Murray, Kentucky.
Typical home $209,141 (-0.4% in a year), asking rent $1,116 (+3.9%). Murray, KY metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$615 (+127%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $919 -0%
- $210,060$209,141 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $40,945 +24%
- $168,196$209,141 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.
- Murray$1,098
- Kentucky$1,212
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 16 years.
Typical home values in Murray, KY fell 0.4% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Murray, KY rose 3.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Murray runs $319/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $451 in Feb 2025.
That is $1,435 a month against $1,116 rent: a $1,098 mortgage payment, plus $114 property tax and $224 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Murray
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$1,435
- Renting$1,116
- Mortgage only$1,098
Property tax · $114/mo 0.65% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Calloway County, KY
Insurance & upkeep · $224/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Murray, Calloway County, Kentucky
Murray is a city of 17,307 people in Calloway County. Half its households earn more than $44,091 a year and half less, against $52,706 across Calloway County; 24% of its people live below the poverty line. 42% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 58% are rented. Unemployment in Calloway County was 4.7% in August 2026, and the county had 0.3% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents 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. Murray is a small city and the seat of Calloway County, and it is a young one: the typical resident is much younger than in most American towns, which is what you would expect where a university shapes daily life. Household incomes sit below the county's, and a larger share of people live below the poverty line than in many places. Most homes here are rented rather than lived in by their owners, and the typical rent and the typical home value are both shown beside this text. Winters are cold, and summers are hot and wet.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by shops, restaurants and hotels, and manufacturing. Among the largest workplaces in Murray are Murray Calloway County Hospital, Walmart and Murray Independent Schools. The local job count has barely changed over the past year, and unemployment across the county is a little lower than it was a year ago. Commutes are short, and the share of adults with a four-year degree is higher than in many small towns.
Things to do. In town, Roy Stewart Stadium and Reagan Field are both stadiums, in or beside town. A longer drive away are Kentucky Lake, a large reservoir, and Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, a protected area of woods and shoreline. Fort Donelson National Battlefield, an archaeological site from the Civil War, is also a longer drive away.
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- 6,802households
- 36%of adults have a degree
- 24%below the poverty line
- 12 mintypical commute
- 7%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Calloway County had 15,612 jobs in 2025, 0.3% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 46° and lows near 27°; warmest in July, with highs near 89° and lows near 69°. About 6 inches of snow and 58 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Murray weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Murray
- Murray Calloway County HospitalGeneral hospital789FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters429
- Murray Independent SchoolsSchool district373FTE
- Lowe's Companies, INCHomecenter138
- Kroger Delta KMASupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores119
- Compass Group103
- Quest PharmaceuticalsPrescription drugs merchant wholesalers71
- Swift RoofingRoofing contractors71
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 24 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,724 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and school districts from the Common Core of Data (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 stormsRelatively high
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively 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 Murray’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 Calloway County and the Murray, KY metro.
Murray home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Murray$209,141
- Kentucky$230,909
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Murray listings, and the typical home goes pending in 29 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.
- Murray24.62%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Murray29
- United States24
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Murray116
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Murray31
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Murray$264,460
- United States$371,407
Zip codes with a Murray address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Murray — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.