98% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Kenton County, KY
Insurance & upkeep · $352/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Independence, Kenton County, Kentucky
Independence is a city of 28,676 people in Kenton County. Half its households earn more than $102,361 a year and half less, against $80,548 across Kenton County; 9% of its people live below the poverty line. 84% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 16% are rented. Unemployment in Independence was 3.3% in August 2026, and Kenton County had 1.0% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
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. Independence is a city in Kenton County with a younger population than much of the country, and most homes here are lived in by their owners. Household incomes run above the county's, and fewer people live below the poverty line than one might expect. Winters are cold, with a fair amount of snow, and summers turn properly warm.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, professional and business services, and shops also employing a good number. Some of the largest workplaces in Independence are Kroger Cincinnati-Dayton KMA, Krauss Maffei and Camco Chemical. Commutes are fairly long, and a share of people work from home.
Things to do. Newport Aquarium and the Licking River are both a short drive away, one for a family outing and the other for time by the water. A longer drive brings you to the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, and the Cincinnati Art Museum is also a longer drive away.
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- 9,813households
- 36%of adults have a degree
- 9%below the poverty line
- 27 mintypical commute
- 14%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Kenton County had 75,385 jobs in 2025, 1.0% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 40° and lows near 23°; warmest in July, with highs near 86° and lows near 66°. About 23 inches of snow and 45 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Cincinnati Northern Ky Airport weather station, 9 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Independence
- Kroger Cincinnati-Dayton KMASupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores288
- Krauss MaffeiExtruding machinery for plastics and rubber manufacturing250
- Camco ChemicalLaundry soap, chips, and powder manufacturing228
- BalluffMechanical measuring instruments, industrial process-type, manufacturing158
- Signode-FlorenceLaminated plastics plate, rod, and sheet, manufacturing105
- Amrize Building Envelope USUrethane foam products manufacturing55
- IndependenceMail and parcel delivery30
- Advanced Insulation ConceptsBuilding panels, corrugated and flat, plastics, manufacturing26
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 10 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,190 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
- Strong windRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Lightningrelatively high in parts of IndependenceRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Independence’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 Kenton County and the Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN metro.
Independence home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Independence$328,415
- Kentucky$230,909
- 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 Independence listings, and the typical home goes pending in 10 days — the market is cooling.
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.
- Independence37.06%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Independence10
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Independence93
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Independence37
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Independence$299,369
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Independence99.83%
Zip codes with a Independence address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Independence — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.