Penrose, North Carolina.
Typical home $406,582 (-1.7% in a year). Brevard, NC metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,327 (+164%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $7,116 -2%
- $413,698$406,582 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $110,743 +37%
- $295,839$406,582 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.
- Penrose$2,134
- North Carolina$1,743
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 11 years.
Typical home values in Penrose, NC fell 1.7% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Penrose, Transylvania County, North Carolina
The Census does not count Penrose on its own, so the figures here are Transylvania County's. Half the county's households earn more than $66,184 a year and half less; 13% of the county's people live below the poverty line. 75% of the county's homes are lived in by their owners and 25% are rented. Unemployment in Transylvania County was 3.2% in August 2026, and the county had about as many jobs in 2025 as the year before. The most people in Transylvania County work in schools and health care, then shops.
Written by AI Claude Haiku 5.5 wrote this on 22 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Penrose sits in Transylvania County in the mountains of western North Carolina, a area known as the Land of the Waterfalls. Across the county, most homes are lived in by their owners, and the typical resident is well into middle age, so many neighbors have deep roots and long memories of the place. Winters bring cold spells and now and then some snow, summers are warm, and rain falls often through the year.
Work. Across Transylvania County, the jobs people hold most often are in schools, hospitals and social care, shops, building trades and manufacturing. Unemployment is lower than it was a year earlier, and the number of jobs has held steady over the past year. Most people drive to work rather than working from home, and a good share of adults hold a four-year degree.
Things to do. Bridal Veil Falls is a waterfall a short drive away, and it is one of the best known spots in the area. Pisgah National Forest, a protected area a longer drive away, offers wide woods and trails for a day outdoors. Caesars Head State Park, also a protected area, is a short drive away and makes a pleasant outing for those who enjoy the mountains.
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- 14,584households
- 51.6median age
- 40%of adults have a degree
- 13%below the poverty line
- 22 mintypical commute
- 12%work from home
What people in Transylvania County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Transylvania County had 9,751 jobs in 2025, about as many as the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 49° and lows near 26°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 62°. About 7 inches of snow and 65 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Pisgah Forest Northeast weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Transylvania County
- Transylvania County SchoolsSchool district502FTE
- Brevard CollegeUniversity or college259
- Ingles MarketsSupermarkets and other grocery stores238
- LBM IndustriesConstruction machinery and equipment rental or leasing without operator227
- Gaia HerbsMedicinal botanical manufacturing210
- Transylvania Community HospitalCritical access hospital154FTE
- Lowe's Companies, INCHomecenter132
- WalmartDiscount department stores128
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 25 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,865 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24), colleges from IPEDS (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
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Transylvania County, 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 Transylvania County and the Brevard, NC metro.
Penrose home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Penrose$406,582
- North Carolina$332,159
- 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.
- Penrose6
Zip codes with a Penrose address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Penrose — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.