Sheffield, Alabama.
Typical home $129,582 (+1.0% in a year), asking rent $815 . Florence-Muscle Shoals, AL metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$378 (+125%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $1,300 +1%
- $128,282$129,582 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $26,851 +26%
- $102,731$129,582 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.
- Sheffield$680
- Alabama$1,252
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 15 years.
Typical home values in Sheffield, AL rose 1.0% over the past year — in step with the nation.
Living in Sheffield, Colbert County, Alabama
Sheffield is a city of 9,403 people in Colbert County. Half its households earn more than $39,733 a year and half less, against $60,628 across Colbert County; 27% of its people live below the poverty line. 60% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 40% are rented. Unemployment in Colbert County was 3.9% in August 2026, and the county had 1.1% more 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Sheffield is a small city in Colbert County, in the northwest corner of Alabama, and it sits among the Shoals towns along the Tennessee River. Household incomes here run well below the county's, and a larger share of people live below the poverty line than you might expect. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and a four-year degree is less common among adults than in many places. Winters are cool, with January the coldest month and nights that dip below freezing, while summers are hot, and a good deal of rain falls through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops and other services close behind. The largest workplaces in Sheffield include Helen Keller Hospital, Sheffield City Schools and JAY Industrial Repair Sheffield. Unemployment across Colbert County is a little higher than a year ago, though the county has added a few more jobs. Commutes are short, and few people work from home.
Things to do. Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, a museum in or beside town, is a draw for anyone who loves the recordings made in this part of Alabama. Wilson Lake, a reservoir a short drive away, is a place for time on the water, and Key Cave National Wildlife Refuge, also a short drive away, offers protected land to walk and watch birds. The Alabama Music Hall of Fame, another museum a short drive away, adds more of the area's musical story.
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- 4,732households
- 18%of adults have a degree
- 27%below the poverty line
- 19 mintypical commute
- 7%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Colbert County had 24,754 jobs in 2025, 1.1% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 51° and lows near 29°; warmest in July, with highs near 90° and lows near 69°. About 58 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Muscle Shoals Wtp weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Sheffield
- Helen Keller HospitalGeneral hospital698FTE
- Sheffield City SchoolsSchool district125FTE
- JAY Industrial Repair SheffieldIndustrial equipment and machinery repair and maintenance services33
- AT&TWired telecommunications carriers29
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 2 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 62 people in all. 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
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- EarthquakesRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Sheffield’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 Colbert County and the Florence-Muscle Shoals, AL metro.
Sheffield home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Sheffield$129,582
- Alabama$238,614
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Sheffield 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.
- Sheffield37.52%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Sheffield80
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Sheffield16
Zip codes with a Sheffield address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Sheffield — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.