Willow Creek, California.
Typical home $306,436 (-2.0% in a year). Eureka-Arcata, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$178 (+12%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $6,348 -2%
- $312,784$306,436 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $122,649 -29%
- $429,086$306,436 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.
- Willow Creek$1,608
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Willow Creek, CA fell 2.0% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Willow Creek, Humboldt County, California
Willow Creek, in Humboldt County, had 1,720 people in the 2020 census. Unemployment in Humboldt County was 5.6% in August 2026, and the county had 0.8% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Humboldt 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Willow Creek is a small community in Humboldt County, and its residents are older than in most American places. Winters are mild but cool, with the coldest weather in December and the warmest in September, and a good deal of rain and melted snow across the year. Incomes in the county as a whole sit modestly, and a noticeable share of people in town live below the poverty line.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by shops, restaurants and hotels, and professional and business services. Across Humboldt County, some of the largest workplaces are the California Department of Transportation facilities, California State Polytechnic University-Humboldt and St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka. Unemployment in the county is about where it was a year ago, and the number of jobs has edged up slightly.
Things to do. Water is the main draw close to home: Horse Linto Creek and Campbell Creek are both a short drive away. A longer drive brings you to the Trinity River and Mad River, and to Trinidad State Beach, a beach on the coast.
Report a mistake
- 16%below the poverty line
What people in Humboldt County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Humboldt County had 52,251 jobs in 2025, 0.8% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 56° and lows near 40°; warmest in September, with highs near 65° and lows near 48°. About 46 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Arcata Eureka Airport weather station, 24 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Humboldt County
- California State Polytechnic University-HumboldtUniversity or college1,189
- St. Joseph Hospital - EurekaGeneral hospital818FTE
- College of the RedwoodsTwo-year college472
- Eureka City SchoolsSchool district461FTE
- CAL FireCal fire420
- MAD River Community HospitalGeneral hospital415FTE
- Humboldt Sawmill CoBoards, wood, made from logs or bolts313
- Danco BuildersMultifamily building construction general contractors301
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 93 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 10,058 people in all across the county; Willow Creek has one 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
- LandslidesVery high
- Inland floodingVery high
- WildfireVery high
- EarthquakesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Willow Creek’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very 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 Humboldt County and the Eureka-Arcata, CA metro.
Willow Creek home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Willow Creek$306,436
- California$761,538
- 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.
- Willow Creek14
Zip codes with a Willow Creek address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Willow Creek — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.