ZIP 28901 Foreclosure, Tax-Lien & Distress Report

Cherokee County, North Carolina's ZIP 28901 registers 28/100 composite distress, which DLRadar reads as low. It additionally carries heavy environmental risk: FEMA disaster exposure (88/100), flood (NFIP) exposure (84/100). The most distinctive pressure shows up in institutional ownership (66/100), structural risk (63/100), construction/permit lag (47/100). By contrast, mortgage stress (29/100) register low. Structural exposure scores 63 and live distress 9 on the 0–100 scale.

The market reads expansion — home values rose 5.5% year on year, and 29% higher over three years, at 30/100 phase confidence. Appreciation rarely lifts every parcel — the laggards are the opportunity.

Vacancy runs 20.7%, above the national norm and a classic distress-and-opportunity signal. Home values center near $158,200, an affordability ratio of 4.3×. 17.8% of residents fall below the poverty threshold. Owners hold 81% of homes, renters 19%. Median household income is $39,299, below the U.S. median near $78,000. Educational attainment sits at 22% bachelor's-or-above. About 5,624 people live here, median age 48. Rent burden reaches 25% of tenant households. There are about 3,289 housing units across 28901. DLRadar's demographic-stress index for the area reads 32/100.

Net-net, 28901 is a working-distress ZIP — the kind that rewards current, parcel-level intelligence. Every signal above traces to a verifiable public dataset, refreshed continuously and scored the same way in every ZIP nationwide.