Ava, Missouri.
Typical home $229,225 (+7.2% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$772 (+179%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $15,321 +7%
- $213,904$229,225 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $71,854 +46%
- $157,371$229,225 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.
- Ava$1,203
- Missouri$1,393
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 9 years.
Typical home values in Ava, MO rose 7.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Ava, Douglas County, Missouri
Ava is a city of 2,894 people in Douglas County. 55% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 45% are rented. Unemployment in Douglas County was 4.3% in August 2026, and the county had 3.8% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Douglas County work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Ava is a small city and the county seat of Douglas County, in the Missouri Ozarks. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and typical home values sit at a modest level. Incomes are on the low side and more households live below the poverty line than is true for the country as a whole. Few adults hold a four-year degree.
Work. Most residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops and the building trades also employing many. Among the largest workplaces in Ava are AVA R-I Schools, Preferred Family Healthcare and the Forest Service. Jobs across Douglas County have slipped over the past year, and unemployment in the county is a little lower than it was a year earlier. Commutes are short, and few people work from home.
Things to do. The area is mostly about water and woods. Casto Creek, Cowskin Creek and Prairie Creek are all a short drive away, while the Gasconade River is a longer drive. Winters are cold, summers are warm, and the year brings a fair amount of rain and melted snow.
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- 1,116households
- 12%of adults have a degree
- 22%below the poverty line
- 19 mintypical commute
- 9%work from home
What people in Douglas County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Douglas County had 2,461 jobs in 2025, 3.8% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 44° and lows near 20°; warmest in July, with highs near 88° and lows near 65°. About 48 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Ava 6NW weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Ava
- AVA R-I SchoolsSchool district130FTE
- Preferred Family HealthcareRehabilitation job counseling and training, vocational91
- Forest ServiceFederal government · Department of Agriculture28
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 1 workplace with 20 or more staff, 91 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and federal offices from OPM's federal workforce data (2026); 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 stormsVery high
- Strong windVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Ava’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively high. 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 Douglas County.
Ava home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Ava$229,225
- Missouri$265,387
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 6 Ava listings — the market is heating up.
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
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Ava16.74%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Ava60
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Ava12
Zip codes with a Ava address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Ava — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.