West Union, South Carolina.
Typical home $350,946 (+2.5% in a year). Seneca, SC metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,100 (+148%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $8,695 +3%
- $342,251$350,946 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $82,983 +31%
- $267,963$350,946 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.
- West Union$1,842
- South Carolina$1,597
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in West Union, SC rose 2.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in West Union, Oconee County, South Carolina
West Union is a town of 374 people in Oconee County. Half its households earn more than $48,393 a year and half less, against $62,388 across Oconee County; 6% of its people live below the poverty line. Unemployment in Oconee County was 4.2% in August 2026, and the county had 1.8% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Oconee County work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. West Union is a very small town in Oconee County, in the foothills of upstate South Carolina. Household incomes here are below the county's, and the typical home is valued well above what the town's incomes might suggest. Winters are mild and cool, with only a dusting of snow in most years, summers run hot, and rain and melted snow are plentiful across the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with many others in manufacturing, professional and business services, and restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Across Oconee County, some of the largest workplaces are Oconee 01 Schools, Duke Energy and Oconee Memorial Hospital. Few people work from home, and the typical commute is a moderate drive.
Things to do. Issaqueena Falls, a waterfall, and Lake Keowee, a lake, are both a short drive away. A longer drive leads to Upper Whitewater Falls, another waterfall, and to Memorial Stadium in Clemson, the home of Clemson football.
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- 15%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 24 mintypical commute
- 2%work from home
What people in Oconee County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Oconee County had 25,929 jobs in 2025, 1.8% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 52° and lows near 29°; warmest in July, with highs near 88° and lows near 66°. About 2 inches of snow and 61 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Walhalla weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Oconee County
- Oconee 01 SchoolsSchool district1,721FTE
- Duke EnergyNuclear electric power generation1,037
- Oconee Memorial HospitalGeneral hospital667FTE
- Schneider ElectricArmature relays manufacturing640
- Oconee County GovernmentGeneral services departments, government583
- BASF MetalsPrecious metals recovering from scrap and/or alloying purchased metals359
- Jtekt Bearings North AmercaRaces, ball or roller bearings, manufacturing350
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters335
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 51 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 8,557 people in all across the county; West Union has one of its own. 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
- Cold wavesVery high
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
- Lightningrelatively high in parts of West UnionRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in West Union’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 Oconee County and the Seneca, SC metro.
West Union home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- West Union$350,946
- South Carolina$304,319
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 West Union 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.
- West Union26.80%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- West Union33
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- West Union5
Zip codes with a West Union address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls West Union — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.