Britt, Iowa.
Typical home $156,585 (+0.5% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$441 (+116%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $848 +1%
- $155,737$156,585 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $29,176 +23%
- $127,409$156,585 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.
- Britt$822
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 17 years.
Typical home values in Britt, IA rose 0.5% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Britt, Hancock County, Iowa
Britt is a city of 2,044 people in Hancock County. Half its households earn more than $72,943 a year and half less, against $70,601 across Hancock County; 10% of its people live below the poverty line. 78% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 22% are rented. Unemployment in Hancock County was 2.8% in August 2026, and the county had 3.7% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Britt is a small city in Hancock County, Iowa, where the population is older than in much of the country and most homes are lived in by their owners. Household incomes run a little above the county's, and homes are modestly priced. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, and summers are warm, with rain and melted snow adding up to a fairly typical amount through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops, and restaurants and hotels also employing people. Hancock County Health System, Westview Care Center and West Hancock Comm School District are among the largest workplaces in Britt. Unemployment in the county is low and slightly lower than a year earlier, though the county has fewer jobs than it did the year before. The typical commute is short, and some people work from home.
Things to do. Plum Creek, a river, is a short drive away. Farther afield, Clear Lake is a lake a longer drive away, and Pilot Knob State Park, a protected area, is also a longer drive away. These give residents room for time on the water or among trees and open ground.
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- 865households
- 28%of adults have a degree
- 10%below the poverty line
- 18 mintypical commute
- 12%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Hancock County had 5,761 jobs in 2025, 3.7% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 24° and lows near 6°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 62°. About 34 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Britt 3E weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Britt
- Hancock County Health SystemCritical access hospital166FTE
- Westview Care CenterSkilled nursing facilities98
- West Hancock Comm School DistrictSchool district89FTE
- Summit House Retirement CommunityAssisted-living facilities without on-site nursing care facilities27
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 290 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and school districts from the Common Core of Data (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
- Winter weatherVery high
- Cold wavesVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Britt’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 Hancock County.
Britt home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Britt$156,585
- Iowa$236,623
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Britt listings — the market is roughly in balance.
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
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Britt21.01%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Britt22
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Britt6
Zip codes with a Britt address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Britt — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.