Independence, California.
Typical home $323,316 (+8.3% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$647 (+62%) since Feb 2022.
- 1 year
- Up $24,845 +8%
- $298,470$323,316 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.
- Independence$1,697
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
Typical home values in Independence, CA rose 8.3% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Independence, Inyo County, California
Independence, in Inyo County, had 593 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $73,850 a year and half less, against $73,991 across Inyo County; 6% of its people live below the poverty line. 85% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 15% are rented. Unemployment in Inyo County was 4.7% in August 2026, and the county had 0.4% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Inyo County work in schools and health care, then government.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Independence is a very small community in Inyo County, where nearly everyone knows one another. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and household incomes are close to the county's. Winters are cold, summers are hot, and the town sees very little rain or melted snow through the year.
Work. Residents work mainly in schools, hospitals and social care, in government, in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, and in professional and business services. Across Inyo County, the largest workplaces include the County of Inyo, Northern Inyo Hospital and the California Department of Transportation. Some people work from home, and there are fewer jobs across the county than a year earlier.
Things to do. The Eastern California Museum and Oak Creek are in or beside town, a museum and a stream to visit without going far. A short drive away is Manzanar, a protected area, and further afield are Kings Canyon National Park and the Mount Whitney Trail, both a longer drive away.
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- 313households
- 26%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 11%work from home
What people in Inyo County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Inyo County had 7,687 jobs in 2025, 0.4% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 57° and lows near 29°; warmest in July, with highs near 102° and lows near 67°. About 5 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Independence weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Inyo County
- County of InyoGeneral services departments, government470
- Northern Inyo HospitalCritical access hospital325FTE
- Xanterra Parks and Resorts Inc The Oasis At Death ValleyHotels except casino hotels and motels294
- Bishop UnifiedSchool district243FTE
- VonsSupermarkets and other grocery stores117
- City of BishopExecutive offices, federal, state, and local92
- Forest ServiceFederal government · Department of Agriculture91
- Southern Inyo HospitalCritical access hospital87FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 14 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,973 people in all across the county; Independence has one of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), school districts 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
- Heat wavesVery high
- AvalanchesRelatively high
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively 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 Independence’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 Inyo County.
Independence home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Independence$323,316
- California$761,538
- 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.
Zip codes with a Independence address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Independence — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.