Wapato, Washington.
Typical home $279,961 (-1.3% in a year). Yakima, WA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$770 (+110%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $3,682 -1%
- $283,643$279,961 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $28,241 +11%
- $251,720$279,961 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.
- Wapato$1,469
- Washington$3,084
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 33 years.
Typical home values in Wapato, WA fell 1.3% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Wapato, Yakima County, Washington
Wapato is a city of 4,607 people in Yakima County. Half its households earn more than $52,019 a year and half less, against $70,656 across Yakima County; 24% of its people live below the poverty line. 52% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 48% are rented. Unemployment in Yakima County was 5.5% in August 2026, and the county had 1.0% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in farming, then schools and health care.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 24 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Wapato is a small city in Yakima County, Washington, where about as many households own their homes as rent them. Incomes run well below the county's, and a good many residents live below the poverty line. Few adults hold a four-year degree, and a typical commute is a short one.
Work. Residents work mostly in farming, schools, hospitals and social care, manufacturing and shops. The largest workplaces in Wapato include the Wapato School District, Emerald Care, a skilled nursing facility, and the Agricultural Research Service. Unemployment across Yakima County is the same as it was a year ago, and the county has fewer jobs than the year before.
Things to do. Several places are a longer drive away. The Yakima Electric Railway Museum and Fort Simcoe offer a look at local history, and the Capitol Theatre is a place for a night out. For time outdoors, there are the Tieton River and the Toppenish National Wildlife Refuge. Winters are cold with some snow, and summers are hot and fairly dry.
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- 1,266households
- 6%of adults have a degree
- 24%below the poverty line
- 21 mintypical commute
- 2%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Yakima County had 115,435 jobs in 2025, 1.0% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 38° and lows near 23°; warmest in July, with highs near 90° and lows near 59°. About 20 inches of snow and 8 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Wapato weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Wapato
- Wapato School DistrictSchool district407FTE
- Emerald CareSkilled nursing facilities120
- Agricultural Research ServiceFederal government · Department of Agriculture39
- Indian AffairsFederal government · Department of the Interior39
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 1 workplace with 20 or more staff, 120 people in all. 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
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Wapato’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 Yakima County and the Yakima, WA metro.
Wapato home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Wapato$279,961
- Washington$587,533
- 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.
- Wapato9
Zip codes with a Wapato address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Wapato — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.