Saint James, Missouri.
Typical home $236,778 (+7.9% in a year). Rolla, MO metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$739 (+146%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $17,388 +8%
- $219,390$236,778 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $62,656 +36%
- $174,121$236,778 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.
- Saint James$1,243
- Missouri$1,393
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 11 years.
Typical home values in Saint James, MO rose 7.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Saint James, Phelps County, Missouri
Saint James is a city of 3,935 people in Phelps County. Half its households earn more than $53,453 a year and half less, against $58,396 across Phelps County. Unemployment in Phelps County was 3.9% in August 2026, and the county had 2.0% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Phelps 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Saint James is a small city in Phelps County, Missouri, where household incomes run below the county's and a four-year degree is held by a minority of adults. A typical commute is short, and a modest number of people work from home. Winters are cold, with a fair amount of snow, and summers are hot, with plenty of rain and melted snow across the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by shops, manufacturing, and restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Among the biggest workplaces in Saint James are ST. James R-I Schools, Veterans Health Administration and Walmart. Across Phelps County, unemployment has eased a little over the past year, and the number of jobs has edged up.
Things to do. Dry Fork is a river a short drive away, as are Benton Creek and Norman Creek, which makes for easy time outdoors close to home. For a longer drive, Onondaga Cave State Park is a protected area, and Crooked Creek is another river within reach.
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- 1,596households
- 20%of adults have a degree
- 20 mintypical commute
- 10%work from home
What people in Phelps County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Phelps County had 19,609 jobs in 2025, 2.0% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 41° and lows near 22°; warmest in July, with highs near 89° and lows near 69°. About 17 inches of snow and 47 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Rolla Missouri S&t weather station, 9 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Saint James
- WalmartGeneral warehousing and storage1,108
- St. James R-I SchoolsSchool district224FTE
- Veterans Health AdministrationFederal government · Department of Veterans Affairs31
- WalmartGeneral auto repair29
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 2 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,137 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
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Saint James’ 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 Phelps County and the Rolla, MO metro.
Saint James home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Saint James$236,778
- Missouri$265,387
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Saint James listings — the market is heating up.
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.
- Saint James25.12%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Saint James37
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Saint James12
Zip codes with a Saint James address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Saint James — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.