Vale, North Carolina.
Typical home $289,898 (+4.2% in a year). Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$916 (+151%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $11,807 +4%
- $278,091$289,898 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $78,327 +37%
- $211,572$289,898 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.
- Vale$1,522
- North Carolina$1,743
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 11 years.
Typical home values in Vale, NC rose 4.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Vale, Lincoln County, North Carolina
The Census does not count Vale on its own, so the figures here are Lincoln County's. Half the county's households earn more than $80,016 a year and half less; 11% 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 Lincoln County was 3.3% in August 2026, and the county had 2.5% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Lincoln 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Vale is a town in Lincoln County, in the Piedmont of North Carolina, where residents are older on average than the country as a whole. Winters are colder than in most of the country, with January the coldest month, while July brings the year's warmest days. Rain and melted snow fall generously through the year, so the countryside stays green and the weather is worth dressing for in every season.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, or in manufacturing, retail and professional and business services. Joblessness across Lincoln County has eased lately, and employment has edged upward. Fewer adults hold a degree than in the country overall, and most people drive to work, with relatively few working from home.
Things to do. Those who enjoy the outdoors can visit High Shoals Falls, a waterfall a longer drive away, or South Mountains State Park, a protected area also a longer drive away. For a day on the water, Lake Norman, a reservoir, is another option at a longer drive. Hickory Museum of Art, a museum, offers indoor visits for wetter or colder days.
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- 36,811households
- 44.4median age
- 28%of adults have a degree
- 11%below the poverty line
- 29 mintypical commute
- 14%work from home
What people in Lincoln County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Lincoln County had 28,818 jobs in 2025, 2.5% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 50° and lows near 27°; warmest in July, with highs near 88° and lows near 66°. About 51 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Vale Ag Southwest weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Lincoln County
- Lincoln County SchoolsSchool district1,387FTE
- The Timken Company603
- Atrium Health LincolnGeneral hospital524FTE
- Robert Bosch ToolMetal cutting saw blades manufacturing491
- BlumCabinet hardware, metal, manufacturing478
- LeeBoyGraders, road, manufacturing438
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters386
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters342
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 60 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 7,397 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
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Lincoln 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 Lincoln County and the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC metro.
Vale home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Vale$289,898
- North Carolina$332,159
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Vale listings — 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.
- Vale21.86%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Vale31
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Vale9
Zip codes with a Vale address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Vale — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.