Jay, Maine.
Typical home $218,543 (+0.4% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$699 (+156%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $969 +0%
- $217,574$218,543 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $56,699 +35%
- $161,844$218,543 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.
- Jay$1,147
- Maine$2,162
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Jay, ME rose 0.4% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Jay, Franklin County, Maine
Jay is a town of 4,620 people in Franklin County. 83% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 17% are rented. Unemployment in Franklin County was 3.8% in August 2026, and the county had 0.1% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Franklin 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Jay is a small Maine town where most homes are lived in by their owners, a good deal more than is typical across the country. Incomes sit below the county's, and the typical home value is modest compared with many parts of New England. Winters are cold and very snowy, with January the coldest month, while summers are warm without being hot.
Work. Residents work mainly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by shops and manufacturing, with professional and business services also employing many. Across Franklin County, the largest workplaces include Franklin Memorial Hospital, RSU 09 Schools and the University of Maine at Farmington. Unemployment across the county is a little higher than a year ago, and the number of jobs has been close to flat. Few people work from home, and the typical commute is a fairly short one.
Things to do. Titcomb Mountain, a ski area, and Parker Pond, a lake, are both a short drive away, which suits the long snowy winters and the warm summer months alike. Temple Stream, also a short drive off, is another place to spend time by the water. For a longer outing, Smalls Falls is a waterfall a longer drive away.
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- 1,808households
- 30%of adults have a degree
- 10%below the poverty line
- 21 mintypical commute
- 5%work from home
What people in Franklin County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Franklin County had 10,512 jobs in 2025, 0.1% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 28° and lows near 6°; warmest in July, with highs near 80° and lows near 56°. About 91 inches of snow and 47 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Livermore Falls East weather station, 4 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Franklin County
- Franklin Memorial HospitalGeneral hospital606FTE
- RSU 09 SchoolsSchool district548FTE
- University of Maine at FarmingtonUniversity or college332
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters275
- LifeMadeDinnerware, plastics, manufacturing164
- HannafordGrocery stores144
- RSU 58/msad 58 SchoolsSchool district134FTE
- Town of WiltonCity and town managers' offices102
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 28 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,032 people in all across the county; Jay has two of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and colleges from IPEDS (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
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- LightningRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Franklin County, 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 Franklin County.
Jay home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Jay$218,543
- Maine$412,002
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
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.
- Jay15
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Jay5
Zip codes with a Jay address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Jay — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.