Salem, Alabama.
Typical home $331,218 (+4.6% in a year). Auburn-Opelika, AL metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$952 (+121%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $14,654 +5%
- $316,564$331,218 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $74,589 +29%
- $256,629$331,218 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.
- Salem$1,738
- Alabama$1,252
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 14 years.
Typical home values in Salem, AL rose 4.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Salem, Lee County, Alabama
The Census does not count Salem on its own, so the figures here are Lee County's. Half the county's households earn more than $65,824 a year and half less; 19% of the county's people live below the poverty line. 66% of the county's homes are lived in by their owners and 34% are rented. Unemployment in Lee County was 3.2% in August 2026, and the county had 2.5% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Lee 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Salem is a small town in Lee County, in east central Alabama, and across the county the population is younger than most of the country's. Winters are mild, summers are hot, and rain falls heavily over the course of the year. Across the county, a meaningful share of residents live below the poverty line.
Work. Across Lee County, most homes are lived in by their owners, and many adults hold a college degree. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, manufacturing, shops and professional services, and most drive to work, with few working from home. Jobs grew over the past year, and unemployment, though still low, is a little higher than it was a year ago.
Things to do. Jordan–Hare Stadium is a stadium a longer drive away, and Tuskegee National Forest is a protected area, also a longer drive away. The Springer Opera House, a theatre, is likewise a longer drive away.
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- 69,436households
- 34.0median age
- 42%of adults have a degree
- 19%below the poverty line
- 22 mintypical commute
- 10%work from home
What people in Lee County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Lee County had 68,299 jobs in 2025, 2.5% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 58° and lows near 34°; warmest in July, with highs near 91° and lows near 70°. About 53 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Mulberry Grove weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Lee County
- Auburn UniversityUniversity or college7,194
- East Alabama Medical CenterGeneral hospital2,105FTE
- Lee County SchoolsSchool district1,000FTE
- WalmartRefrigerated warehousing and storage958
- Auburn City SchoolsSchool district930FTE
- Hanwha Advanced Materials America LLC. OpelikaMoldings and trim, motor vehicle, stamping513
- Opelika City SchoolsSchool district503FTE
- Briggs & StrattonEngines, internal combustion, manufacturing500
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 137 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 15,670 people in all. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24), hospitals 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
- LightningRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- HurricanesRelatively moderate
- DroughtRelatively 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 Lee County, 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 Lee County and the Auburn-Opelika, AL metro.
Salem home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Salem$331,218
- Alabama$238,614
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Salem 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.
- Salem24.24%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Salem50
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Salem13
Zip codes with a Salem address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Salem — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.