Falls City, Oregon.
Typical home $347,457 (-0.1% in a year). Salem, OR metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,011 (+124%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $215 -0%
- $347,672$347,457 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $59,801 +21%
- $287,656$347,457 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.
- Falls City$1,824
- Oregon$2,586
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 18 years.
Typical home values in Falls City, OR fell 0.1% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Falls City, Polk County, Oregon
Falls City is a city of 1,051 people in Polk County. Unemployment in Polk County was 5.0% in August 2026, and the county had 3.5% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Polk County 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Falls City is a very small city in Polk County, Oregon, with a population that makes it feel close-knit. Homes here are valued well below what many Willamette Valley buyers would expect, though the figures printed beside this text give the exact picture. Winters are cold and wet, with some snow, and summers are warm without being hot.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in government, and in professional and business services. Across Polk County, some of the largest workplaces are Western Oregon University, Salem Health West Valley and Safeway. Fewer adults here hold a four-year degree than is typical, the daily commute is fairly long, and few people work from home. Unemployment across the county is a little lower than a year ago.
Things to do. The Little Luckiamute River is a short drive away, and the Santiam River is a longer drive for time along the water. Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge, a protected area, is also a longer drive. For a rainy day, the Hallie Ford Museum of Art is a longer drive away.
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- 423households
- 19%of adults have a degree
- 31 mintypical commute
- 7%work from home
What people in Polk County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Polk County had 21,174 jobs in 2025, 3.5% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 45° and lows near 33°; warmest in August, with highs near 81° and lows near 50°. About 10 inches of snow and 81 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Falls City Ssw weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Polk County
- Western Oregon UniversityUniversity or college815
- Central SD 13JSchool district419FTE
- Dallas SD 2School district418FTE
- Capital ManorRetirement communities, continuing care292
- Salem Health West ValleyCritical access hospital247FTE
- SafewaySupermarkets and other grocery stores194
- WalmartDiscount department stores176
- SafewaySupermarkets and other grocery stores153
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 50 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,234 people in all across the county; Falls City has one of its own. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24), school districts 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
- Inland floodingVery high
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Falls City’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 Polk County and the Salem, OR metro.
Falls City home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Falls City$347,457
- Oregon$492,753
- 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.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Falls City address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Falls City — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.