Empire, Colorado.
Typical home $359,215 (-2.6% in a year). Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$863 (+84%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $9,485 -3%
- $368,699$359,215 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $4,055 -1%
- $363,269$359,215 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.
- Empire$1,885
- Colorado$2,777
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Empire, CO fell 2.6% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Empire, Clear Creek County, Colorado
Empire is a town of 345 people in Clear Creek County. Half its households earn more than $66,797 a year and half less, against $94,577 across Clear Creek County; 13% of its people live below the poverty line. Unemployment in Clear Creek County was 4.4% in August 2026, and the county had 3.2% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Clear Creek County work in professional services, 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Empire is a very small mountain town in Clear Creek County, home to fewer people than most places that carry the name of a town. Residents tend to be somewhat older than in much of the country, and household incomes run below the county's. Winters are long and cold, with snow piling up through the season, and summers stay mild.
Work. Many residents work in professional and business services, in schools, hospitals and social care, or in restaurants, hotels and shops. Very few work from home, and a four-year degree is less common than across much of the country. Across Clear Creek County, the largest workplaces include Clear Creek Skiing, the Clear Creek school district and Safeway.
Things to do. Echo Lake Park is a lake a short drive away, and the Fall River, also a short drive away, suits an afternoon by the water. The Hotel de Paris, a museum a short drive off, is a good stop for local history. For winter, Winter Park Resort is a ski area a short drive away, and Arapahoe Basin is another a longer drive away.
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- 384households
- 19%of adults have a degree
- 13%below the poverty line
- 1%work from home
What people in Clear Creek County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Clear Creek County had 3,430 jobs in 2025, 3.2% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 36° and lows near 15°; warmest in July, with highs near 77° and lows near 49°. About 106 inches of snow and 18 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Georgetown weather station, 4 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Clear Creek County
- Clear Creek SkiingSkiing facilities, downhill, without accommodations324
- Clear Creek School District No. Re-1School district129FTE
- SafewaySupermarkets and other grocery stores94
- SafewaySupermarkets and other grocery stores49
- Forest 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, 467 people in all across the county; Empire has none of its own. School districts come 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
- LightningVery high
- Inland floodingVery high
- AvalanchesVery high
- HailRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Empire’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very 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 Clear Creek County and the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO metro.
Empire home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Empire$359,215
- Colorado$529,013
- 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.
- Empire7
Zip codes with a Empire address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Empire — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.