Cost of Living & Housing in Burns
Burns offers a genuinely affordable, remote high-desert cost of living -- though household income and the local job market run real, disclosed below the Oregon average, and Harney County's property tax rate carries a real, disclosed cross-source spread.
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Learn moreGenuinely affordable, thinly documented housing
Burns-specific housing data is limited given the town's genuinely small population; Harney County's own median home value ran $190,600 per one citation, against a considerably higher separately cited March 2026 median listing price of $275,000, with homes averaging roughly 185 days on the market (base record) -- a real, disclosed spread reflecting the county's thin, low-volume housing market.
A property tax rate with a real, disclosed cross-source spread
Harney County's effective property tax rate ran 0.93% per one median-rate citation, against a separately cited 0.80% (a different median citation) and a considerably higher 1.01% (an average-collected-rate citation) -- disclosed here by name rather than resolved. The countywide median annual bill ran $1,316 (base record).
Oregon's real, current income tax and zero sales tax -- NOT a zero-tax state
Oregon's progressive state income tax tops out at a real 9.9% marginal rate, applying to Burns residents the same as anywhere else in the state, genuinely offset by Oregon's complete absence of any state or local sales tax (0%, not merely low).
A ranching-and-agriculture income base, with real, disclosed below-average household income
Burns' median household income ran either $34,500 or a separately cited $41,858, both roughly 45% below the Oregon statewide figure, alongside a genuinely elevated unemployment rate of approximately 8.7% -- a real, disclosed reflection of the local ranching-and-agriculture economy's more limited job diversity (base record).
Key takeaways
- Burns' housing runs genuinely affordable but thinly documented, with a real, disclosed spread between Harney County's $190,600 median home value and a $275,000 median listing price citation.
- Harney County's property tax rate carries a real, disclosed cross-source spread (0.80%-1.01% effective).
- Oregon's real 9.9% top income tax bracket and zero sales tax apply here, the same as statewide.
- Burns' median household income runs roughly 45% below the Oregon statewide figure, with unemployment running a real, disclosed elevated ~8.7%.
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