Keene, New York.
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to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,478 (+116%) since Jan 2020.
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.
- New York$2,755
- United States$1,922
Living in Keene, Essex County, New York
Keene is a town of 1,144 people in Essex County. Unemployment in Essex County was 3.3% in August 2026, and the county had 3.1% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Essex County work in schools and health care, then restaurants and hotels.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Keene is a small Adirondack town in Essex County, home to a small community where most people live a quiet, rural life. Poverty is uncommon here, and the county's household incomes sit at a middling level for the state. Winters are cold and long, with January the coldest month, while summers stay mild, with July the warmest.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by restaurants, hotels and entertainment, then manufacturing and professional and business services. Across Essex County, some of the largest workplaces are the Sylvamo-Ticonderoga Mill, which makes paper products, and Elizabethtown Community Hospital. Unemployment across the county has stayed close to where it stood a year ago, and the county has added jobs over the past year.
Things to do. Several lakes lie close by. Lake Tear of the Clouds is in or beside town, and Avalanche Lake and Henderson Lake are a short drive away. A longer drive leads to Lake Placid and the Lake Placid Winter Olympic Museum. Snowfall is heavy in a typical year, and rain and melted snow add up to a fair amount as well.
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- 377households
- 4%below the poverty line
What people in Essex County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Essex County had 15,228 jobs in 2025, 3.1% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 23° and lows near 6°; warmest in July, with highs near 74° and lows near 54°. About 104 inches of snow and 44 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Lake Placid South weather station, 14 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Essex County
- Sylvamo-Ticonderoga MillPaper products made in paper mills635
- Northline UtilitiesTransmission and distribution line construction467
- Elizabethtown Community HospitalCritical access hospital250FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters201
- Old Military Road Operating CompanyNursing homes168
- The CottageHotels, resort, without casinos158
- Lake Placid Central School DistrictSchool district155FTE
- Ticonderoga Central School DistrictSchool district155FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 26 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,676 people in all across the county; Keene has two 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
- LandslidesRelatively high
- AvalanchesRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Essex 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 Essex County.
Keene home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Keene13
Zip codes with a Keene address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Keene — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.