Cresco, Iowa.
Typical home $212,419 (+9.5% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$656 (+143%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $18,492 +10%
- $193,926$212,419 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $59,592 +39%
- $152,826$212,419 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.
- Cresco$1,115
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 11 years.
Typical home values in Cresco, IA rose 9.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Cresco, Howard County, Iowa
Cresco is a city of 3,888 people in Howard County. Half its households earn more than $60,608 a year and half less, against $67,446 across Howard County; 13% of its people live below the poverty line. 75% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 25% are rented. Unemployment in Howard County was 3.1% in August 2026, and the county had 1.0% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Cresco is a small city in Howard County, Iowa, where most homes are lived in by their owners. Incomes run a little below the county's, and a smaller share of adults hold a four-year degree than in many places. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while summers are warm and the year brings a fair amount of rain and melted snow.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops, and restaurants and hotels also employing a good number. The largest workplaces in Cresco include the Howard-Winneshiek Community School District, Regional Health Services of Howard County, and Evans Memorial Home. Commutes are short, and unemployment in the county has stayed low, though the county has lost a few jobs over the past year.
Things to do. The Cresco Opera House, a theatre in or beside town, is the closest cultural stop. A short drive away are the Turkey River and Cold Water Spring State Preserve, a protected area for time outdoors. For a longer drive, Forestville/Mystery Cave State Park is a protected area that suits a day trip.
Report a mistake
- 1,598households
- 21%of adults have a degree
- 13%below the poverty line
- 18 mintypical commute
- 8%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Howard County had 4,358 jobs in 2025, 1.0% 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 83° and lows near 60°. About 40 inches of snow and 38 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Cresco Northeast weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Cresco
- Howard-Winneshiek Comm School DistrictSchool district176FTE
- Regional Health Services of Howard CCritical access hospital157FTE
- Evans Memorial HomeSkilled nursing facilities95
- Fareway Stores, Inc. 815 CrescoGrocery stores90
- Accura healthcare of CrescoNursing homes47
- International IngredientAnimal feeds, prepared, manufacturing32
- Cresco Building ServiceAddition, alteration and renovation general contractors, commercial and institutional building29
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 5 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 293 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
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Cresco’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 Howard County.
Cresco home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Cresco$212,419
- 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.
- Cresco18
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Cresco7
Zip codes with a Cresco address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Cresco — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.