Laurel, Mississippi.
Typical home $137,326 (-3.5% in a year). Laurel, MS metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$291 (+68%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $4,943 -3%
- $142,269$137,326 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $1,578 -1%
- $138,905$137,326 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.
- Laurel$721
- Mississippi$1,021
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Laurel, MS fell 3.5% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Laurel, Jones County, Mississippi
Laurel is a city of 17,161 people in Jones County. Half its households earn more than $47,661 a year and half less, against $52,216 across Jones County; 23% of its people live below the poverty line. 63% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 37% are rented. Unemployment in Jones County was 2.4% in August 2026, and the county had 1.0% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in manufacturing, then schools and health care.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Laurel is a small city in Jones County, Mississippi, with a younger population than the typical American community and a mostly owner-occupied housing stock. Incomes in town run below the county's, and a larger share of residents live in poverty than is typical, though the typical home here is more modest in price than in much of the country. Winters are mild and brief, with little or no snow, while summers are hot and the year brings plenty of rain.
Work. Residents work mainly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, and in restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Among the largest workplaces in Laurel are South Central Regional Medical Center, the Amick Farms poultry processing plant and Sanderson Farms Laurel Processing. Unemployment in Jones County has fallen compared with a year earlier, the number of jobs has edged up, and the trip to work is short for most people.
Things to do. The Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, in or beside town, is the best-known stop and a good place for an afternoon indoors. Tallahoma Creek and Bogue Cheely are both a short drive away for time near the water. For a longer outing, the Hattiesburg Zoo is a longer drive away.
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- 6,675households
- 22%of adults have a degree
- 23%below the poverty line
- 16 mintypical commute
- 6%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Jones County had 28,680 jobs in 2025, 1.0% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 60° and lows near 35°; warmest in July, with highs near 93° and lows near 70°. About 60 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Laurel weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Laurel
- South Central Regional Medical CentrGeneral hospital1,244FTE
- Amick Farms, LLC MS Processing PlantPoultry slaughtering, dressing, and packing1,103
- Sanderson Farms Laurel ProcessingPoultry processing655
- Laurel School DistrictSchool district422FTE
- Masonite InternationalInsulation board, cellular fiber, manufacturing407
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters381
- Dunn RoadbuildersPavement, highway, road, street, bridge or airport runway, construction170
- Thermo-Kool/Mid-South IndustriesHumidifying equipment manufacturing160
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 20 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,711 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); 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
- Strong windRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- HurricanesRelatively moderate
- HailRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Laurel’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 Jones County and the Laurel, MS metro.
Laurel home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Laurel$137,326
- Mississippi$194,531
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Laurel listings, and the typical home goes pending in 45 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.
- Laurel22.47%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Laurel111
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Laurel25
Zip codes with a Laurel address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Laurel — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Laurel
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 39443 | Laurel | 22,767 | — | $162,268 |
| 39440 | Laurel | 19,385 | — | $102,378 |