Bernard, Iowa.
Typical home $292,617 (+6.6% in a year). Dubuque, IA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$819 (+114%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $18,174 +7%
- $274,442$292,617 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $79,063 +37%
- $213,554$292,617 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.
- Bernard$1,536
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 11 years.
Typical home values in Bernard, IA rose 6.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Bernard, Jackson County, Iowa
Bernard is a city of 114 people in Jackson County. 94% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 6% are rented. Unemployment in Jackson County was 4.3% in August 2026, and the county had 2.0% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Jackson 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Bernard is a city in Jackson County, in eastern Iowa, and it is a quiet place where few residents live below the poverty line. Most homes here are lived in by their owners, and neighbors tend to know one another. Winters are cold, colder than in most of the country, and snow is common, while summers are warm and rain falls steadily through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in manufacturing, in local shops, or in farming, forestry and mining. Few people work from home, so most people commute or work on the job site. Across Jackson County, job numbers have eased somewhat over the past year.
Things to do. Dubuque Arboretum and Botanical Gardens, a botanical garden, is a longer drive away and is one of the best-known spots nearby. Maquoketa Caves State Park, a protected area, and the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium, a museum, are also a longer drive away.
Report a mistake
- 4%below the poverty line
- 3%work from home
What people in Jackson County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Jackson County had 5,754 jobs in 2025, 2.0% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 26° and lows near 11°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 62°. About 42 inches of snow and 38 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Dubuque Regional Airport weather station, 9 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Jackson County
- Family Dollar, LLC DC206General warehousing and storage237
- Maquoketa Comm School DistrictSchool district223FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters194
- HUSCO International MaquoketaValves, hydraulic and pneumatic, fluid power, manufacturing117
- Jackson County Public HospitalCritical access hospital109FTE
- Bellevue Comm School DistrictSchool district96FTE
- Plastics UnlimitedAwnings, rigid plastics or fiberglass, manufacturing90
- Imagine the PossibilitiesJob training, vocational rehabilitation or habilitation88
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 20 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,459 people in all across the county; Bernard 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
- HailRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- DroughtRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Bernard’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. 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 Jackson County and the Dubuque, IA metro.
Bernard home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Bernard$292,617
- 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.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Bernard8
Zip codes with a Bernard address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Bernard — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.