Bagley, Iowa.
Typical home $164,505 (+2.8% in a year). Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$311 (+56%) since Feb 2022.
- 1 year
- Up $4,435 +3%
- $160,070$164,505 since Sep 2025
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.
- Bagley$863
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
Typical home values in Bagley, IA rose 2.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Bagley, Guthrie County, Iowa
Bagley is a city of 233 people in Guthrie County. Unemployment in Guthrie County was 3.2% in August 2026, and the county had 2.0% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Guthrie County work in schools and health care, then finance and property.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Bagley is a very small Iowa city in Guthrie County, the kind of place where residents tend to know one another. Homes here cost less than the typical home across much of the country, and fewer adults hold a four-year degree than in most places. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, and summers turn warm in July, with a fair amount of rain and melted snow through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with others in banks, insurance and property, in manufacturing, or in shops. Across Guthrie County, some of the biggest employers are Rose Acre Farms, which produces chicken eggs, the West Central Valley Community School District, and Guthrie County Hospital. The county has fewer jobs than it did the year before, and the commute to work is a fairly long one for many people.
Things to do. Springbrook State Park, a protected area, is a short drive away and is the nearest spot for a walk outdoors. Farther afield, Ledges State Park and Whiterock Conservancy are protected areas that take a longer drive to reach. Forest Park Museum and Arboretum, a botanical garden, is also a longer drive away.
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- 10%of adults have a degree
- 19%below the poverty line
- 33 mintypical commute
What people in Guthrie County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Guthrie County had 3,205 jobs in 2025, 2.0% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 28° and lows near 9°; warmest in July, with highs near 83° and lows near 63°. About 32 inches of snow and 35 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Jefferson weather station, 12 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Guthrie County
- Rose Acre FarmsChicken egg production172
- West Central Valley Comm School DistrictSchool district145FTE
- Panorama Comm School DistrictSchool district123FTE
- Guthrie County HospitalCritical access hospital110FTE
- Guthrie Center Comm School DistrictSchool district81FTE
- Iowa TrenchlessUtility line, construction74
- The New HomesteadHomes for the elderly with nursing care73
- Poet Bioprocessing MenloDenatured alcohol manufacturing56
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 16 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 976 people in all across the county; Bagley has none of its own. 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
- TornadoesVery high
- Strong windVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Bagley’s 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 Guthrie County and the Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA metro.
Bagley home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Bagley$164,505
- Iowa$236,623
- 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 Bagley address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Bagley — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.