Chariton, Iowa.
Typical home $156,748 (+0.7% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$418 (+103%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $1,130 +1%
- $155,618$156,748 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $21,951 +16%
- $134,797$156,748 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.
- Chariton$823
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 23 years.
Typical home values in Chariton, IA rose 0.7% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Chariton, Lucas County, Iowa
Chariton is a city of 4,193 people in Lucas County. Half its households earn more than $46,979 a year and half less, against $61,793 across Lucas County; 17% of its people live below the poverty line. 64% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 36% are rented. Unemployment in Lucas County was 4.2% in August 2026, and the county had 5.2% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in shops, then schools and health care.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Chariton is a small city and the seat of Lucas County in southern Iowa. Residents are somewhat younger than in much of the country, and most homes are lived in by their owners. Incomes run well below the county's as a whole, and few adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month and a fair amount of snow, while July brings warm days, and rain and melted snow arrive steadily through the year.
Work. Many residents work in shops, in schools, hospitals and social care, and in manufacturing, with professional and business services close behind. Some of the largest workplaces in town are the Chariton Comm School District, Lucas County Health Center and Johnson Machine Works. Unemployment in Lucas County is about where it was a year ago, and the county has fewer jobs than it did the year before.
Things to do. Red Haw State Park, a protected area in or beside town, is the closest place to get outdoors. A longer drive away are Knoxville Raceway, one of the best known race tracks in the area, and the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum. Rathbun Lake, a large reservoir, is also a longer drive away and suits a day out on the water.
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- 1,821households
- 13%of adults have a degree
- 17%below the poverty line
- 5%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Lucas County had 3,177 jobs in 2025, 5.2% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 31° and lows near 11°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 62°. About 24 inches of snow and 37 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Chariton East weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Chariton
- Hy-VeeRefrigerated warehousing and storage1,207
- Chariton Comm School DistrictSchool district185FTE
- Lucas County Health CenterCritical access hospital131FTE
- Hy-VeeSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores115
- Johnson Machine WorksBarge sections, prefabricated metal, manufacturing70
- Care Initiatives50
- Hy-VeeCommercial banking44
- CharitonMail and parcel delivery23
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 7 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,724 people in all. 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
- Strong windRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Chariton’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 Lucas County.
Chariton home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Chariton$156,748
- Iowa$236,623
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Chariton listings — the market is cooling.
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.
- Chariton22.81%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Chariton50
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Chariton8
Zip codes with a Chariton address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Chariton — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.