Potter Valley, California.
Typical home $407,631 (-1.2% in a year). Ukiah, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$402 (+23%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $5,057 -1%
- $412,688$407,631 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $165,114 -29%
- $572,745$407,631 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.
- Potter Valley$2,140
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Potter Valley, CA fell 1.2% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Potter Valley, Mendocino County, California
Potter Valley, in Mendocino County, had 665 people in the 2020 census. Unemployment in Mendocino County was 5.6% in August 2026, and the county had 0.3% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Mendocino 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Potter Valley is a very small community in Mendocino County, the kind of place where residents are likely to know one another. Homes here typically cost somewhat less than the statewide average but sit well above what the county's modest household incomes would suggest, and the surrounding countryside shapes daily life. Winters are cool and fairly wet, summers are hot, and snow is rare.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with others in shops, in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, and in professional and business services. Across Mendocino County, some of the largest workplaces are Ukiah Unified, Adventist Health Ukiah Valley and Mendocino College. Unemployment in the county is a little lower than a year ago, though the number of jobs has slipped slightly.
Things to do. Lake Mendocino, a reservoir, and Lake Van Arsdale are both a short drive away, and Cold Creek is close by as well. For a longer outing, Clear Lake and Mendocino National Forest are a longer drive away, offering open water and protected woodland.
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What people in Mendocino County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Mendocino County had 31,998 jobs in 2025, 0.3% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 56° and lows near 34°; warmest in July, with highs near 95° and lows near 54°. About 45 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Potter Valley Powerhouse weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Mendocino County
- Ukiah UnifiedSchool district680FTE
- Adventist Health Ukiah ValleyGeneral hospital567FTE
- CAL FireCal fire466
- Mendocino CollegeTwo-year college422
- Ahhm-one Marcela DR DeptsGeneral medical and surgical hospitals315
- Fort Bragg UnifiedSchool district245FTE
- Adventist Health Mendocino CoastCritical access hospital230FTE
- Howard Memorial HospitaCritical access hospital229FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 65 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 5,318 people in all across the county; Potter Valley has one of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24), hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and colleges from IPEDS (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
- DroughtRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
- EarthquakesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Potter Valley’s 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 Mendocino County and the Ukiah, CA metro.
Potter Valley home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Potter Valley$407,631
- California$761,538
- 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.
- Potter Valley18
Zip codes with a Potter Valley address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Potter Valley — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zillow publishes no zip-level series with this city on the address.