Chama, New Mexico.
Typical home $314,070 (-0.3% in a year). Espa±ola, NM metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$827 (+101%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $887 -0%
- $314,957$314,070 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $30,628 +11%
- $283,442$314,070 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.
- Chama$1,648
- New Mexico$1,658
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 34 years.
Typical home values in Chama, NM fell 0.3% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Chama, Rio Arriba County, New Mexico
Chama is a village of 917 people in Rio Arriba County. Unemployment in Rio Arriba County was 4.8% in August 2026, and the county had 2.6% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Rio Arriba County 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Chama is a small village in the mountains of northern New Mexico, and its residents are older than in most of the country. Winters are long and cold, with heavy snow, while summer days are warm without being hot. Homes here are worth more than the county's lower incomes might suggest, and fewer adults hold a four-year degree than in many places.
Work. Most residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in professional and business services, in government, or in restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Unemployment across Rio Arriba County is a little higher than a year ago, though the county has added jobs over the past year. Some of the largest workplaces across the county are Espanola Schools, Espanola Hospital and Northern New Mexico College.
Things to do. The Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad, a museum of a historic railway, sits in or beside town, as does the Rio Chamita, a river. A longer drive away are Trujillo Meadows Reservoir and Heron Lake, both reservoirs. The mix of rail history and mountain water suits visitors who like to spend time outdoors.
Report a mistake
- 19%of adults have a degree
What people in Rio Arriba County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Rio Arriba County had 9,536 jobs in 2025, 2.6% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 38° and lows near 7°; warmest in July, with highs near 80° and lows near 46°. About 92 inches of snow and 22 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Chama weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Rio Arriba County
- Espanola SchoolsSchool district469FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters327
- Espanola HospitalGeneral hospital300FTE
- Northern New Mexico CollegeUniversity or college259
- Lowe's Companies, INCHomecenter129
- Dulce SchoolsSchool district104FTE
- Performance MaintenanceJanitorial services102
- Tsay Professional ServicesJanitorial services67
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 8 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 776 people in all across the county; Chama has none of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24), hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and colleges from IPEDS (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 floodingVery high
- LightningVery high
- WildfireRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
- DroughtRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Chama’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 Rio Arriba County and the Espa±ola, NM metro.
Chama home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Chama$314,070
- New Mexico$315,812
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 6 Chama 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.
- Chama16.95%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Chama37
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Chama7
Zip codes with a Chama address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Chama — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.