Waterville, Washington.
Typical home $308,027 (+6.9% in a year). Wenatchee, WA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$849 (+111%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $19,847 +7%
- $288,180$308,027 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $43,250 +16%
- $264,777$308,027 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.
- Waterville$1,617
- Washington$3,084
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 23 years.
Typical home values in Waterville, WA rose 6.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Waterville, Douglas County, Washington
Waterville is a town of 1,134 people in Douglas County. Half its households earn more than $78,589 a year and half less, against $80,363 across Douglas County; 8% of its people live below the poverty line. 88% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 12% are rented. Unemployment in Douglas County was 4.7% in August 2026, and the county had 1.1% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Douglas County work in schools and health care, then farming.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Waterville is a small town in Douglas County, Washington, and almost everyone who lives there owns their home. Incomes run a little below the county's, and few adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold, with December the coldest month, and summers turn warm in July, while the year brings little rain and melted snow.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by farming, forestry and mining, shops and the building trades. Across Douglas County, some of the largest workplaces are Eastmont School District, Stemilt AG Services and the county's public utility district, which distributes electric power. The typical commute is a long one, and a fair number of people work from home.
Things to do. The Nifty Theatre is in or beside town. A short drive away are Daroga State Park, a protected area, and Lake Entiat, a reservoir. Badger Mountain Ski Area is also a short drive away.
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- 10%of adults have a degree
- 8%below the poverty line
- 33 mintypical commute
- 14%work from home
What people in Douglas County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Douglas County had 12,413 jobs in 2025, 1.1% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 31° and lows near 16°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 53°. About 11 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Waterville weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Douglas County
- Eastmont School DistrictSchool district684FTE
- Costco WholesaleWholesale grocer302
- Fred Meyer StoresWarehouse clubs and supercenters236
- Stemilt AG ServicesNon citrus fruit farming156
- H2 PrecastConcrete products, precast, manufacturing155
- Public Utility District No. 1 of Douglas CountyElectric power distribution systems140
- Northern Fruit Company135
- Confluence HealthPhysicians' offices127
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 38 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,921 people in all across the county; Waterville has none of its own. School districts come 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
- Cold wavesVery high
- WildfireRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively 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 Waterville’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 Douglas County and the Wenatchee, WA metro.
Waterville home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Waterville$308,027
- 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.
- Waterville13
Zip codes with a Waterville address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Waterville — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.