Monticello, Kentucky.
Typical home $155,474 (-3.2% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$489 (+150%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $5,121 -3%
- $160,595$155,474 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $42,963 +38%
- $112,511$155,474 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.
- Monticello$816
- Kentucky$1,212
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 11 years.
Typical home values in Monticello, KY fell 3.2% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Monticello, Wayne County, Kentucky
Monticello is a city of 5,753 people in Wayne County. 54% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 46% are rented. Unemployment in Wayne County was 5.7% in August 2026, and the county had 2.9% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Monticello is the small county seat of Wayne County, Kentucky, in the hills near Lake Cumberland. Residents tend to be somewhat older than across the country, and more homes are lived in by their owners than by renters. Few adults hold a four-year degree, incomes run below the county's own middle, and a large share of people live below the poverty line. Winters are cold, with some snow, summers are warm, and rain falls steadily through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, professional and business services, and shops also employing a good number. Among the largest workplaces in Monticello are Wayne County Schools, Walmart and Wayne County Hospital. Jobs across Wayne County were slightly fewer last year than the year before, and unemployment has held steady compared with a year ago. A fair number of residents work from home.
Things to do. Mill Springs Battlefield National Monument, a protected historic area, is a short drive away. Farther afield, Cumberland Falls is a well-known waterfall, and Lake Cumberland is a large reservoir suited to boating and fishing. Each is a longer drive from town.
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- 2,385households
- 13%of adults have a degree
- 30%below the poverty line
- 20%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Wayne County had 5,080 jobs in 2025, 2.9% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 45° and lows near 26°; warmest in July, with highs near 86° and lows near 66°. About 14 inches of snow and 52 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Monticello Northeast weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Monticello
- Wayne County SchoolsSchool district454FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters265
- Wayne County HospitalCritical access hospital153FTE
- Mountain Ridge Health & RehabilitationSkilled nursing facilities80
- Cobb-vantressPoultry hatcheries79
- Cobb-vantressChicken egg production43
- Chfs DcbsState government26
- Houchens Food GroupSupermarkets and other grocery stores23
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 7 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 732 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
- Cold wavesVery high
- Winter weatherVery high
- LightningRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Monticello’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively high. 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 Wayne County.
Monticello home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Monticello$155,474
- Kentucky$230,909
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Monticello 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.
- Monticello32.85%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Monticello71
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Monticello16
Zip codes with a Monticello address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Monticello — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.