Opelika, Alabama.
Typical home $308,920 (+3.1% in a year), asking rent $1,437 (+2.3%). Auburn-Opelika, AL metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$842 (+108%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $9,333 +3%
- $299,587$308,920 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $60,249 +24%
- $248,671$308,920 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.
- Opelika$1,621
- Alabama$1,252
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 16 years.
Typical home values in Opelika, AL rose 3.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Opelika, AL rose 2.3% over the past year — slower than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Opelika runs $638/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $767 in Apr 2024.
That is $2,075 a month against $1,437 rent: a $1,621 mortgage payment, plus $123 property tax and $331 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Opelika
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$2,075
- Renting$1,437
- Mortgage only$1,621
Property tax · $123/mo 0.48% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Lee County, AL
Insurance & upkeep · $331/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 Opelika, Lee County, Alabama
Opelika is a city of 30,995 people in Lee County. Half its households earn more than $65,004 a year and half less, against $65,824 across Lee County; 16% of its people live below the poverty line. 69% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 31% are rented. Unemployment in Opelika was 3.2% in August 2026, and Lee County had 2.5% more 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. Opelika is a small city in Lee County, with a median age close to that of the country as a whole and incomes that sit just below the county's. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and the typical home value and monthly rent are both modest for a city of its size. Winters are cool and short, summers are hot, and there is little or no snow, though a fair amount of rain falls through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, retail and professional and business services also employing a good share. Among the largest workplaces in Opelika are East Alabama Medical Center, Opelika City Schools and Lee County Schools. Unemployment has risen slightly over the past year, while the county has added jobs, and the typical commute is a modest one.
Things to do. A short drive away are Chewacla State Park, a protected natural area good for time outdoors, and the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, a museum. Jordan–Hare Stadium, also a short drive away, is a large stadium used for college football. For a longer outing, Horseshoe Bend National Military Park is an archaeological site and national park a longer drive away.
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- 13,467households
- 36%of adults have a degree
- 16%below the poverty line
- 22 mintypical commute
- 8%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Lee County had 68,299 jobs in 2025, 2.5% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 56° and lows near 33°; warmest in July, with highs near 90° and lows near 69°. About 55 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Opelika weather station, 4 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Opelika
- East Alabama Medical CenterGeneral hospital2,105FTE
- Lee County SchoolsSchool district1,000FTE
- WalmartRefrigerated warehousing and storage958
- Opelika City SchoolsSchool district503FTE
- ITC Capital PartnersWired telecommunications carriers474
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters328
- Scott Bridge CompanyPavement, highway, road, street, bridge or airport runway, construction298
- Thompson CarriersGeneral freight trucking, long-distance, truckload231
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 46 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 5,148 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
- LightningRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively 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 Opelika’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 Lee County and the Auburn-Opelika, AL metro.
Opelika home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Opelika$308,920
- Alabama$238,614
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Opelika listings, and the typical home goes pending in 31 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.
- Opelika22.06%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Opelika31
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Opelika236
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Opelika56
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Opelika$295,480
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Opelika98.04%
Zip codes with a Opelika address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Opelika — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Opelika
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 36801 | Opelika | 25,438 | $1,456 | $298,744 |
| 36804 | Opelika | 20,535 | $1,150 | $324,560 |