Shelton, Washington.
Typical home $418,789 (+0.1% in a year), asking rent $1,803 . Shelton, WA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,200 (+120%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $248 +0%
- $418,541$418,789 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $31,222 +8%
- $387,568$418,789 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.
- Shelton$2,198
- Washington$3,084
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 45 years.
Typical home values in Shelton, WA rose 0.1% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Shelton, Mason County, Washington
Shelton is a city of 10,371 people in Mason County. Half its households earn more than $69,598 a year and half less, against $83,270 across Mason County; 17% of its people live below the poverty line. 62% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 38% are rented. Unemployment in Mason County was 5.2% in August 2026, and the county had 1.7% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Shelton is a small city in Mason County, with a younger population than many towns its size. Incomes here run below the county's as a whole, and poverty is more common than many residents would like. Most homes are lived in by their owners, though a good number of households rent, and few adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cool and wet, with December the coldest month, and summers stay mild, with August the warmest.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, and in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, with shops and government close behind. Among the largest workplaces in Shelton are Shelton School District, Mason General Hospital and Walmart. Mason County has added jobs over the past year, though unemployment has stayed about where it was a year ago. Most people commute a fairly short way to work, and only a small share work from home.
Things to do. The Skokomish River is a short drive away and a pleasant spot for time by the water. Farther afield, Mason Lake is a lake within a longer drive, and Joemma Beach State Park offers protected shoreline and woods for a day out. Each is easy to pair with a picnic when the rain eases off.
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- 3,515households
- 18%of adults have a degree
- 17%below the poverty line
- 25 mintypical commute
- 9%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Mason County had 15,089 jobs in 2025, 1.7% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 46° and lows near 33°; warmest in August, with highs near 78° and lows near 52°. About 68 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Shelton Sanderson Field weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Shelton
- Shelton School DistrictSchool district561FTE
- Mason General HospitalCritical access hospital470FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters346
- Mason Health - Mason ClinicMds' offices187
- Fred Meyer StoresWarehouse clubs and supercenters164
- Continental Floral PNW LLC - PNWFlowers merchant wholesalers141
- Caldera CareSkilled nursing facilities114
- SafewaySupermarkets and other grocery stores105
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 19 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,279 people in all. 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
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Shelton’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively low. 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 Mason County and the Shelton, WA metro.
Shelton home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Shelton$418,789
- Washington$587,533
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Shelton listings, and the typical home goes pending in 44 days — the market is cooling.
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.
- Shelton35.06%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Shelton44
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Shelton189
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Shelton39
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Shelton$411,581
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Shelton99.58%
Zip codes with a Shelton address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Shelton — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.