Swain, New York.
Typical home $152,002 (+11.2% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$161 (+25%) since Jan 2024.
- 1 year
- Up $15,273 +11%
- $136,729$152,002 since Sep 2025
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.
- Swain$798
- New York$2,755
- United States$1,922
Typical home values in Swain, NY rose 11.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Swain, Allegany County, New York
The Census does not count Swain on its own, so the figures here are Allegany County's. Half the county's households earn more than $62,869 a year and half less; 16% of the county's people live below the poverty line. 79% of the county's homes are lived in by their owners and 21% are rented. Unemployment in Allegany County was 5.0% in August 2026, and the county had 0.2% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Allegany County work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
Written by AI Claude Haiku 5.5 wrote this on 22 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Swain is a rural town in Allegany County, in the Southern Tier of western New York. Across the county, most homes are lived in by their owners, and many households have modest incomes. A notable share of people live below the poverty line, and the median age is a little older than a young town's would be.
Work. Residents across Allegany County tend to work in schools, hospitals and social care, in manufacturing, and in shops and restaurants. Unemployment has edged up a little over the past year, and the number of jobs in the county has dipped slightly. Working from home is uncommon, and a minority of adults hold a four-year degree.
Things to do. Letchworth State Park, a protected area a longer drive away, is one of the best known places in the region. Wiscoy Creek, a river a short drive away, offers a quieter outing nearby. Conesus Lake, a lake a longer drive away, is another option for a day trip.
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- 17,710households
- 38.7median age
- 25%of adults have a degree
- 16%below the poverty line
- 23 mintypical commute
- 9%work from home
What people in Allegany County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Allegany County had 13,544 jobs in 2025, 0.2% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 35° and lows near 17°; warmest in July, with highs near 83° and lows near 60°. About 36 inches of snow and 31 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Dansville weather station, 11 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Allegany County
- SUNY College of Technology at AlfredUniversity or college643
- Alfred UniversityUniversity or college608
- Otis Minnesota ServicesOil pipeline construction556
- Saputo Cheese USACheese manufacturing380
- HrncSkilled nursing facilities338
- Jones Memorial HospitalGeneral hospital304FTE
- Wellsville Central School DistrictSchool district285FTE
- Arvos LjungstromPlate work, fabricated metal, manufacturing271
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 20 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,442 people in all. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24), hospitals 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
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Allegany County, 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 Allegany County.
Swain home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Swain$152,002
- New York$524,942
- United States$366,157
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.
Zip codes with a Swain address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Swain — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.