Mars Hill, North Carolina.
Typical home $412,859 (-2.1% in a year). Asheville, NC metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,239 (+134%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $8,699 -2%
- $421,558$412,859 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $77,858 +23%
- $335,002$412,859 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.
- Mars Hill$2,167
- North Carolina$1,743
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 17 years.
Typical home values in Mars Hill, NC fell 2.1% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Mars Hill, Madison County, North Carolina
Mars Hill is a town of 2,007 people in Madison County. Half its households earn more than $81,429 a year and half less, against $58,531 across Madison County; 3% of its people live below the poverty line. 65% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 35% are rented. Unemployment in Madison County was 3.3% in August 2026, and the county had 1.0% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then professional services.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Mars Hill is a small town in Madison County, North Carolina, with a university at its center. Household incomes here run well above the county's, and very few people live below the poverty line. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and a good share of adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold, with lows well below freezing, summers are warm, and a fair amount of snow falls each year alongside a generous amount of rain.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with others in professional and business services, shops, and restaurants and hotels. Mars Hill University is the largest workplace in town, and Ingles Markets and Madison Health and Rehabilitation are also among the biggest. Some people work from home, and unemployment across Madison County is lower than it was a year earlier.
Things to do. Asheville-Weaverville Speedway, a race track, is a short drive away. Farther afield, a longer drive brings you to Mount Mitchell State Park, a protected area, and to Mitchell Falls, a waterfall. The Folk Art Center, a museum, is also a longer drive away.
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- 890households
- 48%of adults have a degree
- 3%below the poverty line
- 16%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Madison County had 4,351 jobs in 2025, 1.0% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 46° and lows near 24°; warmest in July, with highs near 85° and lows near 61°. About 26 inches of snow and 42 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Marshall weather station, 7 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Mars Hill
- Mars Hill UniversityUniversity or college284
- Ingles MarketsSupermarkets and other grocery stores172
- Madison Health and RehabilitationSkilled nursing facilities134
- Compass Group25
- Forest ServiceFederal government · Department of Agriculture23
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 331 people in all. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) and federal offices from OPM's federal workforce data (2026). 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
- LightningVery high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
- WildfireRelatively 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 Mars Hill’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 Madison County and the Asheville, NC metro.
Mars Hill home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Mars Hill$412,859
- North Carolina$332,159
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Mars Hill 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.
- Mars Hill24.28%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Mars Hill100
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Mars Hill16
Zip codes with a Mars Hill address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Mars Hill — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.