Tulelake, California.
Typical home $156,299 (+0.7% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$374 (+84%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $1,119 +1%
- $155,180$156,299 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $4,171 +3%
- $152,128$156,299 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.
- Tulelake$820
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
Typical home values in Tulelake, CA rose 0.7% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Tulelake, Modoc County, California
Tulelake is a city of 902 people in Modoc County. Half its households earn more than $47,574 a year and half less, against $59,455 across Modoc County. Unemployment in Modoc County was 6.1% in August 2026, and the county had 2.6% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Modoc 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Tulelake is a very small city in the high, dry country of far northern California, in Modoc County. Household incomes here run below the county's, and a four-year degree is held by only a small share of adults. Winters are cold, with plenty of snow, and summers are warm; the rain and melted snow that fall over a year add up to little.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in government, and in professional and business services, with farming, forestry and mining also part of the mix. Across Modoc County, the largest workplaces include Modoc Medical Center, the Tulelake Basin Joint Unified school district and the Forest Service. Unemployment across the county is no different from a year ago, and the county has fewer jobs than it did the year before.
Things to do. Tule Lake and Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge are a short drive away, for time by the water and among the birds. Also close by is Captain Jack's Stronghold, an archaeological site. A longer drive brings you to Lava Beds National Monument, a protected area.
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- 337households
- 4%of adults have a degree
What people in Modoc County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Modoc County had 2,696 jobs in 2025, 2.6% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 41° and lows near 20°; warmest in July, with highs near 86° and lows near 47°. About 23 inches of snow and 11 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Tulelake weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Modoc County
- Modoc Medical CenterCritical access hospital126FTE
- Modoc Joint UnifiedSchool district105FTE
- Forest ServiceFederal government · Department of Agriculture70
- Tulelake Basin Joint UnifiedSchool district52FTE
- North State Grocery Group445110 supermarkets and other grocery retailers44
- Surprise Valley Health Care DistrictCritical access hospital44FTE
- Alturas Indian RancheriaCasinos27
- Southern Cascades Community Services DistrictGeneral services departments, government26
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 97 people in all across the county; Tulelake has none of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), school districts 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
- DroughtRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Tulelake’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 Modoc County.
Tulelake home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Tulelake$156,299
- 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.
- Tulelake5
Zip codes with a Tulelake address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Tulelake — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.