Mississippi
Buying Land in Union County, Mississippi
County seat New Albany, in the north Mississippi hill country. Union County is genuinely notable on two fronts: it's the birthplace of Nobel laureate William Faulkner, and it's a real, still-growing manufacturing county built first on furniture and, since 2011, on a full Toyota assembly plant in Blue Springs. Here's what that means for land buyers, alongside the standard Mississippi zoning, septic, and water framework.
Faulkner's birthplace, and one of the real Yoknapatawpha counties
Union County's best-known claim is literary: William Faulkner, the Nobel Prize-winning novelist, was born in New Albany in September 1897, before his family relocated to Oxford in 1902 when he was five. The house where he was born was eventually torn down in 1953 to make way for a Presbyterian manse, but the Union County Historical Society purchased the historic property on Cleveland Street in 2019 and has worked to preserve its connection to Faulkner's life. Union County is also one of five real Mississippi counties -- alongside Tippah, Marshall, Panola, and Lafayette, all in the same north Mississippi hill-country region -- that Faulkner drew on to construct his fictional Yoknapatawpha County, the setting for most of his major novels.
That literary heritage is a genuine point of local identity and tourism, but it doesn't change the practical land-buying picture much on its own -- it's worth knowing mainly as context for the county's broader character and its connections to neighboring counties covered elsewhere in this research batch.
A furniture town that's since diversified into auto supply
Union County's more directly relevant distinctive fact for land buyers is economic: New Albany has a real, decades-deep manufacturing base, not just an agricultural one. Morris Futorian, credited locally as "the Father of the Furniture Industry in Mississippi," opened a New Albany factory in 1948 that started with just 55 employees; that beginning helped establish a furniture-manufacturing cluster that grew substantially through the mid-to-late twentieth century and remains part of the county's employment base today. More recently, that industrial base has diversified in a much bigger way than a single supplier plant: Toyota Motor Manufacturing Mississippi (TMMMS), Toyota's own vehicle-assembly plant, sits in Blue Springs within Union County. Toyota announced the plant in February 2007 to build the Highlander SUV, but construction was halted in December 2008 amid the global financial crisis when the main building was already about 90 percent complete; work resumed in June 2010 with production shifted to the Corolla, and the plant opened in October 2011. It now employs roughly 2,000 people directly, with another 1,700 people working at eight supplier plants across north Mississippi, and has a production capacity of about 170,000 vehicles a year.
For a land buyer, that mix matters: Union County is a more industrially diversified rural county than many of its neighbors in this research batch, which can mean more commercial and industrial-zoned land near New Albany and Blue Springs, more competition for skilled-trades labor and construction contractors, and a somewhat different growth trajectory than a county whose economy runs purely on row-crop agriculture or timber.
Zoning scope is not fully confirmed -- ask the County Administrator directly
Where this research pass could not reach a firm conclusion is the exact scope of Union County's zoning framework. The county's own site describes the County Administrator as having general supervision over "any and all zoning and building code ordinances adopted by the board of supervisors" -- phrasing that implies the Board of Supervisors has adopted at least some zoning or building-code ordinance, but doesn't confirm whether that amounts to a comprehensive countywide zoning map (the way Tate County, also in this research batch, clearly has) or something narrower, such as ordinances limited to specific unincorporated areas or particular use types (mobile-home placement, for instance, has been a documented subject of board amendments). Don't assume either a fully zoned or a fully unzoned county here -- call the County Administrator's office and ask directly what applies to your specific parcel.
Outside that open question, Union County follows Mississippi's standard statewide rules: septic systems are approved under the MSDH-administered Individual On-Site Wastewater Disposal System Law, with county health department staff handling site evaluations, and any well exceeding 20,000 gallons per day or surface-water withdrawal for irrigation-scale use needs to be checked against MDEQ's Office of Land and Water Resources permitting and reporting requirements.
Who to Call Before Buying Land in Union County
Direct WebFetch to unioncoms.com was blocked by a network egress restriction during this research pass -- confirm the current, specific scope of any zoning or building-code ordinance directly with the County Administrator before relying on this page.
Other
Union County Administrator
Confirming the current scope of any zoning or building-code ordinances adopted by the Board of Supervisors.
Septic / Onsite Wastewater
Union County Health Department
Septic site evaluation and permitting under the statewide MSDH standard.
Other
Union County Development Association
Current manufacturer and industrial-site information for New Albany and Blue Springs.
Recorder / Clerk / Land Records
Union County Chancery Clerk
Recorded deeds and title history for a specific parcel.
Want to know if this specific parcel actually works?
Tell us what you're looking at and we'll connect you with a local land specialist who can help you sanity-check it before you go further.
Get local guidanceSources
- New Albany, Miss. The Birthplace of William Faulkner — HottyToddy.com (accessed 2026-09)
- New Albany museum buys historic Faulkner site, community furnishes it — Yahoo News (Associated Press) (accessed 2026-09)
- Union County — Mississippi Encyclopedia (accessed 2026-09)
- manufacturers — Union County Development Association (accessed 2026-09)
- County Administrator - Union County, Mississippi — Union County, Mississippi (accessed 2026-09)
- Toyota Motor Manufacturing Mississippi — Toyota USA Newsroom (accessed 2026-09)
- Toyota Motor Manufacturing Mississippi — Wikipedia (accessed 2026-09)
Last reviewed 2026-09