Rusk, Texas.
Typical home $209,592 (-2.6% in a year). Jacksonville, TX metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$588 (+115%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $5,505 -3%
- $215,096$209,592 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $31,387 +18%
- $178,205$209,592 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.
- Rusk$1,100
- Texas$1,556
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 21 years.
Typical home values in Rusk, TX fell 2.6% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Rusk, Cherokee County, Texas
Rusk is a city of 5,285 people in Cherokee County. Unemployment in Cherokee County was 4.7% in August 2026, and the county had 0.2% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Cherokee 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Rusk is a small city in Cherokee County, in the pine country of East Texas. Residents are a little older than the typical American, and relatively few adults hold a four-year degree. Homes cost less than in much of the country, and winters are mild, with little or no snow, while summers turn hot and the year brings plenty of rain.
Work. Most residents find work in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops and the building trades also employing many. Across Cherokee County, some of the largest workplaces are Helmerich & Payne, which drills oil and gas wells, Rusk State Hospital, and Jacksonville ISD. Jobs across the county have held about steady, and unemployment there is unchanged from a year ago.
Things to do. A short drive away, Mud Creek offers a river to explore, and Thunder Mountain Motor Speedway is a race track for those who like an evening of racing. Farther afield, Mission Tejas State Park is a protected area for walking and time among the East Texas woods. Caddo Mounds State Historic Site, a museum, is a longer drive away.
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- 1,039households
- 11%of adults have a degree
- 8%below the poverty line
What people in Cherokee County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Cherokee County had 14,947 jobs in 2025, 0.2% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 56° and lows near 37°; warmest in August, with highs near 92° and lows near 72°. About 50 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Rusk weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Cherokee County
- Helmerich & Payne, Inc.Drilling oil and gas wells1,381
- Rusk State HospitalPsychiatric hospital942FTE
- Jacksonville ISDSchool district829FTE
- Altman Specialty PlantsFlorist's supplies merchant wholesalers437
- Bullard ISDSchool district435FTE
- Allied Truss Texas JacksonvilleTrusses, wood roof or floor, manufacturing425
- Rusk ISDSchool district344FTE
- Beall SGeneral warehousing and storage342
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 46 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 6,085 people in all across the county; Rusk has two of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and school districts 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 high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Rusk’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively 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 Cherokee County and the Jacksonville, TX metro.
Rusk home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Rusk$209,592
- Texas$296,424
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Rusk listings — the market is roughly in balance.
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.
- Rusk20.16%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Rusk59
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Rusk9
Zip codes with a Rusk address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Rusk — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.