Salmon, Idaho.
Typical home $359,121 (+6.4% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,180 (+167%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $21,535 +6%
- $337,586$359,121 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $85,303 +31%
- $273,819$359,121 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.
- Salmon$1,885
- Idaho$2,502
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Salmon, ID rose 6.4% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Salmon, Lemhi County, Idaho
Salmon is a city of 3,119 people in Lemhi County. Half its households earn more than $42,844 a year and half less, against $53,202 across Lemhi County; 15% of its people live below the poverty line. 66% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 34% are rented. Unemployment in Lemhi County was 3.2% in August 2026, and the county had 2.5% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Lemhi County work in schools and health care, then shops.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 24 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Salmon is a small city in Lemhi County, and its residents are older than in most American places. Most homes are lived in by their owners, though incomes run below the county's and a good number of residents live below the poverty line. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, and summers are warm in July, with snow through the winter and fairly little rain across the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with shops, farming, forestry and mining, and the building trades close behind. Among the largest workplaces in town are Steele Memorial Medical Center, the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. Few people work from home, and relatively few adults hold a four-year degree.
Things to do. The Lemhi River runs in or beside town, and it is the nearest place to be near the water. A longer drive brings you to the Salmon–Challis National Forest, a large protected area of public land. Also a longer drive away is the North Fork Salmon River, one of several rivers and creeks in the surrounding country.
Report a mistake
- 1,451households
- 19%of adults have a degree
- 15%below the poverty line
- 4%work from home
What people in Lemhi County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Lemhi County had 2,789 jobs in 2025, 2.5% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 28° and lows near 11°; warmest in July, with highs near 86° and lows near 52°. About 22 inches of snow and 9 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Salmon-ksra weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Salmon
- Steele Memorial Medical CenterCritical access hospital132FTE
- Forest ServiceFederal government · Department of Agriculture121
- Discovery Rehabilitation and LivingSkilled nursing facilities71
- QBArches, glue laminated or pre-engineered wood, manufacturing57
- Ranch and Home SupplyRetail36
- Bureau of Land ManagementFederal government · Department of the Interior24
- Missoula Brewing companyBeer brewing22
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 4 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 186 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) 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
- LightningVery high
- LandslidesRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Cold wavesrelatively high in parts of SalmonRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Salmon’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 Lemhi County.
Salmon home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Salmon$359,121
- Idaho$476,754
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Salmon listings — the market is roughly in balance.
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.
- Salmon25.58%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Salmon55
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Salmon11
Zip codes with a Salmon address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Salmon — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.