Alma, Nebraska.
Typical home $197,574 (+2.6% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$609 (+142%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $5,084 +3%
- $192,490$197,574 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $48,924 +33%
- $148,650$197,574 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.
- Alma$1,037
- Nebraska$1,461
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Alma, NE rose 2.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Alma, Harlan County, Nebraska
Alma is a city of 1,043 people in Harlan County. Half its households earn more than $75,703 a year and half less, against $70,625 across Harlan County; 4% of its people live below the poverty line. 81% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 19% are rented. Unemployment in Harlan County was 1.8% in August 2026, and the county had 1.9% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then professional services.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Alma is a small city where most homes are lived in by their owners, and incomes run a little above the county's. Poverty is uncommon, and a four-year degree is held by a minority of adults. Winters are cold, and summers turn properly hot.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with others in professional and business services, wholesale and manufacturing. The largest workplaces in Alma include Alma Public Schools, Harlan County Health System and GSS Alma Nursing Facility. Commutes are short, and very few people work from home.
Things to do. Harlan County Reservoir is a short drive away and offers time by the water. Sappa Creek, a river, is also a short drive away, and Beaver Creek, another river, is a longer drive away.
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- 479households
- 29%of adults have a degree
- 4%below the poverty line
- 17 mintypical commute
- 3%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Harlan County had 869 jobs in 2025, 1.9% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 39° and lows near 14°; warmest in July, with highs near 90° and lows near 65°. About 15 inches of snow and 25 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Harlan County Lake weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Alma
- Alma Public SchoolsSchool district75FTE
- GSS Alma Nursing FacilityNursing homes50
- Harlan County Health SystemCritical access hospital48FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 2 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 160 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); 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
- HailVery high
- Strong windVery high
- DroughtVery high
- Winter weatherVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- Ice stormsVery high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Alma’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 Harlan County.
Alma home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Alma$197,574
- Nebraska$278,299
- 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.
- Alma15
Zip codes with a Alma address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Alma — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.