Palouse, Washington.
Typical home $358,663 (+4.5% in a year). Pullman, WA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$999 (+113%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $15,465 +5%
- $343,198$358,663 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $69,167 +24%
- $289,496$358,663 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.
- Palouse$1,883
- Washington$3,084
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 16 years.
Typical home values in Palouse, WA rose 4.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Palouse, Whitman County, Washington
Palouse is a city of 1,015 people in Whitman County. Half its households earn more than $88,750 a year and half less, against $55,406 across Whitman County; 3% of its people live below the poverty line. 85% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 15% are rented. Unemployment in Whitman County was 4.2% in August 2026, and the county had 1.3% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Whitman 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Palouse is a very small city in Whitman County, and most homes in town are lived in by their owners. Incomes run well above the county's, very few residents live below the poverty line, and a large share of adults hold a four-year degree. The typical home is valued well above what the county's lower incomes might suggest.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with others in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, in shops, and in professional and business services. Across Whitman County, some of the largest workplaces are Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Pullman Regional Hospital and the Pullman School District. The commute is a fairly long one, and some residents work from home.
Things to do. Steptoe Butte State Park and McCroskey State Park are protected areas that make for outings in the surrounding countryside, each a longer drive away. The Palouse River is also a longer drive from town. Winters bring a good deal of snow and cold, with the coldest weather in December, while summers turn warm by August, and the ski areas nearby, such as Tamarack Ski Area, are likewise a longer drive.
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- 466households
- 45%of adults have a degree
- 3%below the poverty line
- 28 mintypical commute
- 12%work from home
What people in Whitman County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Whitman County had 18,880 jobs in 2025, 1.3% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 36° and lows near 25°; warmest in August, with highs near 84° and lows near 48°. About 41 inches of snow and 24 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Potlatch Nne weather station, 11 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Whitman County
- Schweitzer Engineering LaboratoriesElectrical equipment manufacturing2,592
- Pullman Regional HospitalCritical access hospital488FTE
- Pullman School DistrictSchool district322FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters322
- Whitman Hospital & Medical CenterCritical access hospital311FTE
- Whitman CountyGeneral services departments, government256
- SafewaySupermarkets and other grocery stores132
- SEL Engineering ServicesEngineering services123
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 31 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 5,317 people in all across the county; Palouse has one 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
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
- HailRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Palouse’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 Whitman County and the Pullman, WA metro.
Palouse home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Palouse$358,663
- Washington$587,533
- 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.
- Palouse10
Zip codes with a Palouse address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Palouse — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.