Forest Hills vs Sylva

A side-by-side comparison of Forest Hills and Sylva: population, income, housing, and more.

Forest Hills and Sylva are places in North Carolina. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Sylva has the higher population (2,600 vs 366 in Forest Hills). Forest Hills has the higher median household income ($86,250 vs $41,926 in Sylva). Since 2019, Forest Hills's population has grown faster (+20.4% vs -3.2%).

Population, income & housing

	Forest Hills	Sylva
Population	366	2,600
Median age	48.4 yrs	30.3 yrs
Median household income	$86,250	$41,926
Median home value	—	$195,500
Median gross rent	$853	$768
Housing units	250	1,272
Homeownership rate	58.9%	40.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	64.2%	34.4%
Unemployment rate	0.0%	13.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Forest Hills	Sylva
Population	304 → 366 (+20.4%)	2,687 → 2,600 (-3.2%)
Median household income	$69,286 → $86,250 (+24.5%)	$35,583 → $41,926 (+17.8%)
Median home value	—	$144,400 → $195,500 (+35.4%)
Median gross rent	$770 → $853 (+10.8%)	$697 → $768 (+10.2%)

Forest Hills

Population

304366

Median household income

$69,286$86,250

Median gross rent

$770$853

Sylva

Population

2,6872,600

Median household income

$35,583$41,926

Median home value

$144,400$195,500

Median gross rent

$697$768

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Forest Hills	Sylva
Under 5	1.1%	8.8%
5 to 17	7.4%	20.9%
18 to 24	24.3%	16.7%
25 to 34	9.3%	13.2%
35 to 44	3.8%	13.2%
45 to 54	17.8%	8.8%
55 to 64	7.4%	5.3%
65 to 74	6.0%	5.2%
75 and over	23.0%	7.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Forest Hills	Sylva
White (non-Hispanic)	80.9%	74.1%
Black or African American	0.3%	1.8%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	5.2%
Asian	0.0%	1.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.8%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.4%
Two or more races	12.8%	3.9%
Hispanic or Latino	5.2%	13.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Forest Hills	Sylva
No high school diploma	11.0%	18.7%
High school graduate	5.3%	27.8%
Some college or associate's	19.5%	19.1%
Bachelor's degree	17.9%	16.8%
Graduate or professional degree	46.3%	17.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Forest Hills	Sylva
Drove alone	74.5%	71.1%
Carpooled	11.0%	22.0%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	4.1%	2.1%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	10.3%	2.9%
Other means	0.0%	1.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Forest Hills	Sylva
1-unit, detached	63.2%	61.6%
1-unit, attached	1.2%	0.5%
2 to 4 units	18.0%	13.3%
5 to 19 units	6.0%	2.8%
20 or more units	1.6%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	10.0%	21.9%

Poverty & households

	Forest Hills	Sylva
Poverty rate	24.9%	26.6%
Average household size	1.63	2.38
Mean commute (minutes)	22	25
Median year structure built	1975	1974