Jefferson, Oregon.
Typical home $457,273 (-0.4% in a year). Salem, OR metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,229 (+105%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $1,925 -0%
- $459,198$457,273 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $42,275 +10%
- $414,999$457,273 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.
- Jefferson$2,400
- Oregon$2,586
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 36 years.
Typical home values in Jefferson, OR fell 0.4% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Jefferson, Marion County, Oregon
Jefferson is a city of 3,327 people in Marion County. Half its households earn more than $102,159 a year and half less, against $77,351 across Marion County; 9% of its people live below the poverty line. 87% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 13% are rented. Unemployment in Marion County was 5.1% in August 2026, and the county had 2.6% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Jefferson is a small city in Marion County, with a younger population than many Oregon towns and incomes above the county's. Nearly all homes are lived in by their owners, which gives the town a settled, residential feel, though home values run high. Winters are cool and damp, summers are warm, and the year brings a good deal of rain.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by shops, transport and warehousing, and manufacturing. Across Marion County, some of the largest workplaces are Salem Hospital, the Salem-Keizer school district and the Oregon Department of Human Services. Commutes are of middling length, and a fair number of people work from home.
Things to do. Rivers shape life here: the North Santiam River and the South Santiam River both run in or beside town. Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge, a protected area, is a short drive from town. For something indoors, the Hallie Ford Museum of Art is a longer drive away.
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- 967households
- 20%of adults have a degree
- 9%below the poverty line
- 25 mintypical commute
- 17%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Marion County had 175,778 jobs in 2025, 2.6% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 46° and lows near 34°; warmest in August, with highs near 81° and lows near 53°. About 53 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Stayton weather station, 11 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Marion County
- Oregon Department of Human ServicesExecutive offices, federal, state, and local11,196
- Salem-Keizer SD 24JSchool district5,131FTE
- Salem HospitalGeneral hospital4,683FTE
- Oregon Health AuthorityExecutive offices, federal, state, and local3,072
- AmazonGeneral warehousing and storage2,462
- Oregon State HospitalPsychiatric hospital2,413FTE
- SH - Building BHospitals, general medical and surgical1,037
- AmazonGeneral warehousing and storage1,021
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 386 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 59,745 people in all across the county; Jefferson has one of its own. School districts come 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
- EarthquakesVery high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively 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 Jefferson’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 Marion County and the Salem, OR metro.
Jefferson home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Jefferson$457,273
- Oregon$492,753
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Jefferson listings — 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.
- Jefferson32.62%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Jefferson20
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Jefferson5
Zip codes with a Jefferson address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Jefferson — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.