Cambridge, Iowa.
Typical home $338,098 (+3.9% in a year). Ames, IA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$969 (+120%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $12,754 +4%
- $325,344$338,098 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $77,044 +30%
- $261,055$338,098 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.
- Cambridge$1,775
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Cambridge, IA rose 3.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Cambridge, Story County, Iowa
Cambridge is a city of 827 people in Story County. 83% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 17% are rented. Unemployment in Story County was 3.0% in August 2026, and the county had 1.1% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Cambridge is a very small Iowa city in Story County, where nearly everyone lives in a home they own. Incomes here are not far from the county's, and the winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month and July the warmest. Rain and melted snow fall steadily across the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops and professional and business services also employing many. Few people have a four-year degree compared with more urban parts of the state, and a small number work from home. Some of the largest workplaces across Story County are Mary Greeley Medical Center, Ames Comm School District and Hormel Foods.
Things to do. A short drive away, Reiman Gardens is a botanical garden, and the High Trestle Trail is a protected area for walking and cycling. Jack Trice Stadium, also a short drive away, hosts college football. For a longer outing, the Iowa State Capitol is a museum, and Adventureland is an amusement park, both a longer drive away.
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- 16%of adults have a degree
- 11%below the poverty line
- 24 mintypical commute
- 6%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Story County had 47,004 jobs in 2025, 1.1% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 28° and lows near 10°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 62°. About 27 inches of snow and 38 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Ames Southeast weather station, 4 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Story County
- Mary Greeley Medical CenterGeneral hospital1,084FTE
- Ames Comm School DistrictSchool district602FTE
- Hormel FoodsProcessed meats manufacturing561
- City of Ames, IowaBus transit systems464
- McFarland ClinicPhysicians' offices463
- New Century FSAgricultural chemicals merchant wholesalers441
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters385
- 3M Company378
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 125 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 13,395 people in all across the county; Cambridge has none of its own. 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 weatherRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- HailRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Cambridge’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 Story County and the Ames, IA metro.
Cambridge home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Cambridge$338,098
- 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.
- Cambridge9
Zip codes with a Cambridge address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Cambridge — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.