Wells River, Vermont.
Typical home $235,137 (+7.9% in a year). Lebanon, NH-VT metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$112 (+10%) since Nov 2023.
- 1 year
- Up $17,287 +8%
- $217,851$235,137 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.
- Wells River$1,234
- Vermont$2,057
- United States$1,922
Typical home values in Wells River, VT rose 7.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Wells River, Orange County, Vermont
Wells River is a village of 431 people in Orange County. Half its households earn more than $38,688 a year and half less, against $82,232 across Orange County. Unemployment in Orange County was 2.4% in August 2026, and the county had 1.4% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Orange County work in schools and health care, then shops.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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 River is a very small village on the Vermont side of the Connecticut River valley, and most people here know one another. Household incomes run well below the county's, while a typical home is worth less than many in the region. Fewer adults hold a four-year degree than you might expect, and winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month and July pleasantly warm.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with shops, the building trades and manufacturing close behind. Few people work from home, so most travel to a job. Across Orange County, Vermont State University, Gifford Medical Center and the Oxbow Unified Union School District are among the largest employers, though the county has lost a few jobs over the past year and unemployment is low.
Things to do. Water is close at hand: the Ammonoosuc River and the Wells River run in or beside town, and Ticklenaked Pond, a small lake, is nearby too. The Woodsville Opera House, a theatre, is also in or beside town. For a longer drive, Franconia Notch State Park is a protected area in the mountains, a good outing in the warmer months.
Report a mistake
- 16%of adults have a degree
- 5%work from home
What people in Orange County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Orange County had 7,791 jobs in 2025, 1.4% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 26° and lows near 7°; warmest in July, with highs near 77° and lows near 56°. About 71 inches of snow and 41 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Benton Southwest weather station, 10 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Orange County
- Vermont State UniversityUniversity or college1,248
- Gifford Medical CenterCritical access hospital310FTE
- Oxbow Unified Union School District #91School district177FTE
- Orange Southwest Unified Union School District #59School district149FTE
- Paine Mountain Union School District #68School district126FTE
- HannafordGrocery stores112
- Blue Mountain Union School District #21School district100FTE
- Shaws SupermarketsSupermarkets and other grocery stores87
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 8 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,009 people in all across the county; Wells River has none of its own. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24), hospitals 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
- LightningRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Wells River’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 Orange County and the Lebanon, NH-VT metro.
Wells River home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Wells River$235,137
- Vermont$391,900
- 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.
Zip codes with a Wells River address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Wells River — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zillow publishes no zip-level series with this city on the address.