Sparta, Tennessee.
Typical home $279,597 (+5.3% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$847 (+136%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $14,063 +5%
- $265,534$279,597 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $61,648 +28%
- $217,949$279,597 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.
- Sparta$1,468
- Tennessee$1,737
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 14 years.
Typical home values in Sparta, TN rose 5.3% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Sparta, White County, Tennessee
Sparta is a city of 4,998 people in White County. Half its households earn more than $50,080 a year and half less, against $52,188 across White County; 14% of its people live below the poverty line. 68% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 32% are rented. Unemployment in White County was 4.1% in August 2026, and the county had 1.4% fewer 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Sparta is a small city where most homes are lived in by their owners, and residents tend to be older than in much of the country. Incomes run a little below the county's, and a four-year degree is held by fewer adults than in many places. Winters are cold, with highs near freezing in January and only light snow, while summers are warm and the year is wet.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing and professional and business services also employing a good share. Among the largest workplaces in Sparta are White County Schools, Walmart and Saint Thomas Highland Hospital. Commutes are short, and the job count across White County has slipped slightly over the past year.
Things to do. The Calfkiller River is a short drive away and suits time on the water. Farther out, Burgess Falls is one of the best-known waterfalls in the area, and Fall Creek Falls is another waterfall worth the longer drive. Cane Creek Falls is a further waterfall for those who like a day among the creeks and cascades.
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- 2,159households
- 19%of adults have a degree
- 14%below the poverty line
- 17 mintypical commute
- 9%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. White County had 7,059 jobs in 2025, 1.4% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 47° and lows near 28°; warmest in July, with highs near 88° and lows near 67°. About 5 inches of snow and 59 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Sparta Wastewater Plant weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Sparta
- White County SchoolsSchool district615FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters284
- UPSCouriers and express delivery services131
- BASF Engineering Plastics CompoundingThermoplastic resins and plastics materials manufacturing116
- Saint Thomas Highland HospitalGeneral hospital75FTE
- EcmdWarehousing and storage, general merchandise66
- White Farmers CooperativePesticides, agricultural, merchant wholesalers48
- SpartaMail and parcel delivery44
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 8 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 868 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
- Winter weatherVery high
- Strong windVery high
- LightningVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Sparta’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively high. 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 White County.
Sparta home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Sparta$279,597
- Tennessee$330,844
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Sparta listings, and the typical home goes pending in 57 days — 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.
- Sparta31.70%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Sparta57
- United States24
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Sparta149
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Sparta32
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Sparta$270,806
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Sparta96.94%
Zip codes with a Sparta address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Sparta — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.