Phelps, Kentucky.
Typical home $67,217 (-12.3% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$111 (+46%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $9,436 -12%
- $76,653$67,217 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $11,103 -14%
- $78,320$67,217 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.
- Phelps$353
- Kentucky$1,212
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Phelps, KY fell 12.3% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Phelps, Pike County, Kentucky
Phelps, in Pike County, had 760 people in the 2020 census. Unemployment in Pike County was 6.1% in August 2026, and the county had 1.9% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Pike 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Phelps is a very small community in Pike County, in the hills of eastern Kentucky. Homes here cost far less than in much of the country, and few adults have a four-year degree. Winters are cold, with a little snow, and summers turn hot, with plenty of rain and melted snow across the year.
Work. Most residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in restaurants and hotels, or in professional and business services. Across Pike County, the largest workplaces include Pikeville Medical Center, Pike County Schools and the University of Pikeville. Unemployment in the county is unchanged from a year earlier, and the county has fewer jobs than it did the year before.
Things to do. Several creeks, including Thacker Creek, Blackberry Creek and Alum Creek, are a short drive away for time along the water. A longer drive brings you to Breaks Interstate Park, a protected area, and to Chief Logan State Park.
Report a mistake
- 7%of adults have a degree
What people in Pike County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Pike County had 20,166 jobs in 2025, 1.9% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 46° and lows near 26°; warmest in July, with highs near 89° and lows near 66°. About 13 inches of snow and 48 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Williamson weather station, 13 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Pike County
- Pikeville Medical CenterGeneral hospital2,832FTE
- Pike County SchoolsSchool district1,340FTE
- University of PikevilleUniversity or college440
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters438
- KYTC District 12321
- Kellogg CompanyBakery products, dry, manufacturing314
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters273
- TUG Valley ARHGeneral hospital272FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 41 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 4,157 people in all across the county; Phelps has none of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and colleges from IPEDS (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
- Inland floodingVery high
- LandslidesRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Phelps’ 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 Pike County.
Phelps home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Phelps$67,217
- Kentucky$230,909
- 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.
Zip codes with a Phelps address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Phelps — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.