Otis, Colorado.
Typical home $239,532 (+3.2% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$771 (+158%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $7,347 +3%
- $232,184$239,532 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $48,915 +26%
- $190,616$239,532 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.
- Otis$1,257
- Colorado$2,777
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 15 years.
Typical home values in Otis, CO rose 3.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Otis, Washington County, Colorado
Otis is a town of 511 people in Washington County. Half its households earn more than $55,962 a year and half less, against $67,167 across Washington County; 15% of its people live below the poverty line. Unemployment in Washington County was 4.1% in August 2026, and the county had 3.0% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Washington County work in schools and health care, then farming.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Otis is a small town on the eastern plains of Colorado. Residents are younger than in many towns of its size, and household incomes run below the county's. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, and summers are hot, with July the warmest. Rain and melted snow add up to a dry year by most measures.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, and in farming, forestry and mining, with others in transport, warehouses and utilities, or in government. Across Washington County, some of the largest workplaces are Global Harvest Foods, which makes prepared bird feed, and the Akron and Otis school districts. Most people commute a fair distance to work, and very few work from home.
Things to do. The main place to head out to is Prewitt Reservoir, a reservoir a longer drive away. Beyond that, days in Otis tend to be quiet ones, shaped by the open farmland around the town.
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- 220households
- 20%of adults have a degree
- 15%below the poverty line
- 25 mintypical commute
- 3%work from home
What people in Washington County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Washington County had 1,213 jobs in 2025, 3.0% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 41° and lows near 16°; warmest in July, with highs near 89° and lows near 60°. About 16 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Akron East weather station, 10 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Washington County
- Global Harvest FoodsBird feed, prepared, manufacturing79
- Akron School District No. R-1School district73FTE
- YW Electric Association Inc AkronElectric power distribution systems42
- Otis School District No. R-3School district39FTE
- Lone Star School District No. 101School district26FTE
- Woodlin School District No. R-104School district26FTE
- Anton CoopBonded warehousing, general merchandise24
- Arickaree School District No. R-2School district22FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 145 people in all across the county; Otis has none of its own. School districts come 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
- Strong windVery high
- HailVery high
- Cold wavesVery high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Otis’ 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 Washington County.
Otis home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Otis$239,532
- Colorado$529,013
- 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.
- Otis5
Zip codes with a Otis address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Otis — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.