Colfax, Iowa.
Typical home $190,612 (+2.5% in a year). Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$522 (+109%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $4,627 +2%
- $185,985$190,612 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $42,403 +29%
- $148,208$190,612 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.
- Colfax$1,000
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 14 years.
Typical home values in Colfax, IA rose 2.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Colfax, Jasper County, Iowa
Colfax is a city of 2,255 people in Jasper County. Half its households earn more than $79,318 a year and half less, against $71,311 across Jasper County; 9% of its people live below the poverty line. 69% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 31% are rented. Unemployment in Jasper County was 3.6% in August 2026, and the county had 2.2% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then construction.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Colfax is a small city in Jasper County where most homes are lived in by their owners, and household incomes run above the county's. Fewer residents live below the poverty line than you might expect for a town this size, and a four-year degree is held by a minority of adults. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, and summers turn warm in July, with rain and melted snow adding up to a moderate amount over the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, the building trades, shops, and restaurants and hotels. The commute is a short one, and a small group works from home. Across Jasper County, some of the largest workplaces are Newton Comm School District, TPI Composites and Van Maanen Electric, and the county has added jobs over the past year.
Things to do. The closest outing is Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge, a protected area a short drive away. A longer drive brings you to Adventureland, an amusement park, and the Des Moines Art Center, a museum. Iowa Speedway, a race track, is also a longer drive from town.
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- 846households
- 22%of adults have a degree
- 9%below the poverty line
- 20 mintypical commute
- 8%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Jasper County had 10,688 jobs in 2025, 2.2% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 30° and lows near 13°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 64°. About 37 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Des Moines East weather station, 9 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Jasper County
- Newton Comm School DistrictSchool district413FTE
- TPI CompositesWind turbines manufacturing300
- Van Maanen ElectricElectrical contractors282
- Co-Line WeldingMachine shops255
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters236
- City of Newton IowaExecutive offices, federal, state, and local199
- Hy-VeeSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores186
- PCM Comm School DistrictSchool district164FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 38 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,516 people in all across the county; Colfax has two of its own. 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 windVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Colfax’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 Jasper County and the Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA metro.
Colfax home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Colfax$190,612
- 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.
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.
- Colfax12
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Colfax address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Colfax — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.