Counties / Missouri / Jefferson County

Jefferson County, MO

FIPS 29099 · population 229,458 · part of St. Louis, MO

$298k
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
$298k
▲ 4.5% year over year
Zillow ZHVI · direct
Median asking rent
$1,484
▲ 2.4% year over year
Zillow ZORI · direct
Gross yield
6.0%
annual rent ÷ price, before costs
derived: rent × 12 ÷ price ✓
HUD 2-bed standard
$1,218
market rent is 1.22x the 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.

Both annual signals move in the same direction
FHFA five-year cumulative+48.4%not annualized · through 2025
0%ZILLOW ZHVI2026-06+4.5%FHFA HPI2025+4.0%
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$237k
Surveyed gross rent$979
Rent burden 30%+39.4%
Median year built1987
Housing composition

Who occupies the stock—and what it is

ACS 2024 5-year
6.0%vacant
93,955estimated housing units
Occupied tenure17.8% renter
owner 82.2%renter 17.8%
Structure mix81.8% single-family
Single-family 81.8%20+ units 1.5%Mobile home 9.0%Other 7.7%
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 jobs49,612▲ 0.3% from the prior annual release
Covered establishments4,740annual average reporting locations
Average weekly wage$1,005▲ 5.3% from the prior annual release
Largest private supersectorTrade, transportation, and utilities24.7% of disclosed private covered jobs
Local labor base

Jobs, pay and private-sector concentration

2025
0%COVERED JOBS+0.3%WEEKLY WAGE+5.3%Trade, transportation, and utilities24.7%
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

Jefferson County’s tension is a stated pre-cost yield versus carrying-cost and flood diligence that county medians cannot settle. At Zillow’s 2026-06 county observation, median home value was $298,149, median asking rent was $1,484 monthly, and gross yield was 5.97%. It merits work by operators able to validate parcel expenses and rent, not buyers needing county data to establish net cash flow.

02Housing economics

Zillow price rose 4.48% year over year, against 2.35% for asking rent. The $1,218 HUD two-bedroom FMR is a payment standard, not an asking-rent estimate, and cannot replace measured market rent. The reported effective property-tax rate is 0.80%, so pre-cost yield requires a property-level expense test. FHFA’s 2025 repeat-transaction HPI rose 3.95%, agreeing on direction but not providing a value or a combined rate: its method and supplied vintage differ from Zillow’s.

03Demand & competition

Realtor.com’s MLS evidence is mixed. Active listings declined, while median marketing time was 41 days and 14.32% of listings had price reductions. Those are visible supply, marketing-time and seller-concession measures, not closed-sale prices or proof of buyer demand. Tax-return migration recorded a net inflow of 610 households, with higher average AGI for entrants than leavers; that is a composition datapoint, not a lease-demand measure. The investor share was 5.82% of purchase mortgages, showing non-owner participation rather than dominance. QCEW covers jobs at county workplaces, not residents; Trade, transportation, and utilities is its largest disclosed private supersector.

04Risk & next checks

Inland flood is the dominant hazard, and modeled expected annual climate loss equals 0.22% of building value; it is not a parcel-specific loss estimate. Insurance quotes, flood-zone and elevation records, vacancy, turnover, repairs, utilities, financing, property condition, and closed-sale data are not published in the record. Their absence prevents a net-yield conclusion, a property hazard assessment, and confirmation of achievable entry and exit pricing. Check these items by submarket because county aggregates cannot settle them.

Cities & communities

Where people live within Jefferson 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
Arnold city21KFestus city13.2KEureka city*13.1KMurphy CDP8.3KDe Soto city6.5KPevely city6.1KBarnhart CDP5.8KImperial CDP5.5K
Bars use total place population, not a county-share estimate. An asterisk marks a place that crosses a county line.
Official directory

26 Census places

Population
  1. 01
    Arnold cityIncorporated place
    20,956
  2. 02
    Festus cityIncorporated place
    13,201
  3. 03
    Eureka cityIncorporated place · spans 2 counties
    13,081
  4. 04
    Murphy CDPCensus-designated place
    8,285
  5. 05
    De Soto cityIncorporated place
    6,470
  6. 06
    Pevely cityIncorporated place
    6,055
  7. 07
    Barnhart CDPCensus-designated place
    5,785
  8. 08
    Imperial CDPCensus-designated place
    5,488
  9. 09
    Herculaneum cityIncorporated place
    5,071
  10. 10
    Crystal City cityIncorporated place
    4,718
  11. 11
    High Ridge CDPCensus-designated place
    3,714
  12. 12
    Hillsboro cityIncorporated place
    3,500
Show 14 more places
  1. 13
    Byrnes Mill cityIncorporated place
    3,189
  2. 14
    Raintree Plantation CDPCensus-designated place
    2,047
  3. 15
    LaBarque Creek CDPCensus-designated place
    1,457
  4. 16
    Cedar Hill CDPCensus-designated place
    1,261
  5. 17
    Summer Set CDPCensus-designated place
    1,236
  6. 18
    Horine CDPCensus-designated place
    781
  7. 19
    Olympian Village cityIncorporated place
    694
  8. 20
    Briarwood Estates CDPCensus-designated place
    307
  9. 21
    Cedar Hill Lakes villageIncorporated place
    284
  10. 22
    Scotsdale townIncorporated place
    216
  11. 23
    Parkdale villageIncorporated place
    204
  12. 24
    Lake Tekakwitha villageIncorporated place
    202
  13. 25
    Peaceful Village villageIncorporated place
    117
  14. 26
    Kimmswick cityIncorporated place
    112

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

0.218% of building value expected lost per year

Effective property tax0.80%

$1,906 median annual bill

02
DemandIRS SOI household flows
Net migration+610

5,591 in · 4,981 out

Arriving vs leaving income+$3,707

$60,160 arriving · $56,453 leaving

03
CompetitionHMDA financed purchases
Purchases by investors5.8%

188 of 3,228 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 listings373▼ 5.1% year over year
Median days on market41▲ 38.1% year over year
Listings price-reduced14.3%seller-concession signal
Median listing pricen/a▲ 0.8% year over year

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

Same metro

The other counties in St. Louis, MO

A metro is an average of these. Which side of a county line a property sits on can change the tax bill, the hazard profile and the tenant pool.

CountyPopulationPriceRentYieldHazard
Jefferson County229,458$298k$1,4846.0%inland flooding
St. Louis County995,569$293k$1,4776.0%inland flooding
St. Charles County414,535$378k$1,7005.4%inland flooding
St. Louis city288,512$187k$1,3948.9%inland flooding
Madison County264,238$202k$1,1777.0%inland flooding
St. Clair County253,694$181k$1,3218.8%inland flooding
Franklin County105,950$273k$1,1565.1%inland flooding
Lincoln County63,057$319k$1,7506.6%inland flooding
Macoupin County44,350$140kn/an/ainland flooding
Bear case

What can break the county thesis

  1. Parcel-level flood exposure and insurance cost may be materially worse than the county modeled average.
  2. Vacancy and operating costs may make net economics weaker than the stated gross yield suggests.
  3. MLS listing signals may not translate into closed-sale pricing or achievable rent for the target property.
Underwriting questions

Before pricing a property

Is a county market-rent measure published?

Yes. The record publishes a county median asking-rent measure.

Can HUD Fair Market Rent be used as the county’s asking-rent estimate?

No. The record identifies HUD FMR as a two-bedroom payment standard, not market rent.

What employment does QCEW measure here?

Annual average covered jobs located at workplaces in the county, not resident employment.