Lenoir, North Carolina.
Typical home $211,259 (+0.0% in a year), asking rent $1,329 . Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$634 (+133%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $73 +0%
- $211,186$211,259 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $43,375 +26%
- $167,884$211,259 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.
- Lenoir$1,109
- North Carolina$1,743
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 15 years.
Typical home values in Lenoir, NC rose 0.0% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Lenoir, Caldwell County, North Carolina
Lenoir is a city of 18,352 people in Caldwell County. Half its households earn more than $49,910 a year and half less, against $56,425 across Caldwell County; 15% of its people live below the poverty line. 64% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 36% are rented. Unemployment in Caldwell County was 3.5% in August 2026, and the county had 0.8% fewer 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Lenoir is a city in Caldwell County, North Carolina, with an older population than the typical American town. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and typical home values and rents sit at a moderate level. Household incomes run below the county's, and a fair number of residents live below the poverty line. Winters are cool, with a little snow, and summers are warm, with steady rain and melted snow through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by manufacturing, professional and business services, and shops. Caldwell County Schools, Caldwell Memorial Hospital and Exela Pharma Sciences are among the largest workplaces in Lenoir. Fewer adults hold a four-year degree than in many places, and a typical commute is fairly short. The county has lost a small share of its jobs over the past year, and unemployment there has eased from a year earlier.
Things to do. For time outdoors, McGalliard Falls is a waterfall a longer drive away, and the Yadkin River is another longer drive away for anyone who likes to be near a river. Lake James, a reservoir, is also a longer drive away and suits a day by the water.
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- 8,199households
- 21%of adults have a degree
- 15%below the poverty line
- 25 mintypical commute
- 11%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Caldwell County had 25,294 jobs in 2025, 0.8% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 49° and lows near 27°; warmest in July, with highs near 88° and lows near 67°. About 4 inches of snow and 50 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Lenoir weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Lenoir
- Caldwell County SchoolsSchool district1,476FTE
- Caldwell Memorial HospitalGeneral hospital812FTE
- Exela Pharma SciencesPharmaceutical preparations manufacturing563
- Fairfield ChairUpholstered furniture, household-type, on frames of any material, manufacturing393
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters369
- City of LenoirGeneral services departments, government318
- Bernhardt Furniture Plant 7Cot springs, assembled, manufacturing165
- Bernhardt Furniture Plant 2Couch springs, assembled, manufacturing149
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 33 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 5,211 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
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Lenoir’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 Caldwell County and the Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC metro.
Lenoir home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Lenoir$211,259
- North Carolina$332,159
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Lenoir listings — 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.
- Lenoir31.13%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Lenoir217
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Lenoir45
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Lenoir$248,106
- United States$371,407
Zip codes with a Lenoir address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Lenoir — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.