Wendell, North Carolina.
Typical home $365,931 (-1.4% in a year), asking rent $1,802 (-2.5%). Raleigh-Cary, NC metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,024 (+114%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $5,026 -1%
- $370,957$365,931 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $50,615 +16%
- $315,315$365,931 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.
- Wendell$1,921
- North Carolina$1,743
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 23 years.
Typical home values in Wendell, NC fell 1.4% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Wendell, NC fell 2.5% over the past year — slower than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Wendell runs $726/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $895 in May 2024.
That is $2,528 a month against $1,802 rent: a $1,921 mortgage payment, plus $216 property tax and $392 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Wendell
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$2,528
- Renting$1,802
- Mortgage only$1,921
Property tax · $216/mo 0.71% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Wake County, NC
Insurance & upkeep · $392/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 Wendell, Wake County, North Carolina
Wendell is a town of 9,793 people in Wake County. Half its households earn more than $95,787 a year and half less, against $105,768 across Wake County; 3% of its people live below the poverty line. 78% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 22% are rented. Unemployment in Wake County was 3.1% in August 2026, and the county had 1.9% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then construction.
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. Wendell is a small town in Wake County, with a population that skews younger than many places older homeowners might compare it to. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and few residents live below the poverty line. Household incomes run a little below the county's, and a good share of adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cool, with January the coldest month and lows that dip below freezing, while summers are hot, and the year brings a fair amount of rain.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, the building trades, professional and business services, and restaurants and hotels. Among the largest workplaces in Wendell are Daedong-USA, a farm machinery wholesaler, Publix Super Markets, and Micro-Measurements Wendell, which makes electronic resistors. Commutes are fairly long, and a good number of people work from home. Jobs across Wake County grew over the past year, and unemployment there has eased slightly.
Things to do. For time outdoors, Falls Lake is a large reservoir, and William B. Umstead State Park is a protected area of woods and trails; both are a longer drive away. In the same direction, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences is a museum for a rainy day. Each of these is a longer drive from town.
Report a mistake
- 4,957households
- 38%of adults have a degree
- 3%below the poverty line
- 29 mintypical commute
- 26%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Wake County had 665,775 jobs in 2025, 1.9% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 53° and lows near 31°; warmest in July, with highs near 90° and lows near 70°. About 50 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Clayton 3E weather station, 11 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Wendell
- Daedong-USAFarm machinery and equipment merchant wholesalers224
- Publix Super MarketsSupermarkets and other grocery stores177
- Micro-Measurements WendellResistors, electronic, manufacturing135
- Food LionGrocery stores74
- 8 Star LogisticsLocal letter and parcel delivery services50
- Cardinal Charter Acad at Wendell Falls SchoolsSchool district44FTE
- WendellMail and parcel delivery38
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 6 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 698 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
- HailRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Wendell’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 Wake County and the Raleigh-Cary, NC metro.
Wendell home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Wendell$365,931
- North Carolina$332,159
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 2 Wendell listings, and the typical home goes pending in 41 days — 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.
- Wendell40.40%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Wendell41
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Wendell135
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Wendell38
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Wendell$359,863
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Wendell98.04%
Zip codes with a Wendell address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Wendell — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.