Pine Knot, Kentucky.
Typical home $114,094 (-4.8% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$348 (+139%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $5,744 -5%
- $119,838$114,094 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $22,213 +24%
- $91,881$114,094 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.
- Pine Knot$599
- 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 Pine Knot, KY fell 4.8% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Pine Knot, McCreary County, Kentucky
Pine Knot, in McCreary County, had 1,380 people in the 2020 census. Unemployment in McCreary County was 5.7% in August 2026, and the county had 1.7% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in McCreary County 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Pine Knot is a small community in McCreary County, in the hills of southeastern Kentucky. Few adults here hold a four-year degree, and household incomes across the county sit well below what is typical for the country. Homes cost less than in most places, and winters are cold without being extreme, while summers are warm and the year brings plenty of rain and melted snow.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops and government not far behind. The largest workplaces in Pine Knot include the federal prison, Signature Healthcare, a skilled nursing provider, and the Forest Service. Unemployment across McCreary County is a little lower than a year ago, though the county has fewer jobs than it did the year before.
Things to do. A short drive away, the Big South Fork Scenic Railway is a museum, and the McCreary County Museum is nearby as well. A longer drive brings you to Cumberland Falls, a waterfall, and to the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, a large protected area for time outdoors.
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- 2%of adults have a degree
- 12%work from home
What people in McCreary County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. McCreary County had 2,825 jobs in 2025, 1.7% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 45° and lows near 24°; warmest in July, with highs near 85° and lows near 63°. About 56 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Stearns 2S weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Pine Knot
- Bureau of Prisons/federal Prison SystemFederal government · Department of Justice156
- Signature HealthcareSkilled nursing facilities55
- Forest ServiceFederal government · Department of Agriculture46
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 1 workplace with 20 or more staff, 55 people in all. Federal offices come from OPM's federal workforce data (2026). 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
- Winter weatherVery high
- Strong windRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Pine Knot’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. 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 McCreary County.
Pine Knot home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Pine Knot$114,094
- 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 Pine Knot address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Pine Knot — 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.