La Junta, Colorado.
Typical home $160,693 (-6.0% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$448 (+113%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $10,193 -6%
- $170,886$160,693 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $12,330 +8%
- $148,362$160,693 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.
- La Junta$843
- Colorado$2,777
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 43 years.
Typical home values in La Junta, CO fell 6.0% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in La Junta, Otero County, Colorado
La Junta is a city of 7,322 people in Otero County. Half its households earn more than $52,315 a year and half less, against $54,037 across Otero County; 27% of its people live below the poverty line. 67% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 33% are rented. Unemployment in Otero County was 6.3% in August 2026, and the county had 0.4% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. La Junta is a small city in Otero County. Household incomes run a bit below the county's, and a larger share of residents live below the poverty line than is typical for the country. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and relatively few adults have a four-year degree. The winters are cold, with highs in December staying well below the freezing point at night, and the summers are hot. Snow falls most winters, though the area is dry overall.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in government, in shops and in the building trades. Among the largest workplaces in town are Otero College, Arkansas Valley Regl MED CTR and the East Otero School District. Unemployment across Otero County is higher than it was a year earlier, and the county has slightly fewer jobs than it did the year before. Only a small number of people work from home.
Things to do. Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site, a fort a short drive away, is the best known place nearby. The Koshare Indian Museum is in or beside town. For time near water, Timpas Creek is a short drive away, and Lake Meredith is a longer drive.
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- 3,030households
- 18%of adults have a degree
- 27%below the poverty line
- 7%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Otero County had 6,030 jobs in 2025, 0.4% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 46° and lows near 17°; warmest in July, with highs near 93° and lows near 62°. About 34 inches of snow and 14 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the La Junta weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in La Junta
- Otero CollegeTwo-year college408
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters275
- Arkansas Valley Regl MED CTRCritical access hospital237FTE
- East Otero School District No. R1School district219FTE
- SafewaySupermarkets and other grocery stores60
- Maxim Healthcare ServicesHome health care agencies49
- Compass Group23
- Oldcastle SW GroupPavement, highway, road, street, bridge or airport runway, construction20
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 5 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 427 people in all. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24), hospitals 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
- LightningVery high
- Winter weatherVery high
- Strong windVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in La Junta’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. 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 Otero County.
La Junta home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- La Junta$160,693
- Colorado$529,013
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 La Junta listings — the market is cooling.
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.
- La Junta21.47%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- La Junta78
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- La Junta11
Zip codes with a La Junta address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls La Junta — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.