Monte Vista, Colorado.
Typical home $268,100 (+1.1% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$819 (+139%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $2,829 +1%
- $265,271$268,100 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $67,729 +34%
- $200,371$268,100 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.
- Monte Vista$1,407
- Colorado$2,777
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Monte Vista, CO rose 1.1% over the past year — in step with the nation.
Living in Monte Vista, Rio Grande County, Colorado
Monte Vista is a city of 4,247 people in Rio Grande County. Half its households earn more than $61,684 a year and half less, against $64,411 across Rio Grande County. 60% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 40% are rented. Unemployment in Rio Grande County was 5.0% in August 2026, and the county had 1.8% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Rio Grande 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Monte Vista is a small city in Colorado's San Luis Valley, where most homes are lived in by their owners. Incomes run a little below the county's, and the people here are fairly young. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while summers are mild and the year is dry.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by shops, the building trades, and restaurants and hotels. The largest workplaces in town include the Monte Vista School District, Rock Creek Rehabilitation and Healthcare, and Safeway. Commutes are short, and few people work from home.
Things to do. The Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge is a protected area a short drive away. Farther afield, the Rio Grande Scenic Railroad is a museum a longer drive away, and the Conejos River is a river a longer drive away.
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- 1,784households
- 37%of adults have a degree
- 16 mintypical commute
- 6%work from home
What people in Rio Grande County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Rio Grande County had 4,402 jobs in 2025, 1.8% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 33° and lows near -2°; warmest in July, with highs near 80° and lows near 45°. About 35 inches of snow and 9 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Monte Vista 2W weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Monte Vista
- Monte Vista School District No. C-8School district174FTE
- Rock Creek Rehabilitation and HealthcareSkilled nursing facilities49
- SafewaySupermarkets and other grocery stores44
- Bureau of Land ManagementFederal government · Department of the Interior21
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 2 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 93 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and federal offices from OPM's federal workforce data (2026); 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
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- EarthquakesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Monte Vista’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 Rio Grande County.
Monte Vista home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Monte Vista$268,100
- Colorado$529,013
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Monte Vista 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.
- Monte Vista20.94%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Monte Vista38
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Monte Vista8
Zip codes with a Monte Vista address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Monte Vista — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.