Van Buren, Missouri.
Typical home $190,728 (+9.4% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$78 (+8%) since Feb 2023.
- 1 year
- Up $16,440 +9%
- $174,288$190,728 since Sep 2025
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.
- Van Buren$1,001
- Missouri$1,393
- United States$1,922
Typical home values in Van Buren, MO rose 9.4% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Van Buren, Carter County, Missouri
Van Buren is a town of 747 people in Carter County. Unemployment in Carter County was 5.0% in August 2026, and the county had 1.6% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Carter County work in manufacturing, then schools and health care.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Van Buren is a small town in the Missouri Ozarks and the seat of Carter County, where everyone is likely to know a good many of their neighbors. Homes here cost less than in much of the country, and household incomes across the county run below what is typical nationally. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month and nights well below freezing, while summers turn hot by July and the year brings plenty of rain and melted snow.
Work. Across Carter County, the biggest workplaces include the East Carter CO. R-II Schools and the VAN Buren R-I Schools, along with Royal Oak Enterprises, a charcoal manufacturer. Residents of the town work mainly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, in the building trades and in shops. Relatively few adults hold a four-year degree, very few work from home, and unemployment across the county is a little higher than a year earlier, with slightly fewer jobs than the year before.
Things to do. The outdoors is the main draw. Current River Cavern, a tourist attraction, is a short drive away, as is Carter Creek, a river good for an afternoon by the water. A longer drive brings you to the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, a protected area of rivers and woodland.
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- 409households
- 10%of adults have a degree
- 5%work from home
What people in Carter County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Carter County had 1,448 jobs in 2025, 1.6% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 43° and lows near 23°; warmest in July, with highs near 89° and lows near 68°. About 49 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Clearwater Dam weather station, 15 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Carter County
- East Carter Co. R-II SchoolsSchool district92FTE
- Van Buren R-I SchoolsSchool district77FTE
- Royal Oak EnterprisesCharcoal manufacturing62
- HR Quadri ContractorsHighway construction46
- National Park ServiceFederal government · Department of the Interior32
- McClain Forest ProductsDimension lumber, hardwood, resawing purchased lumber24
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 132 people in all across the county; Van Buren has two of its own. School districts come 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
- Inland floodingVery high
- Cold wavesVery high
- Strong windVery high
- LightningVery high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Van Buren’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 Carter County.
Van Buren home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Van Buren$190,728
- Missouri$265,387
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Van Buren listings — 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.
- Van Buren23.66%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Van Buren31
Zip codes with a Van Buren address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Van Buren — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.