Clayton, New Mexico.
Typical home $99,296 (-14.0% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$195 (+60%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $16,141 -14%
- $115,437$99,296 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $4,253 -4%
- $103,550$99,296 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.
- Clayton$521
- New Mexico$1,658
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Clayton, NM fell 14.0% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Clayton, Union County, New Mexico
Clayton is a town of 2,643 people in Union County. 73% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 27% are rented. Unemployment in Union County was 3.4% in August 2026, and the county had 0.1% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Union County work in farming, then schools and health care.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Clayton is a small town in the northeastern corner of New Mexico and the seat of Union County. Most homes here are lived in by their owners, and typical home values are modest. Incomes are on the lower side, and fewer adults hold a four-year degree than in many places. Winters are cold, with some snow, and summers turn hot, while the year as a whole is fairly dry.
Work. Many residents work in farming, forestry and mining, and others in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, and in restaurants and hotels. Among the biggest workplaces in Clayton are Clayton Schools, Union County General Hospital and Genesis Healthcare. Very few people work from home, and the number of jobs in the county has barely changed from the year before.
Things to do. Clayton Lake State Park is a protected area a longer drive away, a place for time outdoors on the high plains. Camp Nichols, also a longer drive away, is the site of a fort, and it suits anyone interested in the history of the region.
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- 962households
- 14%of adults have a degree
- 20%below the poverty line
- 2%work from home
What people in Union County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Union County had 1,222 jobs in 2025, 0.1% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 49° and lows near 22°; warmest in July, with highs near 90° and lows near 61°. About 22 inches of snow and 16 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Clayton Municipal Air Pk weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Clayton
- Clayton SchoolsSchool district60FTE
- Union County Gen. HospitalCritical access hospital59FTE
- Genesis HealthcareNursing homes32
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 1 workplace with 20 or more staff, 32 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); 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
- LightningVery high
- HailVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Clayton’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 Union County.
Clayton home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Clayton$99,296
- New Mexico$315,812
- 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.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Clayton14
Zip codes with a Clayton address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Clayton — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.