Stoop & Kin

Leslie County, Kentucky

What farmland and houses are worth here, from the public figures, and where to look next.

Farmland and its buildings in Leslie County averaged $1,450 an acre in the 2022 Census of Agriculture: the cheapest of the 120 counties in Kentucky, 71% below the Kentucky average in the same census ($4,929).

In the 2017 census it was $3,820 an acre, so the average has fallen 62% in five years.

That average rests on only 23 farms, so a single large sale moves it a long way. Read it as rough.

Leslie County in figures
Farmland and buildings, an acre, 2022 $1,450
The same, 2017 $3,820 -62%
Farms counted, 2022 23 (26 in 2017)
Average farm 1,169 acres
Share of the county that is farmland 10.5%
Median value of an owner-occupied home $69,000 ± $14,000

The farm figure is land and buildings together, averaged over every farm in the county, from the largest ranch to the smallest holding. It is for comparing one county with another, not a price for any parcel: a few acres with road frontage usually costs more an acre than the average, not less. The home value comes from a survey that reaches few homes here, so its margin of error is wide.

Source: USDA, 2022 Census of Agriculture, Kentucky county data, Table 8; Census Bureau, ACS 2020–2024, table B25077

Living here: tax, internet and hazards

Homeowners in Leslie County paid a median $563 a year in property tax, about 0.8% of the median home value. What a particular parcel pays depends on its exemptions and on whether it is taxed as farmland: see how Kentucky taxes farmland, and ask the county assessor what the parcel paid last year.

74.5% of the 4,231 households here pay for cable, fiber or DSL internet. That is what people subscribe to, not what reaches a given road: the FCC's broadband map shows what is offered at an address, and it is worth checking before you count on working from home.

FEMA National Risk Index ratings for Leslie County
HazardFEMA risk rating
Inland flooding Relatively Low
Coastal flooding Does not occur here
Wildfire Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Hail Very Low
Drought Not rated
Hurricane Very Low

FEMA rates none of these as a relatively high risk here. Its ratings compare counties across the country and weigh how much property there is to lose, so a thinly settled county can rate low even where the hazard itself is common. For a particular parcel, look it up on FEMA's flood maps before you buy.

Source: Census Bureau, ACS 2020–2024, table B25103; Census Bureau, ACS 2020–2024, table B28002; FEMA, National Risk Index, December 2025

For sale now

Only 4 homes were listed for sale in Leslie County on Realtor.com in September 2026, too few for a typical asking price to mean anything, so this page does not give one. With this little online, look through the channels that never reach a listing site.

Houses listed on one website, at the price asked: not land, and not what anything sold for.

Source: Realtor.com, Residential listings data, monthly inventory by county, September 2026

Next door

The counties that share a border with Leslie County, cheapest farmland first.

Neighbouring counties
countyFarmland an acre Median home
Perry County $2,578 $91,800
Bell County $2,647 $89,000
Harlan County $2,816 $73,700
Clay County $2,956 $90,700

Buying land here: the Kentucky rules

Unpaid tax bills are sold as certificates at 12 percent, and a farm nobody farms keeps its farm tax only until it is sold.

Each links to the Kentucky guide, where every fact cites the statute or agency page it came from.

The county research checklist

One email. The twelve things to check on a rural parcel before you make an offer, in the order that costs least to find out — and the four that should stop a purchase outright. Then we leave you alone until there is something genuinely worth sending.

No charge, no account. Unsubscribe with one click, and we never pass your address to an agent, a lender or anybody else — there is nobody we would pass it to.