McAlester, Oklahoma.
Typical home $155,910 (+4.0% in a year), asking rent $1,495 . McAlester, OK metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$420 (+105%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $5,958 +4%
- $149,953$155,910 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $31,261 +25%
- $124,649$155,910 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.
- McAlester$818
- Oklahoma$1,159
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 15 years.
Typical home values in McAlester, OK rose 4.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in McAlester, Pittsburg County, Oklahoma
McAlester is a city of 18,171 people in Pittsburg County. Half its households earn more than $51,930 a year and half less, against $55,310 across Pittsburg County; 20% of its people live below the poverty line. 58% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 42% are rented. Unemployment in Pittsburg County was 5.1% in August 2026, and the county had 0.3% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then government.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. McAlester is a small city and the largest community in Pittsburg County, with a somewhat younger population than many towns its size. Most homes are lived in by their owners, though renters are a real part of the picture, and household incomes run a little below the county's. Winters are cool and mild by northern standards, summers get hot, and rain is steady across the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with government, shops and manufacturing close behind. Among the largest workplaces in town are McAlester Schools, Walmart and the Kiamichi Technology Center-McAlester. Getting to work is quick for most people, and few work from home. Jobs across the county slipped slightly last year, and unemployment has edged up since a year ago.
Things to do. Closest to home is the Garrard Ardeneum, a botanical garden in or beside town. A longer drive away are Robbers Cave State Park, a protected area, and Eufaula Lake, a large reservoir.
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- 7,200households
- 21%of adults have a degree
- 20%below the poverty line
- 16 mintypical commute
- 6%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Pittsburg County had 14,742 jobs in 2025, 0.3% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 52° and lows near 30°; warmest in July, with highs near 93° and lows near 72°. About 43 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Mcalester Regional Airport weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in McAlester
- Mcalester SchoolsSchool district434FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters357
- Kiamichi Technology Center-McAlesterCareer school287
- Twin Cities Ready MIXReady-mix concrete manufacturing and distributing187
- Lowe's Companies, INCHomecenter108
- McalesterMail and parcel delivery63
- American Electric Power60
- Heritage Hills Living and Rehabilitation CenterSkilled nursing facilities58
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 10 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 996 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and colleges from IPEDS (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
- Ice stormsVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in McAlester’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 Pittsburg County and the McAlester, OK metro.
McAlester home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- McAlester$155,910
- Oklahoma$220,801
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 McAlester listings, and the typical home goes pending in 61 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.
- McAlester25.46%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- McAlester61
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- McAlester180
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- McAlester37
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- McAlester$174,063
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a McAlester address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls McAlester — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.