States · Tennessee · Polk County

Turtletown, Tennessee.

Typical home $212,799 (+2.6% in a year). Cleveland, TN metro.

What it costs per month · Turtletown $1,117/mo

to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$586 (+110%) since Jan 2020.

What the home itself did
1 year
Up $5,375 +3%
$207,424$212,799 since Sep 2025
5 years
Up $30,854 +17%
$181,945$212,799 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.

$500 $1,000 $1,500 $2,000 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022 2026 Turtletown $1,117 Tennessee $1,737 United States $1,922
$500 $1,000 $1,500 $2,000 2002 2010 2018 2026
  • Turtletown$1,117
  • Tennessee$1,737
  • United States$1,922

At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 22 years.

Typical home values in Turtletown, TN rose 2.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.

Living in Turtletown, Polk County, Tennessee

The Census does not count Turtletown on its own, so the figures here are Polk County's. Half the county's households earn more than $62,522 a year and half less; 14% of the county's people live below the poverty line. 84% of the county's homes are lived in by their owners and 16% are rented. Unemployment in Polk County was 3.7% in August 2026, and the county had 3.4% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Polk County work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.

People 18,000 about, in Polk County: the Census does not count Turtletown on its own
Household income $62,522 the median in Polk County, give or take $6,119
Unemployment 3.7% Polk County, August 2026; 3.8% a year before
Homes 84% lived in by their owners; 16% rented

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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Turtletown sits in the hills of far southeastern Tennessee, close to the Georgia line, in a county where most homes are lived in by their owners. Incomes here are lower than the county's typical household income would suggest for many residents, and a notable share of people live below the poverty line. Winters are cool with only light snowfall, summers are hot, and the area is wetter than most of the country. Rain falls heavily through the year, so the ground stays green for much of the season.

Work. Most residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, manufacturing, shops, or professional and business services. Unemployment has eased slightly over the past year, though the county had fewer jobs last year than the year before. Few people work from home, and many commute by car for a while each day.

Things to do. The Chattahoochee–Oconee National Forest is a protected area of woods and mountains, a longer drive away. Nearby, the Nottely River is a river for those who like to be out on the water, also a longer drive away. Lake Blue Ridge, a reservoir a longer drive away, offers another place to spend a day outdoors.

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  • 7,424households
  • 46.9median age
  • 17%of adults have a degree
  • 14%below the poverty line
  • 31 mintypical commute
  • 8%work from home

What people in Polk County work in

  • Schools, hospitals and social care23%
  • Manufacturing18%
  • Shops (retail)11%
  • Professional and business services9%
  • Transport, warehouses and utilities8%
  • Building trades8%

Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Polk County had 2,666 jobs in 2025, 3.4% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).

Weather through the year

Average daily high and low for each month: coldest in January, 50° and 28°; warmest in July, 90° and 66° 20° 40° 60° 80° J 50° 28° F M A M J J 90° 66° A S O N D
Average daily high and low for each month: coldest in January, 50° and 28°; warmest in July, 90° and 66° 20° 40° 60° 80° J 50° 28° F M A M J J 90° 66° A S O N D

Coldest in January, with highs near 50° and lows near 28°; warmest in July, with highs near 90° and lows near 66°. About 3 inches of snow and 55 inches of rain and melted snow a year.

Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Tellico Plains weather station, 20 miles away (NOAA).

Largest workplaces in Polk County

  1. Polk County SchoolsSchool district339FTE
  2. K VA T Food StoresSupermarket141
  3. CG Roxane LLC Benton ASWSpring waters, purifying and bottling78
  4. Change Academy at lake of the OzarksMental health facilities, residential63
  5. DAC of CopperhillHomes for the aged with nursing care40
  6. Forest ServiceFederal government · Department of Agriculture32
  7. Ames Rubber Manufacturing Company, Inc. Tri-state DivisionExtruded, molded or lathe-cut rubber goods manufacturing27
  8. CG Roxane LLC Benton rPETPolyethylene terephathalate resins manufacturing21

Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 6 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 370 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and federal offices from OPM's federal workforce data (2026); 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

  1. LandslidesRelatively moderate
  2. Strong windRelatively moderate

FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Polk County, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very 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 Polk County and the Cleveland, TN metro.

Turtletown home values

Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.

$150,000 $200,000 $250,000 $300,000 $350,000 2018 2020 2022 2024 2026 Turtletown $212,799 Tennessee $330,844 United States $366,157
$150,000 $200,000 $250,000 $300,000 $350,000 2018 2022 2026
  • Turtletown$212,799
  • Tennessee$330,844
  • 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.

JFMAMJJASOND
2026
2025
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
falling flat warming hot overheating runaway

Market heat, inside the city limits

Homes for sale

Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.

5 10 15 20 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 Turtletown 7
5 10 15 20 2018 2022 2026
  • Turtletown7

Zip codes with a Turtletown address

A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Turtletown — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.

Zip codes in Turtletown