Counties / Washington / Adams County

Adams County, WA

FIPS 53001 · population 20,800 · outside every metro area

$310k
Zillow home value · 2026-06
The numbers

What this county costs and earns

Everything here joins on the county FIPS code, so each figure comes from the agency that publishes it with no name matching in between.

Zillow home value
$310k
▼ 1.3% year over year
Zillow ZHVI · direct
ACS median gross rent
$877
occupied-unit survey; not current asking rent
Census ACS · surveyed
Gross yield
n/a
gross yield cannot be computed without measured market rent
requires both measured price and measured rent
HUD 2-bed standard
$1,133
the Section 8 payment standard
HUD Fair Market Rent · direct
Independent price check

Do two methods point the same way?

Zillow estimates a current home value. FHFA tracks repeat mortgage transactions. Their growth rates should be read side by side, not averaged.

The annual signals disagree
FHFA five-year cumulative+56.7%not annualized · through 2025
0%ZILLOW ZHVI2026-06−1.3%FHFA HPI2025+2.1%
Annual changes use different methods and may use different periods. The comparison checks direction and magnitude; it does not create a blended estimate. Zillow county ZHVI pulled 2026-07-26; FHFA annual county HPI pulled 2026-07-28.
Owner-reported value$273k
Surveyed gross rent$877
Rent burden 30%+46.9%
Median year built1977
Housing composition

Who occupies the stock—and what it is

ACS 2024 5-year
9.2%vacant
6,926estimated housing units
Occupied tenure30.7% renter
owner 69.3%renter 30.7%
Structure mix63.3% single-family
Single-family 63.3%20+ units 5.1%Mobile home 23.4%Other 8.2%
ACS estimates describe the standing housing stock and occupied tenure. They do not measure current listings, transaction prices or asking rents.

Survey source: Census ACS 5-year — county housing value, tenure and stock · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30. These values describe different housing universes and are not combined into gross yield.

Annual average covered jobs9,799▲ 3.8% from the prior annual release
Covered establishments701annual average reporting locations
Average weekly wage$1,056▲ 5.0% from the prior annual release
Largest private supersectorNatural resources and mining39.6% of disclosed private covered jobs
Local labor base

Jobs, pay and private-sector concentration

2025
0%COVERED JOBS+3.8%WEEKLY WAGE+5.0%Natural resources and mining39.6%
Annual QCEW counts cover jobs located at reporting establishments. The industry share uses disclosed private covered employment; it is not a resident-employment measure or a forecast.

Workplace source: BLS QCEW — county employment and wages · annual county employment and wages 2025 vs 2024 · pulled 2026-07-31. QCEW counts covered jobs located in the county, not employed residents or the metro score’s CES/LAUS series.

County brief

What the local evidence says

01Decision frame

Adams County’s decision tension is a soft county-value reading against a rising repeat-sales index and improving covered-workplace indicators. Zillow’s 2026-06 median home value was $310,421, down 1.25% from a year earlier, while FHFA’s 2025 repeat-transaction HPI increased 2.13%. These are different methods and vintages, so they cannot be blended; the conflict warrants investigation by buyers relying on appreciation or resale liquidity, while cash-flow underwriters should remain cautious.

02Housing economics

Income underwriting has a hard gap: no county market asking rent is published, so gross yield cannot be calculated from the home value. HUD’s $1,133 two-bedroom Fair Market Rent is a payment standard, not an asking-rent estimate, and cannot fill that gap. The supplied effective property-tax rate is 0.79%, a carrying-cost input; without market rent, property-specific tax, insurance, and operating costs, income coverage of that burden cannot be tested.

03Demand & competition

Listing-market and household movement evidence indicate longer marketing and seller concessions, but do not establish buyer demand by themselves. Realtor.com’s MLS median listing price fell 6.61%, median marketing time was 107 days, 18.7% of listings had reductions, and the pending-to-active ratio was 22.64%; these are asking-price, visible-supply, marketing-time, and concession measures rather than closed sales. Non-occupant purchase mortgages represented 4.67% of 150 total purchases, suggesting limited measured investor participation. Net migration was negative 115 tax-return households, although incoming movers’ average AGI exceeded outgoing movers’ by $1,412. QCEW reports rising annual covered jobs and wages at county workplaces; Natural resources and mining is the largest disclosed private supersector, not the whole economy.

04Risk & next checks

Inland flood is the dominant hazard, and modeled expected annual building-value loss is 0.11%; that county-level model is not a parcel flood determination. The record does not publish market rent, closed-sale pricing, lease vacancy, property condition, insurance quotations, flood-zone status, or repair scope. Those omissions prevent a defensible yield, all-in carrying-cost, resale-price, and property-level hazard conclusion. Next checks are current rental comps, parcel tax and insurance bills, flood mapping and claims history, and transaction-level sales evidence.

Cities & communities

Where people live within Adams County

Census-recognized incorporated places and CDPs that intersect this county. The list does not pretend to include every neighborhood or informal community.

Population scale

Largest Census places

ACS 2024 5-year
Othello city8.8KRitzville city1.9KLind town565Hatton town429Washtucna town292
Bars use total place population, not a county-share estimate. An asterisk marks a place that crosses a county line.
Official directory

5 Census places

Population
  1. 01
    Othello cityIncorporated place
    8,795
  2. 02
    Ritzville cityIncorporated place
    1,855
  3. 03
    Lind townIncorporated place
    565
  4. 04
    Hatton townIncorporated place
    429
  5. 05
    Washtucna townIncorporated place
    292

Population is the total place-wide ACS estimate, not an allocated county share. A place crossing a county line is labelled explicitly. Source: Census ACS 5-year — cities and communities · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30.

Risk, demand and competition

The three things a price does not tell you

01
Risk & carrying costFEMA NRI + Census ACS
Dominant hazardinland flooding

0.108% of building value expected lost per year

Effective property tax0.79%

$2,147 median annual bill

02
DemandIRS SOI household flows
Net migration-115

362 in · 477 out

Arriving vs leaving income+$1,412

$47,028 arriving · $45,616 leaving

03
CompetitionHMDA financed purchases
Purchases by investors4.7%

7 of 150 mortgages

investorother financed
Current listing pressure

What sellers and visible supply are doing

Realtor.com® Economic Research · county inventory 2026-06 · pulled 2026-07-28
Active listings53▼ 12.4% year over year
Median days on market107▲ 75.3% year over year
Listings price-reduced18.7%seller-concession signal
Median listing pricen/a▼ 6.6% year over year

Listing price is an asking price, not a closed sale. Quality-flagged county rows are withheld instead of displayed.

No rent index is published for this county.Zillow’s county rent series does not cover every county, and estimating one from a neighbouring county would be a guess wearing a number’s clothes. Everything above is measured here; no wider market is mapped for it either.
Bear case

What can break the county thesis

  1. County-level price, migration, labor, and hazard measures may not describe the target neighborhood or parcel.
  2. Unpublished market rent and operating costs could prevent income from covering the property’s full carrying burden.
  3. MLS listing-market evidence may differ materially from closed-sale and contract outcomes.
Underwriting questions

Before pricing a property

Can gross yield be calculated from this record?

No. County market asking rent is not published, and HUD Fair Market Rent cannot be substituted for market rent.

What does the FHFA measure show?

It shows a rising repeat-transaction house-price index in its supplied annual period; it is not a dollar home value.

What is the main limitation of the labor evidence?

QCEW measures annual covered jobs and wages at workplaces in the county, not resident employment, unemployment, or a forecast.