Spencer, Tennessee.
Typical home $214,777 (-1.2% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$659 (+141%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $2,506 -1%
- $217,283$214,777 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $49,842 +30%
- $164,935$214,777 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.
- Spencer$1,127
- Tennessee$1,737
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Spencer, TN fell 1.2% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Spencer, Van Buren County, Tennessee
Spencer is a city of 1,462 people in Van Buren County. Half its households earn more than $46,705 a year and half less, against $54,931 across Van Buren County; 9% of its people live below the poverty line. 74% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 26% are rented. Unemployment in Van Buren County was 3.4% in August 2026, and the county had 5.5% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Van Buren County 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Spencer is the small seat of Van Buren County, and most homes in town are lived in by their owners. Household incomes run below the county's, and typical home values are modest. Few adults hold a four-year degree, and winters are cold while summers turn warm, with a good deal of rain and melted snow over the year.
Work. People in Spencer work mostly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, in government, and in restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Across Van Buren County, the largest workplaces are Van Buren County Schools and Acument Global Technologies, a maker of screws and other metal parts. Jobs across the county have dipped from the year before, and a typical commute is a moderate one, with only a small share of people working from home.
Things to do. Waterfalls are the draw in this part of Tennessee, and several are a short drive away, among them Cane Creek Falls and Rockhouse Falls. Fall Creek Falls State Park is also a short drive off, and the Calfkiller River is close by for time along the water. For a longer outing, Cumberland Caverns, a tourist attraction, is a longer drive away.
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- 658households
- 11%of adults have a degree
- 9%below the poverty line
- 25 mintypical commute
- 7%work from home
What people in Van Buren County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Van Buren County had 868 jobs in 2025, 5.5% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 46° and lows near 25°; warmest in July, with highs near 85° and lows near 62°. About 59 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Fall Creek Falls Sp weather station, 9 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Van Buren County
- Van Buren County SchoolsSchool district153FTE
- Acument Global TechnologiesScrews, metal, manufacturing82
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 1 workplace with 20 or more staff, 82 people in all across the county; Spencer has two of its own. School districts come 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
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Spencer’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 Van Buren County.
Spencer home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Spencer$214,777
- Tennessee$330,844
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 6 Spencer 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.
- Spencer17.27%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Spencer33
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Spencer5
Zip codes with a Spencer address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Spencer — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.