Clay, New York.
. Syracuse, NY metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,478 (+116%) since Jan 2020.
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.
- New York$2,755
- United States$1,922
Living in Clay, Onondaga County, New York
Clay is a town of 60,527 people in Onondaga County. Half its households earn more than $90,707 a year and half less, against $76,945 across Onondaga County; 8% of its people live below the poverty line. 71% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 29% are rented. Unemployment in Onondaga County was 4.1% in August 2026, and the county had 2.0% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Clay is a large suburban town in Onondaga County, home to a good many households and a population that is middle-aged on the whole. Incomes run higher than across the county as a whole, and most homes are lived in by their owners. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, and summers are comfortably warm, with July the warmest; the year brings a fair amount of rain and melted snow.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with professional and business services, shops and manufacturing also employing many. Among the largest workplaces in Clay are Amazon, the North Syracuse Central School District and Wegmans Food Markets. Commutes are fairly short, and a good number of people work from home.
Things to do. Water is close at hand: Onondaga Lake and the Oneida River are a short drive away, while Skaneateles Lake is a longer drive. Long Branch Park is a short drive away for a walk or a picnic. For an afternoon indoors, the Everson Museum of Art is also a short drive away.
Report a mistake
- 25,725households
- 38%of adults have a degree
- 8%below the poverty line
- 21 mintypical commute
- 13%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Onondaga County had 250,251 jobs in 2025, 2.0% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 31° and lows near 13°; warmest in July, with highs near 81° and lows near 58°. About 48 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Brewerton Lock weather station, 4 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Clay
- AmazonGeneral warehousing and storage4,252
- North Syracuse Central School DistrictSchool district1,310FTE
- Liverpool Central School DistrictSchool district1,102FTE
- Syracuse (pdc/pdf)Mail and parcel delivery748
- Niagara Mohawk PowerElectric power distribution501
- Wegmans Food MarketsRetail supermarkets426
- Raymour and Flanigan FurnitureSupport of field operations416
- Wegmans Food MarketsRetail supermarkets396
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 49 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 10,255 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
- Strong windVery high
- Winter weatherVery high
- Ice stormsVery high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Onondaga County, 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 Onondaga County and the Syracuse, NY metro.
Clay home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
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 Clay listings, and the typical home goes pending in 6 days — the market is roughly in balance.
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.
- Clay20.08%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Clay6
- United States21
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Clay39
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Clay20
Zip codes with a Clay address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Clay — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.