Murphy, North Carolina.
Typical home $274,061 (-0.5% in a year), asking rent $1,583 .
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$851 (+145%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $1,303 -0%
- $275,365$274,061 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $52,755 +24%
- $221,307$274,061 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.
- Murphy$1,438
- North Carolina$1,743
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 16 years.
Typical home values in Murphy, NC fell 0.5% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Murphy, Cherokee County, North Carolina
Murphy is a town of 1,608 people in Cherokee County. Unemployment in Cherokee County was 3.6% in August 2026, and the county had 1.3% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Cherokee County work in schools and health care, then shops.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Murphy is a small town in the western corner of North Carolina, in Cherokee County. Winters are cool, with highs around the middle of the range for a mild cold season and only a little snow, while summers turn warm, and rain and melted snow fall steadily through the year. The typical home costs more than a household earning the county's median income might expect to afford, and a noticeable share of residents live below the poverty line.
Work. Most residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in restaurants and hotels, or in manufacturing. Among the largest workplaces in town are Cherokee County Schools, Walmart and Indian Head Industries / MGM Brakes. Commutes are short, very few people work from home, and unemployment across the county is lower than it was a year ago, though the county has fewer jobs than the year before.
Things to do. The Nottely River runs in or beside town, and Brasstown Creek is a short drive away. For a longer outing, Blue Hole Falls is a waterfall a longer drive away, and Nantahala National Forest is a protected area of woods and trails, also a longer drive away.
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- 792households
- 27%of adults have a degree
- 18%below the poverty line
- 14 mintypical commute
- 3%work from home
What people in Cherokee County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Cherokee County had 7,869 jobs in 2025, 1.3% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 50° and lows near 25°; warmest in July, with highs near 87° and lows near 63°. About 4 inches of snow and 59 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Murphy 4ESE weather station, 4 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Murphy
- Cherokee County SchoolsSchool district459FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters365
- Lowe's Companies, INCHomecenter155
- Indian Head Industries / MGM BrakesBrake and brake parts, automotive, truck, and bus, manufacturing64
- MurphyMail and parcel delivery36
- Grocery OutletSupermarkets and other grocery stores33
- Forest ServiceFederal government · Department of Agriculture23
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 5 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 653 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and federal offices from OPM's federal workforce data (2026); 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
- LightningRelatively high
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
- Tornadoesrelatively high in parts of MurphyRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingrelatively high in parts of MurphyRelatively moderate
- Strong windrelatively high in parts of MurphyRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Murphy’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively low. 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 Cherokee County.
Murphy home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Murphy$274,061
- North Carolina$332,159
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Murphy listings, and the typical home goes pending in 73 days — the market is heating up.
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.
- Murphy25.66%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Murphy73
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Murphy352
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Murphy54
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Murphy$311,380
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Murphy96.65%
Zip codes with a Murphy address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Murphy — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.