Nelson, Georgia.
Typical home $374,209 (+0.7% in a year). Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta, GA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,190 (+154%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $2,482 +1%
- $371,727$374,209 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $96,340 +35%
- $277,869$374,209 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.
- Nelson$1,964
- Georgia$1,727
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Nelson, GA rose 0.7% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Nelson, Cherokee County, Georgia
Nelson is a city of 1,145 people in Cherokee County. Unemployment in Cherokee County was 2.9% in August 2026, and the county had 0.6% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Cherokee County work in schools and health care, then professional services.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Nelson is a small city, and its residents tend to be somewhat older than in many American towns. Homes here are worth a good deal, and incomes across Cherokee County run high. Winters are cool and short, with very little snow, and summers are warm. Rain falls steadily through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in professional and business services, in shops, or in the building trades. Across Cherokee County, some of the largest workplaces are Cherokee County Schools, Northside Hospital Cherokee and Amazon. Unemployment across the county is low and a little lower than a year ago, though the county has slightly fewer jobs than the year before. The typical commute is a long one, and some residents work from home.
Things to do. A short drive away, Amicalola Creek and Buzzard Flapper Creek offer river scenery close to town, and the Long Swamp Site is an archaeological site worth knowing about. A longer drive brings you to Amicalola Falls, a waterfall in a state park, and to Lake Lanier, a large reservoir.
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- 22%of adults have a degree
- 8%below the poverty line
- 30 mintypical commute
- 10%work from home
What people in Cherokee County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Cherokee County had 73,868 jobs in 2025, 0.6% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 48° and lows near 31°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 67°. About 2 inches of snow and 59 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Jasper Nnw weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Cherokee County
- Cherokee County SchoolsSchool district5,273FTE
- Northside Hospital CherokeeHospitals, general medical and surgical4,353
- Northside Hospital-cherokeeGeneral hospital3,051FTE
- AmazonGeneral warehousing and storage744
- JBSChickens, slaughtering and dressing734
- Inalfa Roof Systems - Cherokee CampusSunroofs and parts, automotive, truck, and bus, manufacturing450
- Universal Alloy Corporation CantonAluminum bar made by extruding purchased aluminum449
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters396
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 144 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 24,012 people in all across the county; Nelson has one of its own. 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
- LightningRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
- HailRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Nelson’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 and the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta, GA metro.
Nelson home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Nelson$374,209
- Georgia$329,115
- United States$366,157
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
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Nelson8
Zip codes with a Nelson address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Nelson — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zillow publishes no zip-level series with this city on the address.