Jay, Vermont.
Typical home $424,798 (+6.2% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,240 (+125%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $24,832 +6%
- $399,967$424,798 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $91,957 +28%
- $332,841$424,798 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$2,230
- Vermont$2,057
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 14 years.
Typical home values in Jay, VT rose 6.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Jay, Orleans County, Vermont
Jay is a town of 551 people in Orleans County. 97% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 3% are rented. Unemployment in Orleans County was 3.2% in August 2026, and the county had 2.0% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Orleans 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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 very small town in Orleans County, Vermont, where nearly every home is lived in by its owners. Winters are long and cold, with January the coldest month and freezing days and nights alike, while July is the warmest and pleasantly mild. Incomes are not given for the town itself, but the county's median household income sits at a level typical of rural northern Vermont.
Work. People in Jay work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in the building trades and in manufacturing. Across Orleans County, some of the largest workplaces are North Country Hospital & Health CTR, Galvion and North Country Union High School District. Jobs across the county were fewer last year than the year before, while unemployment there held steady compared with a year earlier.
Things to do. Jay Peak Resort, a ski area, and Jay State Forest, a protected area, are both in or beside town. A short drive away are Hazen's Notch State Park, another protected area, and the Trout River. Farther afield, a longer drive reaches Lake Memphremagog.
Report a mistake
- 9%below the poverty line
What people in Orleans County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Orleans County had 10,320 jobs in 2025, 2.0% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 24° and lows near 4°; warmest in July, with highs near 74° and lows near 56°.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Jay Peak weather station, a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Orleans County
- North Country Hospital & Health CTRCritical access hospital349FTE
- GalvionSporting goods manufacturing325
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters260
- North Country Union High School DistrictSchool district168FTE
- Columbia Forest ProductsHardwood veneer or plywood manufacturing163
- Lake Region Union Elementary Middle School DistrictSchool district115FTE
- Derby School DistrictSchool district109FTE
- TivolyTools and accessories for machine tools manufacturing97
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 20 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,075 people in all across the county; Jay has one of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and school districts 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
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Orleans County, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very 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 Orleans 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$424,798
- Vermont$391,900
- 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.
- Jay13
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.
Zillow publishes no zip-level series with this city on the address.