Wells, Nevada.
Typical home $219,844 (+1.7% in a year). Elko, NV metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$384 (+50%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $3,611 +2%
- $216,233$219,844 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $6,124 -3%
- $225,968$219,844 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.
- Wells$1,154
- Nevada$2,313
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Wells, NV rose 1.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Wells, Elko County, Nevada
Wells is a city of 1,237 people in Elko County. Half its households earn more than $107,454 a year and half less, against $86,487 across Elko County. Unemployment in Elko County was 2.8% in August 2026, and the county had 1.5% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Elko County work in farming, 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Wells is a small city in the high desert of northeastern Nevada, home to a very small community. Households here have incomes above the county's, and the area is dry, with winters that run cold and summers that turn warm. Few adults hold a four-year degree, and very few work from home.
Work. Many residents work in farming, forestry and mining, while others are employed in schools, hospitals and social care, in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, or in shops. Across Elko County, some of the largest workplaces are Elko Schools, Great Basin College and Cactus Pete's. The county's job market has grown slightly over the past year, and unemployment there is lower than it was a year earlier.
Things to do. The Humboldt River runs in or beside town, and Angel Lake, a mountain lake, is a short drive away. A longer drive leads to the East Humboldt Wilderness, a protected area of high country. Winters are cold and there is only modest rain and melted snow across the year, so the warmer months suit time outdoors best.
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- 10%of adults have a degree
- 6%work from home
What people in Elko County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Elko County had 22,540 jobs in 2025, 1.5% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 36° and lows near 12°; warmest in July, with highs near 88° and lows near 50°. About 9 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Wells weather station, a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Elko County
- Elko SchoolsSchool district976FTE
- National EWPDrilling water wells486
- Great Basin CollegeUniversity or college411
- Cactus Pete'sResort hotels with casinos346
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters339
- RAM EnterpriseConveyor belts, rubber, manufacturing324
- Northeastern Nevada Regional HospitaGeneral hospital203FTE
- Sandvik ElkoMining machinery and equipment repair and maintenance services203
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 37 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,737 people in all across the county; Wells has none of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24), colleges from IPEDS (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
- WildfireVery high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- EarthquakesRelatively moderate
- 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 Wells’ 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 Elko County and the Elko, NV metro.
Wells home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Wells$219,844
- Nevada$440,739
- 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.
- Wells8
Zip codes with a Wells address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Wells — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.