Salem, Indiana.
Typical home $208,639 (+2.8% in a year). Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$616 (+129%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $5,758 +3%
- $202,881$208,639 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $46,539 +29%
- $162,099$208,639 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$1,095
- Indiana$1,350
- 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, IN rose 2.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Salem, Washington County, Indiana
Salem is a city of 6,371 people in Washington County. Half its households earn more than $56,538 a year and half less, against $64,641 across Washington County; 26% of its people live below the poverty line. 74% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 26% are rented. Unemployment in Washington County was 3.4% in August 2026, and the county had 1.6% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Salem is a small city in Washington County, Indiana, and most homes in town are lived in by their owners. Household incomes run below the county's, and more people live below the poverty line than is typical, so the town is one of modest means. Few adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold, with January highs only a little above freezing and some snow, while July brings hot days, and the year is fairly wet.
Work. Residents work mostly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, and in the building trades. Among the largest workplaces in Salem are GKN Sinter Metals Salem, which makes powder metallurgy products, Salem Community Schools, and Jeans Extrusions, a plastics maker. The typical commute is moderate, and few people work from home. The county has lost a few jobs over the past year, and unemployment has stayed close to where it stood a year earlier.
Things to do. Among the best-known places, some are in or beside town: Salem Speedway, a race track, and the John Hay Center, a museum. A longer drive away are Wyandotte Caves, a tourist attraction, and the Hoosier National Forest, a large protected area for walking and time outdoors.
Report a mistake
- 2,706households
- 16%of adults have a degree
- 26%below the poverty line
- 26 mintypical commute
- 9%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Washington County had 5,662 jobs in 2025, 1.6% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 41° and lows near 24°; warmest in July, with highs near 87° and lows near 65°. About 14 inches of snow and 47 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Salem weather station, a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Salem
- GKN Sinter Metals SalemPowder metallurgy products manufactured on a job or order basis288
- Salem Community SchoolsSchool district280FTE
- Jeans ExtrusionsProfile shapes, nonrigid plastics, manufacturing105
- John Jones Chevrolet Buick Cadillac of SalemAutomobile dealers, new only or new and used95
- Kroger Louisville KMASupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores92
- Eddie Gilstrap MotorsAutomobile dealers, new only or new and used65
- Ascension St Vincent SalemCritical access hospital53FTE
- SalemMail and parcel delivery30
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 8 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 785 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); 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
- TornadoesVery high
- Strong windRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- EarthquakesRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Salem’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. 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 Washington County and the Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN 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$208,639
- Indiana$257,165
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 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.
- Salem31.84%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Salem78
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Salem22
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.