Mount Vernon, Kentucky.
Typical home $136,601 (-12.5% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$401 (+127%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $19,545 -13%
- $156,146$136,601 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $30,044 +28%
- $106,557$136,601 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.
- Mount Vernon$717
- Kentucky$1,212
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 14 years.
Typical home values in Mount Vernon, KY fell 12.5% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Mount Vernon, Rockcastle County, Kentucky
Mount Vernon is a city of 2,453 people in Rockcastle County. Half its households earn more than $38,697 a year and half less, against $48,862 across Rockcastle County; 33% of its people live below the poverty line. 50% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 50% are rented. Unemployment in Rockcastle County was 4.9% in August 2026, and the county had 4.3% fewer 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Mount Vernon is a small city and the seat of Rockcastle County, with an older population than much of the country. Incomes run below the county's, and more households live with money worries than is typical. Winters are cold, with some snow, and summers are warm; rain and melted snow add up to a good deal over the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, and in government. Among the largest workplaces in town are Rockcastle County Schools, Rockcastle Hospital & Respiratory Care Center and Houchens Food Group. Jobs across the county have dipped from the year before, and the unemployment rate has held level over the past year.
Things to do. Lake Linville sits in or beside town, which makes it the easiest place for time on the water. Farther out, a longer drive away, are Daniel Boone National Forest, a large protected area, and the Rockcastle River. Green River is another river within a longer drive.
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- 999households
- 12%of adults have a degree
- 33%below the poverty line
- 22 mintypical commute
- 7%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Rockcastle County had 3,837 jobs in 2025, 4.3% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 42° and lows near 24°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 66°. About 11 inches of snow and 51 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Mount Vernon weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Mount Vernon
- Rockcastle County SchoolsSchool district452FTE
- Rockcastle Hospt. & Respir Care CTRGeneral hospital396FTE
- Houchens Food GroupSupermarkets and other grocery stores22
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 2 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 810 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
- Strong windRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Mount Vernon’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 Rockcastle County.
Mount Vernon home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Mount Vernon$136,601
- Kentucky$230,909
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Mount Vernon listings — 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.
- Mount Vernon22.63%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Mount Vernon25
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Mount Vernon6
Zip codes with a Mount Vernon address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Mount Vernon — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Mount Vernon
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40456 | Mount Vernon | 8,370 | — | $146,176 |
| 40460 | Orlando | 1,358 | — | $102,885 |