Pilot Rock, Oregon.
Typical home $245,846 (+6.9% in a year). Hermiston-Pendleton, OR metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$750 (+139%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $15,786 +7%
- $230,061$245,846 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $52,966 +27%
- $192,881$245,846 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.
- Pilot Rock$1,290
- Oregon$2,586
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 14 years.
Typical home values in Pilot Rock, OR rose 6.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Pilot Rock, Umatilla County, Oregon
Pilot Rock is a city of 1,328 people in Umatilla County. Half its households earn more than $89,091 a year and half less, against $67,728 across Umatilla County; 10% of its people live below the poverty line. 84% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 16% are rented. Unemployment in Umatilla County was 5.1% in August 2026, and the county had 0.2% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Umatilla 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Pilot Rock is a small city where nearly everyone owns the home they live in, a good deal more than is typical across the country. Household incomes run well above the county's, and fewer residents live below the poverty line than in many places. Few adults hold a four-year degree, and typical home values sit at a moderate level. Winters are cold, with some snow, and summers are hot and fairly dry.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with shops, manufacturing, and restaurants and hotels also employing many. The commute is a fairly typical one, and a fair number of people work from home. Across Umatilla County, large employers include Walmart, Hermiston SD 8 and Good Shepherd Medical Center. Unemployment across the county is a little lower than a year ago, though the number of jobs has slipped slightly.
Things to do. McKay Creek National Wildlife Refuge, a protected area, and McKay Reservoir are both a short drive away, which suits anyone who likes open water and quiet walks. Farther afield, a longer drive brings you to Emigrant Springs State Heritage Area, another protected area, and to the Tamástslikt Cultural Institute, a museum.
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- 574households
- 12%of adults have a degree
- 10%below the poverty line
- 25 mintypical commute
- 16%work from home
What people in Umatilla County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Umatilla County had 32,978 jobs in 2025, 0.2% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 44° and lows near 26°; warmest in July, with highs near 90° and lows near 53°. About 10 inches of snow and 15 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Pilot Rock Southeast weather station, a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Umatilla County
- WalmartGeneral warehousing and storage1,064
- Hermiston SD 8School district714FTE
- Good Shepherd Medical CenterCritical access hospital691FTE
- Lamb WestonFrozen fruit, juice, and vegetable manufacturing557
- Mj's Labor ServicesLabor contractors, farm482
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters388
- Pendleton SD 16School district366FTE
- Umatilla CountyLegislative bodies325
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 83 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 8,191 people in all across the county; Pilot Rock has two of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); 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
- WildfireRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Pilot Rock’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 Umatilla County and the Hermiston-Pendleton, OR metro.
Pilot Rock home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Pilot Rock$245,846
- Oregon$492,753
- 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.
- Pilot Rock12
Zip codes with a Pilot Rock address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Pilot Rock — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.