Clayton, New York.
Typical home $330,318 (+7.5% in a year). Watertown-Fort Drum, NY metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$169 (+11%) since Nov 2023.
- 1 year
- Up $23,080 +8%
- $307,238$330,318 since Sep 2025
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$1,734
- New York$2,755
- United States$1,922
Typical home values in Clayton, NY rose 7.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Clayton, Jefferson County, New York
Clayton is a village of 1,705 people in Jefferson County. 50% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 50% are rented. Unemployment in Jefferson County was 4.2% in August 2026, and the county had 0.6% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then shops.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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 village on the St. Lawrence River in Jefferson County, and its life is tied closely to the water. About as many homes are rented as are lived in by their owners, and a typical home costs a good deal more than the county's lower incomes might suggest. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, and summers are mild and pleasant, with July the warmest. Rain and melted snow add up to a moderate amount over the year.
Work. Residents of the village work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, and in the building trades. Across Jefferson County, some of the largest workplaces are Samaritan Medical Center, the Indian River Central School District and Carthage Central School District. The typical commute is moderate, and a modest share of people work from home.
Things to do. The St. Lawrence River is a short drive away and is the natural centre of outdoor life here. The Antique Boat Museum is in or beside town, and Wellesley Island State Park, a protected area, is also a short drive away. Cedar Point State Park, another protected area on the river, is close by as well.
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- 843households
- 37%of adults have a degree
- 20%below the poverty line
- 22 mintypical commute
- 8%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Jefferson County had 40,563 jobs in 2025, 0.6% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 30° and lows near 10°; warmest in July, with highs near 79° and lows near 59°. About 37 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Watertown International Airport weather station, 17 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Jefferson County
- Samaritan Medical CenterGeneral hospital1,581FTE
- Indian River Central School DistrictSchool district770FTE
- Carthage Central School DistrictSchool district679FTE
- The Arc Jefferson-St LawrenceGroup homes, intellectual and developmental disability678
- Watertown City School DistrictSchool district637FTE
- Car-freshnerAirfreshners manufacturing490
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters381
- Carthage Area HospitalCritical access hospital367FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 75 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 9,661 people in all across the county; Clayton has one of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) 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
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
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 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 Jefferson County and the Watertown-Fort Drum, NY metro.
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$330,318
- New York$524,942
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Clayton 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.
- Clayton21.02%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Clayton29
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Clayton7
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.