Burlington, Iowa.
Typical home $125,733 (+0.9% in a year), asking rent $983 . Burlington, IA-IL metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$274 (+71%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $1,142 +1%
- $124,590$125,733 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $13,546 +12%
- $112,187$125,733 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.
- Burlington$660
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 30 years.
Typical home values in Burlington, IA rose 0.9% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Burlington, Des Moines County, Iowa
Burlington is a city of 23,982 people in Des Moines County. Half its households earn more than $59,000 a year and half less, against $62,928 across Des Moines County; 13% of its people live below the poverty line. 71% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 29% are rented. Unemployment in Burlington was 6.0% in August 2026, and Des Moines County had 1.2% more 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Burlington is a mid-sized Iowa city whose residents are somewhat older than in much of the country. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and typical home values and rents sit at a modest level. Household incomes run a little below the county's, and fewer adults hold a four-year degree than in many places. Winters are cold, summers are warm, and precipitation falls steadily through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops, and restaurants and hotels also employing a good share. Among the largest workplaces in Burlington are Shearer's Foods, the Burlington Community School District and CNH Industrial America's Burlington plant. Commutes are short, and very few people work from home. Unemployment has edged up over the past year, while across Des Moines County the number of jobs grew slightly.
Things to do. Crapo Park, a botanical garden in or beside town, is a quiet place for a walk, and Dankwardt Park, also in or beside town, offers open green space. The Capitol Theater, a theatre in or beside town, hosts shows and performances close to home. For a change of scenery, Geode State Park, a protected area, is a longer drive away.
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- 11,070households
- 22%of adults have a degree
- 13%below the poverty line
- 16 mintypical commute
- 5%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Des Moines County had 20,080 jobs in 2025, 1.2% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 32° and lows near 16°; warmest in July, with highs near 85° and lows near 66°. About 38 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Burlington Municipal Airport weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Burlington
- Shearer's Foods - BURCookies manufacturing723
- Burlington Comm School DistrictSchool district604FTE
- Tenneco (Federal Mogul, LLC.)Spark plugs for internal combustion engines manufacturing353
- City of BurlingtonLaw enforcement statistics centers, government352
- CNH Industrial America LLC - Burlington PlantBackhoes manufacturing289
- Hy-VeeSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores238
- Silgan Containers BurlingtonMetal cans, light gauge metal, manufacturing145
- Winegard North PlantAirborne radio communications equipment manufacturing135
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 30 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,355 people in all. School districts come 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
- Strong windRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Burlington’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively low. 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 Des Moines County and the Burlington, IA-IL metro.
Burlington home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Burlington$125,733
- Iowa$236,623
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Burlington listings, and the typical home goes pending in 49 days — 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.
- Burlington21.05%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Burlington49
- United States24
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Burlington157
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Burlington42
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Burlington$122,741
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Burlington95.65%
Zip codes with a Burlington address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Burlington — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.