Beacon, New York.
Typical home $571,882 (+6.5% in a year), asking rent $2,645 (+11.0%). Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown, NY metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,796 (+149%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $34,972 +7%
- $536,910$571,882 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $159,128 +39%
- $412,753$571,882 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.
- Beacon$3,002
- New York$2,755
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 11 years.
Typical home values in Beacon, NY rose 6.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Beacon, NY rose 11.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Beacon runs $1,868/mo more than renting one — the widest that gap has been in this data.
That is $4,514 a month against $2,645 rent: a $3,002 mortgage payment, plus $900 property tax and $612 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Beacon
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$4,514
- Renting$2,645
- Mortgage only$3,002
Property tax · $900/mo 1.89% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Dutchess County, NY
Insurance & upkeep · $612/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Beacon, Dutchess County, New York
Beacon is a city of 13,769 people in Dutchess County. Half its households earn more than $107,859 a year and half less, against $99,478 across Dutchess County; 9% of its people live below the poverty line. 61% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 39% are rented. Unemployment in Dutchess County was 3.9% in August 2026, and the county had 3.4% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then professional services.
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. Beacon is a small city in Dutchess County, and its residents tend to be somewhat older than the typical American, with incomes above the county's. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and a four-year degree is common among adults. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, and summers are warm, with July the warmest; rain and melted snow fall at a steady, generous rate through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in professional and business services, or in shops. Among the largest workplaces in Beacon are the Beacon City School District, Dia Center for the Arts and sun river health. The daily commute is long, and a good number of people work from home.
Things to do. In or beside town, Dia Beacon is a museum of contemporary art, and Downing Park is a green space for a walk. A short drive away, Storm King Art Center is another art museum, and Clarence Fahnestock State Park offers protected woodland to explore.
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- 6,507households
- 49%of adults have a degree
- 9%below the poverty line
- 41 mintypical commute
- 21%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Dutchess County had 116,699 jobs in 2025, 3.4% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 36° and lows near 21°; warmest in July, with highs near 85° and lows near 65°. About 36 inches of snow and 51 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the West Point weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Beacon
- Beacon City School DistrictSchool district602FTE
- Dia Center for the ArtsContemporary art museums199
- Be-be-beaconSkilled nursing192
- ChemprenePlastics and rubber belts and hoses manufacturing112
- sun river healthHealth services72
- CarvanaMotor vehicle dealers40
- Astor Services for Children & Families- ECP- BeaconHead start programs, separate from schools33
- Ability Beyond DisabilityResidential intellectual and developmental disability facilities28
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 8 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 703 people in all. School districts come 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
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Beacon’s 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 Dutchess County and the Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown, NY metro.
Beacon home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Beacon$571,882
- New York$524,942
- 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 5 Beacon listings — the market is cooling.
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.
- Beacon20.37%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Beacon78
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Beacon22
Zip codes with a Beacon address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Beacon — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.