States · Florida · Polk County

Babson Park, Florida.

Typical home $228,016 (-0.6% in a year). Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL metro.

What it costs per month · Babson Park $1,197/mo

to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$657 (+122%) since Jan 2020.

What the home itself did
1 year
Down $1,383 -1%
$229,399$228,016 since Sep 2025
5 years
Up $43,007 +23%
$185,008$228,016 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.

$500 $1,000 $1,500 $2,000 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022 2026 Babson Park $1,197 Florida $1,970 United States $1,922
$500 $1,000 $1,500 $2,000 2002 2010 2018 2026
  • Babson Park$1,197
  • Florida$1,970
  • United States$1,922

At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 17 years.

Typical home values in Babson Park, FL fell 0.6% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.

Living in Babson Park, Polk County, Florida

Babson Park, in Polk County, had 1,330 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $48,177 a year and half less, against $65,978 across Polk County. 96% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 4% are rented. Unemployment in Polk County was 5.6% in August 2026, and the county had 1.7% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Polk County work in schools and health care, then shops.

People 1,330 in the 2020 census
Household income $48,177 the median, give or take $7,902 · Polk County: $65,978
Unemployment 5.6% Polk County, August 2026; 5.3% a year before
Homes 96% lived in by their owners; 4% rented

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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Babson Park is a small community in Polk County, Florida, where nearly everyone lives in a home they own. Incomes here run below the county's, and few adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are mild and summers are hot, with plenty of rain through the year and almost no snow.

Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, and in professional and business services. Few people work from home. Across Polk County, some of the biggest employers are Polk Schools, Lakeland Regional MED CTR and Publix Supermarkets, and the county has added jobs over the past year.

Things to do. Lake Easy and Crooked Lake lie in or beside town, and Lake Moody is a short drive away. Bok Tower Gardens, a botanical garden, and Lake Wales Ridge State Forest are also a short drive away. Legoland Florida, an amusement park, is a longer drive.

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  • 6%of adults have a degree
  • 3%work from home

What people in Polk County work in

  • Schools, hospitals and social care19%
  • Shops (retail)14%
  • Restaurants, hotels and entertainment14%
  • Professional and business services11%
  • Building trades8%
  • Transport, warehouses and utilities8%

Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Polk County had 264,981 jobs in 2025, 1.7% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).

Weather through the year

Average daily high and low for each month: coldest in January, 75° and 50°; warmest in July, 93° and 72° 50° 60° 70° 80° 90° 100° J 75° 50° F M A M J J 93° 72° A S O N D
Average daily high and low for each month: coldest in January, 75° and 50°; warmest in July, 93° and 72° 50° 60° 70° 80° 90° 100° J 75° 50° F M A M J J 93° 72° A S O N D

Coldest in January, with highs near 75° and lows near 50°; warmest in July, with highs near 93° and lows near 72°. About 53 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.

Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Mountain Lake weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).

Largest employers in Polk County

  1. Publix Super Markets16,537
  2. Polk County School Board13,500
  3. Lakeland Regional Health8,279
  4. Walmart5,523
  5. Amazon5,500
  6. Polk County Government5,262
  7. Baycare3,402
  8. Geico2,941

From Polk County’s annual financial report for 2025, its schedule of principal employers (its source: “Central Florida Development Council; Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, Labor Market Statistics Center”), as Florida’s Auditor General publishes it: the report. Employees as the report counts them.

Natural hazards

  1. Strong windRelatively high
  2. HurricanesRelatively high
  3. Cold wavesRelatively high
  4. DroughtRelatively moderate
  5. WildfireRelatively moderate
  6. LightningRelatively moderate

FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Babson Park’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 Polk County and the Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL metro.

Babson Park home values

Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.

$200,000 $300,000 $400,000 2018 2020 2022 2024 2026 Babson Park $228,016 Florida $375,361 United States $366,157
$200,000 $300,000 $400,000 2018 2022 2026
  • Babson Park$228,016
  • Florida$375,361
  • 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.

JFMAMJJASOND
2026
2025
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
falling flat warming hot overheating runaway

Market heat, inside the city limits

Homes for sale

Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.

4 6 8 2026 Babson Park 8
4 6 8 2026
  • Babson Park8

Zip codes with a Babson Park address

A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Babson Park — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.

Zillow publishes no zip-level series with this city on the address.