Van Etten, New York.
Typical home $188,314 (+11.5% in a year). Elmira, NY metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$115 (+13%) since Nov 2023.
- 1 year
- Up $19,352 +11%
- $168,962$188,314 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 Etten$988
- New York$2,755
- United States$1,922
Typical home values in Van Etten, NY rose 11.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Van Etten, Chemung County, New York
Van Etten, in Chemung County, had 601 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $60,200 a year and half less, against $63,716 across Chemung County; 12% of its people live below the poverty line. Unemployment in Chemung County was 4.2% in August 2026, and the county had 0.8% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Chemung County work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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 Etten is a very small community in Chemung County, with fewer people than most towns of any size. The typical resident is a little older than the typical American, and household incomes run somewhat below the county's. Homes here are valued modestly, and winters are cold, with January the coldest month and highs staying close to freezing, while summers are warm, peaking in August.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops and professional and business services also employing many. Across Chemung County, the largest workplaces include Arnot-Ogden Medical Center, the Elmira City School District and Walmart. Commutes are long, and very few people work from home, so most travel to a job elsewhere in the area.
Things to do. A short drive away, Cayuga Inlet offers a river setting for time on the water. Farther afield, Watkins Glen International is one of the best known race tracks in the region, and the Corning Museum of Glass is a museum that draws visitors from well beyond the Finger Lakes. Both are a longer drive away.
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- 238households
- 19%of adults have a degree
- 12%below the poverty line
- 38 mintypical commute
- 4%work from home
What people in Chemung County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Chemung County had 33,485 jobs in 2025, 0.8% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 31° and lows near 14°; warmest in August, with highs near 80° and lows near 54°.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Spencer Northeast weather station, 5 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Chemung County
- Arnot-ogden Medical CenterGeneral hospital2,210FTE
- Elmira City School DistrictSchool district939FTE
- Horseheads Central School DistrictSchool district747FTE
- The Arc of Chemung-SchuylerDevelopmentally disabled advocacy organizations551
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters430
- McWaneIron foundries379
- ELCOR Nursing and RehabilitaitionHomes for the elderly with nursing care371
- ElmiraPsychiatric hospital354FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 97 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 11,486 people in all across the county; Van Etten has none of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); 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 floodingRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Van Etten’s 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 Chemung County and the Elmira, NY metro.
Van Etten home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Van Etten$188,314
- New York$524,942
- 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.
- Van Etten6
Zip codes with a Van Etten address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Van Etten — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.