Sparks, Nevada.
Typical home $534,404 (+2.4% in a year), asking rent $2,140 (+10.1%). Reno, NV metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,440 (+106%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $12,749 +2%
- $521,655$534,404 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $48,795 +10%
- $485,609$534,404 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.
- Sparks$2,805
- Nevada$2,313
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 36 years.
Typical home values in Sparks, NV rose 2.4% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Sparks, NV rose 10.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Sparks runs $1,434/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $1,754 in Jan 2025.
That is $3,574 a month against $2,140 rent: a $2,805 mortgage payment, plus $197 property tax and $572 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Sparks
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$3,574
- Renting$2,140
- Mortgage only$2,805
Property tax · $197/mo 0.44% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Washoe County, NV
Insurance & upkeep · $572/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Sparks, Washoe County, Nevada
Sparks is a city of 108,445 people in Washoe County. Half its households earn more than $89,056 a year and half less, against $88,096 across Washoe County; 8% of its people live below the poverty line. 60% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 40% are rented. Unemployment in Sparks was 3.4% in August 2026, and Washoe County had 1.1% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents 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. Sparks is a city in Washoe County, right beside Reno, and it is home to a large population. Household incomes run a little above the county's, and most homes are lived in by their owners rather than rented. Winters are cold, with a light dusting of snow now and then, and summers turn hot and dry.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in restaurants and hotels, or in manufacturing. Among the largest workplaces in Sparks are UPS, the City of Sparks and Northern Nevada Medical Center. Joblessness has eased over the past year, and a modest share of people work from home.
Things to do. The National Automobile Museum and the Nevada Museum of Art are both a short drive away, and the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts is close by too for an evening out. For time outdoors, Washoe Lake State Park is a longer drive, and the Truckee River is a longer drive as well.
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- 42,414households
- 28%of adults have a degree
- 8%below the poverty line
- 24 mintypical commute
- 11%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Washoe County had 243,154 jobs in 2025, 1.1% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 47° and lows near 24°; warmest in July, with highs near 92° and lows near 55°. About 7 inches of snow and 8 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Sparks weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Sparks
- UPSCouriers and express delivery services1,115
- City of SparksGovernment733
- Northern Nevada Medical CTR-2375 E Prater WAYGeneral medical and surgical hospitals720
- ACCO Engineered Systems - SPARKSMechanical contractors714
- Q&D ConstructionPavement, highway, road, street, bridge or airport runway, construction620
- Northern Nevada Medical CenterGeneral hospital577FTE
- Sierra Nevada ConstructionCurbs and street gutters, highway, road and street, construction477
- Sierra NevadaCorporate subsidiary and regional managing offices426
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 128 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 14,912 people in all. Hospitals come 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
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Earthquakesrelatively high in parts of SparksRelatively moderate
- AvalanchesRelatively moderate
- WildfireRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Sparks’ 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 Washoe County and the Reno, NV metro.
Sparks home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Sparks$534,404
- Nevada$440,739
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Sparks listings, and the typical home goes pending in 20 days — 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.
- Sparks33.02%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Sparks20
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Sparks472
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Sparks158
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Sparks$528,956
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Sparks99.44%
Zip codes with a Sparks address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Sparks — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Sparks
| Zip activate to sort by Zip | Place activate to sort by Place | Population sorted descending, activate to sort ascending | Rent activate to sort by Rent | Home value activate to sort by Home value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 89436 | Sparks | 49,544 | $2,359 | $575,304 |
| 89431 | Sparks | 39,833 | $1,734 | $401,239 |
| 89434 | Sparks | 27,990 | $2,171 | $476,853 |
| 89441 | Sparks | 14,460 | $2,900 | $704,840 |