Athena, Oregon.
Typical home $283,790 (+2.4% in a year). Hermiston-Pendleton, OR metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$847 (+132%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $6,654 +2%
- $277,136$283,790 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $62,241 +28%
- $221,550$283,790 since Sep 2021
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.
- Athena$1,490
- Oregon$2,586
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 14 years.
Typical home values in Athena, OR rose 2.4% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Athena, Umatilla County, Oregon
Athena is a city of 1,209 people in Umatilla County. Half its households earn more than $71,898 a year and half less, against $67,728 across Umatilla County; 9% of its people live below the poverty line. 79% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 21% are rented. Unemployment in Umatilla County was 5.1% in August 2026, and the county had 0.2% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Umatilla County 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Athena is a small city in Umatilla County, and most people there own the homes they live in. Household incomes run a little above the county's, and fewer residents live below the poverty line than in many places. Winters are cold, with some snow, and summers turn hot and dry enough to feel properly warm by July.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with others in shops, manufacturing, and restaurants and hotels. Across Umatilla County, some of the largest workplaces are Hermiston SD 8, Good Shepherd Medical Center and Lamb Weston. The typical commute is short, and a good number of people work from home.
Things to do. For time outdoors, Umatilla National Forest is a protected area and the Walla Walla River runs through the region, both a longer drive away. History is close by in its own way: Whitman Mission National Historic Site is an archaeological site, also a longer drive away. Tamástslikt Cultural Institute, a museum, is another choice for a day out.
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- 531households
- 9%below the poverty line
- 19 mintypical commute
- 17%work from home
What people in Umatilla County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Umatilla County had 32,978 jobs in 2025, 0.2% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 42° and lows near 26°; warmest in July, with highs near 90° and lows near 52°. About 15 inches of snow and 17 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Pendleton Branch Experiment Station weather station, 9 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Umatilla County
- WalmartGeneral warehousing and storage1,064
- Hermiston SD 8School district714FTE
- Good Shepherd Medical CenterCritical access hospital691FTE
- Lamb WestonFrozen fruit, juice, and vegetable manufacturing557
- Mj's Labor ServicesLabor contractors, farm482
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters388
- Pendleton SD 16School district366FTE
- Umatilla CountyLegislative bodies325
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 83 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 8,191 people in all across the county; Athena has one of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); 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
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- WildfireRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Athena’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. 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 Umatilla County and the Hermiston-Pendleton, OR metro.
Athena home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Athena$283,790
- Oregon$492,753
- 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.
- Athena9
Zip codes with a Athena address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Athena — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.