Burns, Oregon.
Typical home $186,318 (+4.1% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$594 (+155%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $7,362 +4%
- $178,955$186,318 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $43,638 +31%
- $142,680$186,318 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.
- Burns$978
- Oregon$2,586
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Burns, OR rose 4.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Burns, Harney County, Oregon
Burns is a city of 2,730 people in Harney County. 58% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 42% are rented. Unemployment in Harney County was 4.3% in August 2026, and the county had 2.5% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Harney County work in schools and health care, then farming.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Burns is a small city and the main town of Harney County, in the high desert of eastern Oregon. Winters are cold, with highs only a little above freezing in December, and summers are warm in July. Precipitation is light across the year, falling as rain and melted snow. A modest share of homes are rented, and fewer adults hold a four-year degree than in many places.
Work. Most residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by farming, forestry and mining, then shops and government. The largest workplaces in Burns include Harney District Hospital, Harney County SD 3 and Safeway. Incomes across Harney County are on the modest side, and more people here live below the poverty line than is typical for the country.
Things to do. Most of the outdoor places near Burns are a longer drive away. Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is a protected area, and Malheur Lake and Harney Lake are lakes in the same open country. The Donner und Blitzen River is also a longer drive, for those who like to spend a day by moving water.
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- 1,371households
- 7%of adults have a degree
- 16%below the poverty line
- 10%work from home
What people in Harney County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Harney County had 2,625 jobs in 2025, 2.5% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 36° and lows near 16°; warmest in July, with highs near 89° and lows near 49°. About 10 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Burns Municipal Airport weather station, 5 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Burns
- Harney District HospitalCritical access hospital153FTE
- Harney County SD 3School district109FTE
- SafewaySupermarkets and other grocery stores96
- Harney Rock and Paving CompanyGravel quarrying and/or beneficiating37
- Agricultural Research ServiceFederal government · Department of Agriculture22
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 334 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), school districts 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
- Winter weatherVery high
- WildfireRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Burns’ 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 Harney County.
Burns home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Burns$186,318
- Oregon$492,753
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 6 Burns listings — the market is roughly in balance.
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.
- Burns16.40%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Burns45
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Burns8
Zip codes with a Burns address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Burns — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.