Kinston, North Carolina.
Typical home $144,821 (+3.7% in a year), asking rent $1,181 . Kinston, NC metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$475 (+166%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $5,159 +4%
- $139,662$144,821 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $44,912 +45%
- $99,908$144,821 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.
- Kinston$760
- North Carolina$1,743
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 9 years.
Typical home values in Kinston, NC rose 3.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Kinston, Lenoir County, North Carolina
Kinston is a city of 19,900 people in Lenoir County. Half its households earn more than $36,878 a year and half less, against $45,143 across Lenoir County; 28% of its people live below the poverty line. 42% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 58% are rented. Unemployment in Kinston was 5.2% in August 2026, and Lenoir County had 1.9% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Kinston is a small city in Lenoir County, and its residents are somewhat older than in much of the country. Incomes are below the county's, and poverty is more common than in most places. Fewer homes are lived in by their owners than renters' homes, so renting is the usual way to live here. Few adults hold a four-year degree, and most people drive to work rather than working from home. Winters are mild and cool rather than harsh, with January days staying above freezing even at night's edge, and snow is rare. Summers are hot, and rain falls through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, and others in manufacturing, restaurants and hotels, or government. Among the largest workplaces in Kinston are Sanderson Farms Kinston Processing, Caswell Developmental Center and Lenoir County Public Schools. Unemployment has eased over the past year, and Lenoir County has added jobs.
Things to do. CSS Neuse is a museum in or beside town, and Caswell Developmental Center is also listed as a museum in or beside town. A short drive away is Wheat Swamp, a river area. For a longer outing, Cliffs of the Neuse State Park is a protected area a longer drive away.
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- 8,891households
- 16%of adults have a degree
- 28%below the poverty line
- 21 mintypical commute
- 3%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Lenoir County had 29,635 jobs in 2025, 1.9% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 56° and lows near 35°; warmest in July, with highs near 91° and lows near 71°. About 1 inches of snow and 53 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Kinston Ag Rsch weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Kinston
- Sanderson Farms Kinston ProcessingPoultry processing1,565
- NCDHHSIntellectual and developmental disability facilities, residential1,189
- Lenoir County Public SchoolsSchool district1,029FTE
- Lenoir Memorial HospitalGeneral hospital723FTE
- Masterbrand CabinetsWood kitchen cabinet and counter manufacturing609
- Associated MaterialsAll other plastics product manufacturing525
- Principle LTC CorporateNursing homes129
- Lowe's Companies, INCHomecenter117
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 22 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 5,691 people in all. 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
- Winter weatherVery high
- HurricanesRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Inland floodingrelatively high in parts of KinstonRelatively 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 Kinston’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 Lenoir County and the Kinston, NC metro.
Kinston home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Kinston$144,821
- North Carolina$332,159
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Kinston listings, and the typical home goes pending in 32 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.
- Kinston25.72%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Kinston32
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Kinston144
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Kinston36
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Kinston$174,131
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Kinston95.44%
Zip codes with a Kinston address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Kinston — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Kinston
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28504 | Kinston | 20,407 | — | $186,098 |
| 28501 | Kinston | 17,642 | $1,094 | $97,828 |