Smith River, California.
Typical home $431,082 (-1.2% in a year). Crescent City, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,019 (+82%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $5,204 -1%
- $436,286$431,082 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $21,133 +5%
- $409,949$431,082 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.
- Smith River$2,263
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 69 years.
Typical home values in Smith River, CA fell 1.2% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Smith River, Del Norte County, California
Smith River, in Del Norte County, had 906 people in the 2020 census. Unemployment in Del Norte County was 6.5% in August 2026, and the county had 0.6% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Del Norte County work in schools and health care, then government.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Smith River is a small community in the far northwest corner of California, in Del Norte County, with a population much younger than most places in the country. The winters are mild and the summers cool, so the year stays fairly even, though a great deal of rain falls through the seasons. Homes here are valued below what many Californians would expect, and the river that gives the community its name runs in or beside town.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by government, restaurants and hotels, and shops. Across Del Norte County, some of the largest workplaces are Del Norte County Unified, the school district, Sutter Coast Hospital, and Walmart. Unemployment in the county is about where it stood a year ago, and the number of jobs has edged up slightly.
Things to do. The Smith River itself runs in or beside town, and the Winchuck River and Tolowa Dunes State Park are a short drive away. Farther afield, Redwood National Park and Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park take a longer drive, and are worth the trip for anyone who enjoys walking among old redwoods.
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What people in Del Norte County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Del Norte County had 8,382 jobs in 2025, 0.6% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 56° and lows near 42°; warmest in July, with highs near 69° and lows near 52°. About 78 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Brookings Southeast weather station, 9 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Del Norte County
- Del Norte County UnifiedSchool district552FTE
- Sutter Coast HospitalGeneral hospital264FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters262
- SafewaySupermarkets and other grocery stores90
- Palmer WestbrookFlower bulb growing70
- Forest ServiceFederal government · Department of Agriculture58
- American Medical Response57
- Del Norte County Office of Education SchoolsSchool district51FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 13 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,323 people in all across the county; Smith River 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 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
- LandslidesVery high
- Inland floodingVery high
- WildfireRelatively high
- TsunamisRelatively high
- EarthquakesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Smith River’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very 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 Del Norte County and the Crescent City, CA metro.
Smith River home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Smith River$431,082
- 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.
- Smith River17
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Smith River address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Smith River — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.