Ames, Nebraska.
Typical home $320,907 (+7.3% in a year). Fremont, NE metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$963 (+134%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $21,827 +7%
- $299,081$320,907 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $81,299 +34%
- $239,608$320,907 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.
- Ames$1,684
- 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 Ames, NE rose 7.3% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Ames, Dodge County, Nebraska
Ames, in Dodge County, had 14 people in the 2020 census. Unemployment in Dodge County was 2.4% in August 2026, and the county had 1.1% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Dodge County work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
Written by AI Claude Haiku 5.5 wrote this on 22 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Ames is a small community in Dodge County in eastern Nebraska, where very few people lived at the last count. Its residents are spread across the surrounding farmland and countryside, and the community is known for the quiet of its rural setting.
Work. Most people in the area work in schools, hospitals and social care, manufacturing, retail shops, or the building trades. Joblessness has eased in the area over the past while, though the number of jobs has dipped slightly.
Things to do. The Love-Larson Opera House, a theatre, is a short drive away, and the Fremont Lakes State Recreation Area, a protected area, is also a short drive off. The Nebraska Railroad Museum, a museum, is a short drive away, and the Elkhorn River, a river, lies a longer drive away.
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What people in Dodge County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Dodge County had 18,382 jobs in 2025, 1.1% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 32° and lows near 13°; warmest in July, with highs near 87° and lows near 65°. About 30 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Fremont weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Dodge County
- Wholestone FarmsFats, animal, produced in slaughtering plants1,244
- Lincoln Premium PoultryChicken hatchery and processing1,182
- Nebraska Methodist Health SystemGeneral medical and surgical hospitals825
- Fremont Public SchoolsSchool district667FTE
- Structural Component SystemsTrusses, wood roof or floor, manufacturing465
- FCC Fremont Contract Carriers - MAIN OFFICE AND TRUCK SHOPGeneral freight trucking, long-distance, truckload411
- Midland UniversityUniversity or college405
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters352
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 37 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 7,362 people in all across the county; Ames has none of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and colleges from IPEDS (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
- HailVery high
- Strong windVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Ames’ census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively 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 Dodge County and the Fremont, NE metro.
Ames home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Ames$320,907
- 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.
Zip codes with a Ames address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Ames — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.