Lafayette, Tennessee.
Typical home $265,266 (+2.7% in a year). Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$815 (+141%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $7,010 +3%
- $258,256$265,266 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $56,759 +27%
- $208,507$265,266 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.
- Lafayette$1,392
- Tennessee$1,737
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 14 years.
Typical home values in Lafayette, TN rose 2.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Lafayette, Macon County, Tennessee
Lafayette is a city of 5,584 people in Macon County. 48% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 52% are rented. Unemployment in Macon County was 3.0% in August 2026, and the county had 4.5% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in construction, 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Lafayette is a small city and the seat of Macon County, with a younger population than many towns its size. Fewer homes here are lived in by their owners than in most of the country, so renting is common, and a fair number of residents live below the poverty line. Few adults hold a four-year degree, and winters are cold while summers run hot.
Work. Many residents work in the building trades, in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, and in professional and business services. Some of the largest workplaces in Lafayette are Macon County Schools, Walmart and Macon County General Hospital. Commutes are fairly long, and very few people work from home.
Things to do. Most of the places to get out are a longer drive away. Barren River and Red River are the best known of the nearby rivers, and Cordell Hull Lake is a reservoir for time on the water. Bledsoe Creek State Park is a protected area with trails and open space for a day outdoors.
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- 1,941households
- 12%of adults have a degree
- 28%below the poverty line
- 28 mintypical commute
- 2%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Macon County had 5,223 jobs in 2025, 4.5% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 45° and lows near 27°; warmest in July, with highs near 88° and lows near 69°.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Lafayette weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Lafayette
- Macon County SchoolsSchool district563FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters302
- Macon County General HospitalCritical access hospital155FTE
- TennplascoScreening, window, plastics, manufacturing123
- Tri-County Electric-Lafayette DistrictDistribution of electric power77
- Cobb-vantressPoultry hatcheries54
- Cobb-vantressSupport activities for animal production30
- Macon Trousdale Farmers Cooperative (Lafayette)Chemicals, agricultural, merchant wholesalers29
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 8 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 663 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
- Strong windVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Lafayette’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 Macon County and the Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN metro.
Lafayette home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Lafayette$265,266
- Tennessee$330,844
- 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 4 Lafayette 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.
- Lafayette28.09%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Lafayette94
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Lafayette22
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Lafayette$259,004
- United States$370,717
Zip codes with a Lafayette address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Lafayette — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.