Karnes City, Texas.
Typical home $205,019 (-0.9% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$130 (+14%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $1,929 -1%
- $206,948$205,019 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $70,672 -26%
- $275,691$205,019 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.
- Karnes City$1,076
- Texas$1,556
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Karnes City, TX fell 0.9% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Karnes City, Karnes County, Texas
Karnes City is a city of 3,111 people in Karnes County. Unemployment in Karnes County was 4.5% in August 2026, and the county had 0.3% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Karnes County work in schools and health care, then construction.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Karnes City is a small South Texas town and the seat of Karnes County, home to a small community where neighbors tend to know one another. Residents are somewhat younger than in many small towns, and few adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are mild, with January the coolest month and daytime highs staying comfortable, while summers are hot, with August the warmest month and afternoons that run very hot.
Work. Most residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, the building trades, government, or farming, forestry and mining. Across Karnes County, the largest workplaces include Karnes City ISD, Otto Kaiser Memorial Hospital and H-E-B. Jobs across the county slipped slightly last year, and unemployment is close to where it was a year earlier. Household incomes in the county sit around the middle of what many Texas counties see, and typical home values are modest.
Things to do. Medio Creek, a river, is a short drive away and is the closest place to get out by the water. Farther afield, at a longer drive, are Kicaster Creek, another river, and the Wilson County Courthouse and Jail, a museum. Each makes a reasonable outing for a day away from town.
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- 1,101households
- 10%of adults have a degree
- 0%work from home
What people in Karnes County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Karnes County had 6,162 jobs in 2025, 0.3% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 65° and lows near 43°; warmest in August, with highs near 97° and lows near 73°.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Karnes City 2N weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Karnes County
- Karnes City ISDSchool district230FTE
- CK NewberryOverpass construction176
- Otto Kaiser Memorial HospitalCritical access hospital146FTE
- Kenedy ISDSchool district138FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters138
- H-E-BRetail119
- Devon Energy - Panna Maria (Karnes City)Petroleum, crude, production94
- Karnes Electric CooperativeDistribution of electric power86
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 14 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 934 people in all across the county; Karnes City has two of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (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
- DroughtRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- HurricanesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Karnes City’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively high. 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 Karnes County.
Karnes City home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Karnes City$205,019
- Texas$296,424
- 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.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Karnes City12
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Karnes City address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Karnes City — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.