Starkville, Mississippi.
Typical home $287,767 (+4.5% in a year), asking rent $1,414 (+3.4%). Starkville, MS metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$758 (+101%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $12,314 +4%
- $275,453$287,767 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $56,757 +25%
- $231,010$287,767 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.
- Starkville$1,510
- Mississippi$1,021
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 16 years.
Typical home values in Starkville, MS rose 4.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Starkville, MS rose 3.4% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Starkville runs $575/mo more than renting one — the widest that gap has been in this data.
That is $1,989 a month against $1,414 rent: a $1,510 mortgage payment, plus $171 property tax and $308 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Starkville
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$1,989
- Renting$1,414
- Mortgage only$1,510
Property tax · $171/mo 0.71% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Oktibbeha County, MS
Insurance & upkeep · $308/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Starkville, Oktibbeha County, Mississippi
Starkville is a city of 24,360 people in Oktibbeha County. Half its households earn more than $42,125 a year and half less, against $46,695 across Oktibbeha County; 31% of its people live below the poverty line. 34% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 66% are rented. Unemployment in Starkville was 2.7% in August 2026, and Oktibbeha County had 0.9% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then shops.
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. Starkville is a college-town city, and it is a young one: residents are far younger than in most of the country, and a four-year degree is common among adults. Most homes are rented rather than lived in by their owners, and household incomes run below the county's, with a good many residents living below the poverty line. Winters are mild and almost snow-free, while summers are hot and the year brings plenty of rain.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by shops, manufacturing, and restaurants, hotels and entertainment. The largest workplaces in town include the Starkville-Oktibbeha school district, Walmart and Southwire. The typical commute is short, and unemployment has eased over the past year.
Things to do. Davis Wade Stadium and Dudy Noble Field, Polk-DeMent Stadium, a football stadium and a ballpark, are in or beside town. A short drive away are Biba Wila Creek and By-Wy Creek, streams for a quiet afternoon outdoors. A longer drive leads to Sam D. Hamilton Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge, a protected area of wetlands and woods.
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- 12,004households
- 50%of adults have a degree
- 31%below the poverty line
- 20 mintypical commute
- 7%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Oktibbeha County had 20,613 jobs in 2025, 0.9% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 54° and lows near 33°; warmest in July, with highs near 92° and lows near 72°. About 58 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the State Univ weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Starkville
- Starkville- Oktibbeha Cons Dist SchoolsSchool district850FTE
- Clark Beverage Group Inc. (MS)Beverages, alcoholic, merchant wholesalers661
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters338
- SouthwireCopper rolling, drawing, extruding, and alloying292
- Kroger Delta KMASupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores181
- Weavexx, LLC (Andritz)Weaving broadwoven felts163
- Ascent Healthcare ManagementHomes for the elderly with nursing care135
- Lowe's Companies, INCHomecenter125
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 14 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,315 people in all. 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
- LightningRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesrelatively high in parts of StarkvilleRelatively moderate
- Strong windrelatively high in parts of StarkvilleRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Starkville’s census tracts, 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 Oktibbeha County and the Starkville, MS metro.
Starkville home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Starkville$287,767
- Mississippi$194,531
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Starkville listings, and the typical home goes pending in 20 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.
- Starkville23.80%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Starkville20
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Starkville195
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Starkville46
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Starkville$339,713
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Starkville96.69%
Zip codes with a Starkville address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Starkville — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.