Reliance, Tennessee.
Typical home $225,037 (+10.6% in a year). Cleveland, TN metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$680 (+136%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $21,547 +11%
- $203,489$225,037 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $37,939 +20%
- $187,098$225,037 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.
- Reliance$1,181
- Tennessee$1,737
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 19 years.
Typical home values in Reliance, TN rose 10.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Reliance, Polk County, Tennessee
The Census does not count Reliance on its own, so the figures here are Polk County's. Half the county's households earn more than $62,522 a year and half less; 14% of the county's people live below the poverty line. 84% of the county's homes are lived in by their owners and 16% are rented. Unemployment in Polk County was 3.7% in August 2026, and the county had 3.4% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Polk County work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Reliance is a small town in Polk County, in the southeast corner of Tennessee, set along the Hiwassee River. Winters are cold and summers are hot, with little snow and a good deal of rain falling through the year. Across Polk County, most homes are lived in by their owners, and the town has a quiet, rural feel.
Work. Residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, manufacturing, shops, and professional and business services. Across Polk County, job numbers slipped over the last year, though unemployment has eased slightly. Few people work from home, so most residents spend time each day traveling to a workplace.
Things to do. Hiwassee/Ocoee Scenic River State Park is a protected area in or beside town, and it is the most convenient place to spend time outdoors. Gee Creek Wilderness, a protected area a short drive away, offers more wild country to explore. Craigmiles Hall, a theatre a longer drive away, is a good option for an evening out.
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- 7,424households
- 46.9median age
- 17%of adults have a degree
- 14%below the poverty line
- 31 mintypical commute
- 8%work from home
What people in Polk County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Polk County had 2,666 jobs in 2025, 3.4% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 50° and lows near 28°; warmest in July, with highs near 90° and lows near 66°. About 3 inches of snow and 55 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Tellico Plains weather station, 16 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Polk County
- Polk County SchoolsSchool district339FTE
- K VA T Food StoresSupermarket141
- CG Roxane LLC Benton ASWSpring waters, purifying and bottling78
- Change Academy at lake of the OzarksMental health facilities, residential63
- DAC of CopperhillHomes for the aged with nursing care40
- Forest ServiceFederal government · Department of Agriculture32
- Ames Rubber Manufacturing Company, Inc. Tri-state DivisionExtruded, molded or lathe-cut rubber goods manufacturing27
- CG Roxane LLC Benton rPETPolyethylene terephathalate resins manufacturing21
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 6 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 370 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and federal offices from OPM's federal workforce data (2026); 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
- LandslidesRelatively 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 Polk County, 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 Polk County and the Cleveland, TN metro.
Reliance home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Reliance$225,037
- Tennessee$330,844
- 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.
- Reliance14
Zip codes with a Reliance address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Reliance — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.