Princeton, Kentucky.
Typical home $145,479 (-5.6% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$376 (+97%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $8,670 -6%
- $154,149$145,479 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $23,058 +19%
- $122,420$145,479 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.
- Princeton$764
- Kentucky$1,212
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 20 years.
Typical home values in Princeton, KY fell 5.6% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Princeton, Caldwell County, Kentucky
Princeton is a city of 6,270 people in Caldwell County. 53% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 47% are rented. Unemployment in Caldwell County was 3.8% in August 2026, and the county had 0.4% fewer 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Princeton is a small city and the seat of Caldwell County, in western Kentucky. About as many households own their homes as rent them, with a slightly higher share owning, and incomes sit a little below those of the county as a whole. Fewer adults hold a four-year degree than is typical across the country, and most people have a fairly short drive to work. Winters are cold, summers are hot, and the town sees some snow each winter and plenty of rain through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, and in manufacturing, with shops and professional and business services also employing a good number. Among the largest workplaces in Princeton are TreeHouse Private Brands, a bakery products manufacturer, Hydro-Gear, which makes hydrostatic drives, and Caldwell County Schools. Jobs across the county slipped slightly last year, while unemployment is a little lower than it was a year earlier.
Things to do. The University of Kentucky Research and Education Center Botanical Garden is in or beside town, a convenient place for a walk among plantings. A longer drive brings you to Kentucky Lake, a large reservoir, and to Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, a protected area for outdoor time. Pennyrile Forest State Resort Park, also a longer drive away, offers more woodland to explore.
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- 2,367households
- 17%of adults have a degree
- 16%below the poverty line
- 21 mintypical commute
- 5%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Caldwell County had 4,673 jobs in 2025, 0.4% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 46° and lows near 27°; warmest in July, with highs near 89° and lows near 68°. About 8 inches of snow and 51 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Princeton Southeast weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Princeton
- TreeHouse Private BrandsBakery products, dry, manufacturing656
- Hydro-Gear, PrincetonHydrostatic drives manufacturing452
- Caldwell County SchoolsSchool district269FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters262
- PrincetonKY OPCONursing homes100
- RyderGeneral warehousing and storage80
- Keller Warehousing - PrincetonGeneral warehousing and storage30
- PrincetonMail and parcel delivery22
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 8 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,623 people in all. 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
- Ice stormsVery high
- Strong windVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Princeton’s 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 Caldwell County.
Princeton home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Princeton$145,479
- Kentucky$230,909
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Princeton listings — the market is cooling.
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.
- Princeton29.37%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Princeton43
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Princeton9
Zip codes with a Princeton address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Princeton — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.