Brighton, Missouri.
Typical home $296,965 (+3.3% in a year). Springfield, MO metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$899 (+136%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $9,466 +3%
- $287,499$296,965 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $72,669 +32%
- $224,297$296,965 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.
- Brighton$1,559
- Missouri$1,393
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Brighton, MO rose 3.3% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Brighton, Polk County, Missouri
The Census does not count Brighton on its own, so the figures here are Polk County's. Half the county's households earn more than $59,647 a year and half less; 16% of the county's people live below the poverty line. 72% of the county's homes are lived in by their owners and 28% are rented. Unemployment in Polk County was 4.1% in August 2026, and the county had 3.2% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Polk County work in schools and health care, then shops.
Written by AI Claude Haiku 5.5 wrote this on 22 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Brighton is a small town in Polk County, in southwest Missouri. Most homes across Polk County are lived in by their owners rather than rented, and the typical home value is somewhat above the county's median income would suggest. Winters are cold, with frequent frost and occasional snow, while summers are hot and bring thunderstorms. Rain falls throughout the year, so the land stays green and the streams run well for much of the season.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in manufacturing, or in professional and business services. Unemployment across Polk County is lower than it was a year earlier, though the county had fewer jobs in the most recent year than before. A minority of adults hold a four-year degree, and few people work from home, so most of the working day is spent away from the house.
Things to do. Asher Creek, a river a short drive away, is a good place for an easy afternoon by the water. The Ozark Cavefish National Wildlife Refuge, also a short drive off, is a protected area set aside for wildlife. Fantastic Caverns, a tourist attraction a longer drive away, offers underground tours of a limestone cave.
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- 12,059households
- 38.1median age
- 22%of adults have a degree
- 16%below the poverty line
- 28 mintypical commute
- 9%work from home
What people in Polk County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Polk County had 9,202 jobs in 2025, 3.2% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 43° and lows near 22°; warmest in July, with highs near 89° and lows near 67°. About 46 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Bolivar Northeast weather station, 13 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Polk County
- Citizens Memorial Hospital DistrictGeneral hospital995FTE
- Southwest Baptist UniversityUniversity or college474
- Bolivar R-I SchoolsSchool district384FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters365
- White River Marine GroupBoat yards215
- BD Health Ag 1Agriculture production or harvesting crews205
- Citizens Memorial Health Care FoundationNursing homes123
- Citizens Memorial Healthcare FacilityNursing homes123
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 17 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,737 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), colleges from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) 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
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively 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 across Polk County, 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 Polk County and the Springfield, MO metro.
Brighton home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Brighton$296,965
- Missouri$265,387
- 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.
Zip codes with a Brighton address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Brighton — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.