Wendell, Idaho.
Typical home $332,462 (+2.6% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,068 (+158%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $8,406 +3%
- $324,056$332,462 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $49,848 +18%
- $282,614$332,462 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.
- Wendell$1,745
- Idaho$2,502
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 21 years.
Typical home values in Wendell, ID rose 2.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Wendell, Gooding County, Idaho
Wendell is a city of 2,917 people in Gooding County. 71% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 29% are rented. Unemployment in Gooding County was 3.0% in August 2026, and the county had 1.2% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in farming, then construction.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Wendell is a small city in Gooding County where most homes are lived in by their owners, and the people who live here are somewhat older than in a typical American town. Few adults hold a four-year degree, and very few work from home. Winters are cold, with January highs staying just above freezing, summers turn hot by July, and the year brings little rain or snow.
Work. Many residents work in farming, the building trades, schools and hospitals, or in transport, warehousing and utilities. Across Gooding County, some of the largest workplaces are the Glanbia Gooding Cheese and Whey Plant, Magic Valley Growers, and North Canyon Medical Center. Unemployment in the county has stayed low, though the county had slightly fewer jobs last year than the year before.
Things to do. Hagerman Wildlife Management Area and Niagara Springs Wildlife Management Area are protected areas a short drive away, both good places for time outdoors. Upper Salmon Falls, a waterfall, is also a short drive from town. For a longer outing, Shoshone Falls is a well-known waterfall a longer drive away.
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- 1,080households
- 12%of adults have a degree
- 8%below the poverty line
- 21 mintypical commute
- 4%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Gooding County had 6,664 jobs in 2025, 1.2% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 36° and lows near 22°; warmest in July, with highs near 90° and lows near 59°. About 10 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Jerome weather station, 10 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Gooding County
- Glanbia Gooding Cheese and Whey PlantCheese manufacturing300
- Magic Valley GrowersPacking fruits and vegetables271
- North Canyon Medical CenterCritical access hospital271FTE
- Riverence ProvisionsSeafood and seafood products manufacturing207
- Gooding Joint DistrictSchool district133FTE
- Glanbia Gooding TransportationMilk hauling, local130
- Wendell DistrictSchool district119FTE
- Bennett Hills Rehabilitation and Care CenterSkilled nursing facilities95
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 13 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,339 people in all across the county; Wendell has two 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
- Winter weatherVery high
- WildfireRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively 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 Wendell’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 Gooding County.
Wendell home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Wendell$332,462
- Idaho$476,754
- 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.
- Wendell11
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Wendell address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Wendell — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.