Willow Springs, Missouri.
Typical home $202,660 (+9.1% in a year). West Plains, MO metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$673 (+172%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $16,823 +9%
- $185,837$202,660 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $66,243 +49%
- $136,418$202,660 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 Springs$1,064
- Missouri$1,393
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 9 years.
Typical home values in Willow Springs, MO rose 9.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Willow Springs, Howell County, Missouri
Willow Springs is a city of 2,164 people in Howell County. Half its households earn more than $41,406 a year and half less, against $50,993 across Howell County; 20% of its people live below the poverty line. 51% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 49% are rented. Unemployment in Howell County was 4.5% in August 2026, and the county had 0.2% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in shops, 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Willow Springs is a small city in Howell County, Missouri, where owners and renters share the housing about evenly. Household incomes run below the county's, and more people live below the poverty line than most would expect to find. Relatively few adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, and summers are hot, with July the warmest. Rain and melted snow add up to a fair amount over the year.
Work. Many residents work in shops, in schools, hospitals and social care, in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, and in manufacturing. The biggest workplaces in town include Willow Springs R-IV Schools and UPS. Commutes are short, and some people work from home. Across Howell County, jobs slipped slightly last year, and unemployment is a little lower than it was a year ago.
Things to do. The nearest outdoor places are rivers and creeks, each a longer drive away. Jacks Fork, Big Piney River and North Fork River are the best known, and they draw people for time on the water and along the banks. Bryant Creek State Park, also a longer drive away, is a protected area for walking and quiet time outdoors.
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- 927households
- 16%of adults have a degree
- 20%below the poverty line
- 18 mintypical commute
- 13%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Howell County had 15,327 jobs in 2025, 0.2% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 44° and lows near 25°; warmest in July, with highs near 89° and lows near 67°. About 47 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the West Plains Municipal Airport weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Willow Springs
- Willow Springs R-IV SchoolsSchool district162FTE
- UPSCouriers and express delivery services76
- Willow SpringsMail and parcel delivery21
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 2 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 97 people in all. 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
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Heat wavesrelatively high in parts of Willow SpringsRelatively moderate
- EarthquakesRelatively moderate
- Strong windrelatively high in parts of Willow SpringsRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Willow Springs’ census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. 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 Howell County and the West Plains, MO metro.
Willow Springs home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Willow Springs$202,660
- Missouri$265,387
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 7 Willow Springs listings — the market is roughly in balance.
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
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Willow Springs14.02%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Willow Springs36
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Willow Springs7
Zip codes with a Willow Springs address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Willow Springs — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.