Counties / North Carolina / Graham County

Graham County, NC

FIPS 37075 · population 8,072 · outside every metro area

$232k
Zillow home value · 2026-06
The numbers

What this county costs and earns

Everything here joins on the county FIPS code, so each figure comes from the agency that publishes it with no name matching in between.

Zillow home value
$232k
▲ 0.5% year over year
Zillow ZHVI · direct
ACS median gross rent
$676
occupied-unit survey; not current asking rent
Census ACS · surveyed
Gross yield
n/a
gross yield cannot be computed without measured market rent
requires both measured price and measured rent
HUD 2-bed standard
$925
the Section 8 payment standard
HUD Fair Market Rent · direct
Independent price check

Do two methods point the same way?

Zillow estimates a current home value. FHFA tracks repeat mortgage transactions. Their growth rates should be read side by side, not averaged.

Both annual signals move in the same direction
FHFA five-year cumulative+49.0%not annualized · through 2025
0%ZILLOW ZHVI2026-06+0.5%FHFA HPI2025+0.9%
Annual changes use different methods and may use different periods. The comparison checks direction and magnitude; it does not create a blended estimate. Zillow county ZHVI pulled 2026-07-26; FHFA annual county HPI pulled 2026-07-28.
Owner-reported value$171k
Surveyed gross rent$676
Rent burden 30%+48.5%
Median year built1989
Housing composition

Who occupies the stock—and what it is

ACS 2024 5-year
32.8%vacant
5,240estimated housing units
Occupied tenure19.3% renter
owner 80.7%renter 19.3%
Structure mix69.7% single-family
Single-family 69.7%20+ units 1.8%Mobile home 25.7%Other 2.8%
ACS estimates describe the standing housing stock and occupied tenure. They do not measure current listings, transaction prices or asking rents.

Survey source: Census ACS 5-year — county housing value, tenure and stock · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30. These values describe different housing universes and are not combined into gross yield.

Annual average covered jobs1,953▼ 2.9% from the prior annual release
Covered establishments224annual average reporting locations
Average weekly wage$979▲ 4.5% from the prior annual release
Largest private supersectorConstruction30.8% of disclosed private covered jobs
Local labor base

Jobs, pay and private-sector concentration

2025
0%COVERED JOBS−2.9%WEEKLY WAGE+4.5%Construction30.8%
Annual QCEW counts cover jobs located at reporting establishments. The industry share uses disclosed private covered employment; it is not a resident-employment measure or a forecast.

Workplace source: BLS QCEW — county employment and wages · annual county employment and wages 2025 vs 2024 · pulled 2026-07-31. QCEW counts covered jobs located in the county, not employed residents or the metro score’s CES/LAUS series.

County brief

What the local evidence says

01Decision frame

Graham County’s decision tension is a positive price record without published income-return evidence; yield-dependent buyers should be cautious, while buyers able to verify local rent and flood exposure should investigate. The June 2026 Zillow county median home value was $232,232, up 0.48% year over year. Separately, the 2025 FHFA repeat-transaction HPI rose 0.87% year over year and 48.98% cumulatively over five years. The HPI is not a home value, and its vintage and method cannot be combined with Zillow into one appreciation rate.

02Housing economics

Market rent is not published, so gross yield cannot be calculated. HUD’s two-bedroom Fair Market Rent is $925 per month, a payment standard rather than an estimate of asking rent, and cannot fill that gap. This leaves the price-to-rent relationship untested while the effective property-tax rate is 0.57%, with median annual property tax of $979; these county measures do not establish a subject property’s bill. Modeled climate loss equals 0.23% of building value per year, consistent with inland flood as the dominant hazard, but it is not an address-level insurance or damage estimate.

03Demand & competition

In 2025, QCEW recorded 1,953 annual average covered jobs at workplaces in the county, down 2.88% from its prior annual average. Construction was the largest disclosed private supersector, not a description of the whole economy. Net migration was two tax-return households; incoming movers’ average income was a calculated $4,372 below outgoing movers’ average. Investor purchases were eight of 75 total purchases, or 10.67%; that participation indicates some non-owner competition but does not prove broad buyer demand or pricing power.

04Risk & next checks

The record has no published Realtor.com MLS listing price, active-listing, days-on-market, price-reduction, or pending evidence for its June 2026 inventory label; visible supply, marketing time, and seller concessions therefore cannot be assessed. Missing market-rent comparables and vacancy information prevent income underwriting beyond the statement that yield is uncomputable. Next checks are address-level flood mapping and insurance quotes, lease and rent comparables, operating costs, and transaction-level sales evidence; county averages cannot resolve property condition, coverage, or a feasible rent-to-cost relationship.

Cities & communities

Where people live within Graham County

Census-recognized incorporated places and CDPs that intersect this county. The list does not pretend to include every neighborhood or informal community.

Population scale

Largest Census places

ACS 2024 5-year
Robbinsville town577Lake Santeetlah town82Fontana Dam town0
Bars use total place population, not a county-share estimate. An asterisk marks a place that crosses a county line.
Official directory

3 Census places

Population
  1. 01
    Robbinsville townIncorporated place
    577
  2. 02
    Lake Santeetlah townIncorporated place
    82
  3. 03
    Fontana Dam townIncorporated place
    0

Population is the total place-wide ACS estimate, not an allocated county share. A place crossing a county line is labelled explicitly. Source: Census ACS 5-year — cities and communities · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30.

Risk, demand and competition

The three things a price does not tell you

01
Risk & carrying costFEMA NRI + Census ACS
Dominant hazardinland flooding

0.235% of building value expected lost per year

Effective property tax0.57%

$979 median annual bill

02
DemandIRS SOI household flows
Net migration+2

131 in · 129 out

Arriving vs leaving income−$4,372

$52,985 arriving · $57,357 leaving

03
CompetitionHMDA financed purchases
Purchases by investors10.7%

8 of 75 mortgages

investorother financed
No rent index is published for this county.Zillow’s county rent series does not cover every county, and estimating one from a neighbouring county would be a guess wearing a number’s clothes. Everything above is measured here; no wider market is mapped for it either.
Bear case

What can break the county thesis

  1. Unpublished market rents and vacancy could reveal insufficient income relative to price and carrying costs.
  2. Address-level inland-flood exposure or insurance terms could differ materially from the county modeled-loss measure.
  3. Unavailable MLS and transaction evidence could reveal weaker demand or greater seller concessions than county price indicators suggest.
Underwriting questions

Before pricing a property

Can gross yield be calculated from this record?

No. Market rent is not published, and HUD Fair Market Rent cannot substitute for market asking rent.

Are the Zillow value and FHFA HPI observations the same measure or period?

No. Zillow is a county median home value observation, while FHFA is a repeat-transaction index with a separately labeled annual period.

Does the record provide MLS supply and seller-concession evidence?

No. Realtor.com listing price, active listings, days on market, price reductions, and pending evidence are not published.