Imperial, Missouri.
Typical home $328,109 (+3.4% in a year), asking rent $1,795 . St. Louis, MO-IL metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$911 (+112%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $10,890 +3%
- $317,219$328,109 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $65,892 +25%
- $262,216$328,109 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.
- Imperial$1,722
- Missouri$1,393
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 15 years.
Typical home values in Imperial, MO rose 3.4% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Imperial, Jefferson County, Missouri
Imperial, in Jefferson County, had 4,407 people in the 2020 census. 93% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 7% are rented. Unemployment in Jefferson County was 3.6% in August 2026, and the county had 0.3% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in restaurants and hotels, 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Imperial is a small community in Jefferson County, Missouri, where nearly everyone lives in a home they own and renters are few. Residents are younger on average than in many towns where older homeowners tend to settle, and a four-year degree is held by a minority of adults. Winters are cold, with some snow, summers are hot, and rain and melted snow fall at a fairly steady rate through the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, and in banks, insurance and property. Among the largest workplaces in Imperial are Windsor C Schools, Compass Group and Mid-America Electric. The typical commute is a fairly long one, and a modest share of people work from home.
Things to do. The Meramec River is a short drive away and is the closest place for time outdoors. A longer drive brings you to the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Saint Louis Zoo and Gateway Arch National Park. The Saint Louis Art Museum is also a longer drive away.
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- 1,835households
- 21%of adults have a degree
- 11%below the poverty line
- 24 mintypical commute
- 10%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Jefferson County had 49,584 jobs in 2025, 0.3% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 41° and lows near 22°; warmest in July, with highs near 88° and lows near 67°. About 9 inches of snow and 44 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Festus weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Imperial
- Windsor C-1 SchoolsSchool district308FTE
- Compass Group31
- Mid-America Electric31
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 2 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 62 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 windRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
- EarthquakesRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Imperial’s census tracts, 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 Jefferson County and the St. Louis, MO-IL metro.
Imperial home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Imperial$328,109
- Missouri$265,387
- United States$366,157
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 4 Imperial listings, and the typical home goes pending in 5 days — 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.
- Imperial22.23%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Imperial5
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Imperial60
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Imperial35
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Imperial$356,886
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Imperial101.58%
Zip codes with a Imperial address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Imperial — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.