Adams, New York.
Typical home $221,710 (+3.7% in a year). Watertown-Fort Drum, NY metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$16 (+1%) since Nov 2023.
- 1 year
- Up $7,814 +4%
- $213,896$221,710 since Sep 2025
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Adams$1,164
- New York$2,755
- United States$1,922
Typical home values in Adams, NY rose 3.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Adams, Jefferson County, New York
Adams is a village of 1,633 people in Jefferson County. Half its households earn more than $64,432 a year and half less, against $66,301 across Jefferson County; 9% of its people live below the poverty line. 60% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 40% are rented. Unemployment in Jefferson County was 4.2% in August 2026, and the county had 0.6% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then shops.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Adams is a small village in Jefferson County, with a population that is a bit older than the typical American community. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and household incomes run a little below the county's. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, and summers are mild and pleasant by comparison, with a good deal of rain and melted snow across the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by shops, restaurants and hotels, and professional and business services. Across Jefferson County, some of the largest workplaces are Samaritan Medical Center, the Indian River Central School District and the Carthage Central School District. Unemployment across the county is close to where it stood a year ago, and a share of residents work from home.
Things to do. Westcott Beach State Park, a protected area, and Crystal Lake are both a short drive away, which makes them easy choices for time outdoors. Black Pond Wildlife Management Area is also a short drive away for those who like quiet walks and watching wildlife. For a longer outing, Thompson Park is a longer drive away.
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- 671households
- 31%of adults have a degree
- 9%below the poverty line
- 13%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Jefferson County had 40,563 jobs in 2025, 0.6% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 30° and lows near 10°; warmest in July, with highs near 79° and lows near 59°. About 37 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Watertown International Airport weather station, 13 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Jefferson County
- Samaritan Medical CenterGeneral hospital1,581FTE
- Indian River Central School DistrictSchool district770FTE
- Carthage Central School DistrictSchool district679FTE
- The Arc Jefferson-St LawrenceGroup homes, intellectual and developmental disability678
- Watertown City School DistrictSchool district637FTE
- Car-freshnerAirfreshners manufacturing490
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters381
- Carthage Area HospitalCritical access hospital367FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 75 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 9,661 people in all across the county; Adams has one of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Adams’ census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively low. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Jefferson County and the Watertown-Fort Drum, NY metro.
Adams home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Adams$221,710
- New York$524,942
- United States$366,157
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Adams15
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Adams address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Adams — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.