Powell, Alabama.
Typical home $190,712 (+10.6% in a year). Fort Payne, AL metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$529 (+112%) since Feb 2021.
- 1 year
- Up $18,225 +11%
- $172,487$190,712 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $37,996 +25%
- $152,716$190,712 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.
- Powell$1,001
- 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 Powell, AL rose 10.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Powell, DeKalb County, Alabama
Powell is a town of 901 people in DeKalb County. Half its households earn more than $61,786 a year and half less, against $51,204 across DeKalb County; 31% of its people live below the poverty line. Unemployment in DeKalb County was 3.2% in August 2026, and the county had 2.1% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in DeKalb County work in manufacturing, then schools and health care.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Powell is a very small town in DeKalb County, in the hills of northeast Alabama. Household incomes run higher than across the county as a whole, though a large share of residents live below the poverty line. Few adults hold a four-year degree, and a typical home costs well under what many American towns ask.
Work. Residents work mostly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, and in the building trades. Across DeKalb County, some of the biggest workplaces are Terex, DeKalb County Schools and Koch Foods. Unemployment in the county has risen a little over the past year, while the number of jobs has grown slightly. A typical commute is a moderate drive, and very few people work from home.
Things to do. Winters are mild and brief, with January the coldest month, and summers turn hot by July; rain and melted snow add up to a good deal over the year. For time outdoors, DeSoto Falls is a waterfall and DeSoto State Park a protected area, both a longer drive away. Guntersville Lake, a reservoir, and the Fort Payne Opera House, a theatre, are also a longer drive away.
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- 8%of adults have a degree
- 31%below the poverty line
- 22 mintypical commute
- 2%work from home
What people in DeKalb County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. DeKalb County had 23,861 jobs in 2025, 2.1% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 52° and lows near 32°; warmest in July, with highs near 91° and lows near 70°. About 58 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Fort Payne weather station, 12 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in DeKalb County
- TerexGarbage truck bodies manufacturing1,239
- DeKalb County SchoolsSchool district999FTE
- Koch FoodsChickens, processing, fresh, frozen, canned, or cooked693
- Moriroku Technology North America Inc. - RainsvilleMotor vehicle moldings and extrusions, plastics, manufacturing571
- Renfro Brands LLC- Ft. Payne PlantAthletic socks, knitting or knitting and finishing456
- PlayCore Southern Fulfillment CenterGymnasium and playground equipment, manufacturing450
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters385
- Fort Payne City SchoolsSchool district363FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 53 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 8,590 people in all across the county; Powell has none of its own. School districts come 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
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Powell’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very 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 DeKalb County and the Fort Payne, AL metro.
Powell home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Powell$190,712
- Alabama$238,614
- 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 Powell address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Powell — 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.