Union, Washington.
Typical home $512,292 (+0.2% in a year). Shelton, WA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,511 (+128%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $782 +0%
- $511,510$512,292 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $46,515 +10%
- $465,777$512,292 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.
- Union$2,689
- Washington$3,084
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 36 years.
Typical home values in Union, WA rose 0.2% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Union, Mason County, Washington
Union, in Mason County, had 683 people in the 2020 census. 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 people in Mason 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Union is a very small community on the Tahuya River, in Mason County, Washington. Residents are considerably older than in most American places, and the community is the kind where neighbors tend to know one another. Homes here are valued well above what is typical for many parts of the country, and no one in town is counted as living below the poverty line.
Work. Residents who work are most often employed in schools, hospitals and social care, in government, in professional and business services, and in the building trades. Across Mason County, the largest workplaces include Washington Corrections Center, Little Creek Casino Resort and the Shelton School District. Unemployment in the county is a little lower than a year earlier, and the county has added jobs over the past year.
Things to do. The Tahuya River runs in or beside town, and Mason Lake, Twanoh State Park and Potlatch State Park are each a short drive away. The state parks are protected areas, and the lake is a place for time on the water. Winters are cold and damp, with only a little snow and a great deal of rain, and summers are mild and pleasantly warm.
Report a mistake
- 0%below the poverty line
What people in Mason County 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 44° and lows near 35°; warmest in July, with highs near 76° and lows near 54°. About 4 inches of snow and 92 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Cushman Powerhouse #2 weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Mason County
- Washington Corrections CenterCorrectional institutions712
- Little Creek Casino ResortHotels, resort, with casinos584
- Shelton School DistrictSchool district561FTE
- Mason General HospitalCritical access hospital470FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters346
- North Mason School DistrictSchool district286FTE
- North Forty LodgingHotels with golf courses, tennis courts, and/or other health spa facilities226
- Mason County PUD No. 3Distribution of electric power189
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 35 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 4,736 people in all across the county; Union has none of its own. 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
- Coastal floodingRelatively high
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
- TsunamisRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Union’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 Mason County and the Shelton, WA metro.
Union home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Union$512,292
- Washington$587,533
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Union 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.
- Union37.94%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Union28
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Union8
Zip codes with a Union address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Union — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.