Creston, Nebraska.
Typical home $407,652 (+9.8% in a year). Columbus, NE metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,309 (+158%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $36,381 +10%
- $371,271$407,652 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $149,925 +58%
- $257,727$407,652 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.
- Creston$2,140
- Nebraska$1,461
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 8 years.
Typical home values in Creston, NE rose 9.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Creston, Platte County, Nebraska
Creston is a village of 181 people in Platte County. Half its households earn more than $64,792 a year and half less, against $71,552 across Platte County; 5% of its people live below the poverty line. Unemployment in Platte County was 2.3% in August 2026, and the county had 0.5% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Platte County work in manufacturing, 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Creston is a very small village in Platte County, Nebraska, where neighbors are likely to know one another. Residents are somewhat younger than the typical American, and household incomes sit below the county's, though few households live below the poverty line. Homes here are valued well above what that income level might suggest. Winters are cold, with January highs hovering around freezing and nights well below it, while July brings warm days, and the year's precipitation is modest, split between rain and melted snow.
Work. Residents earn their living mainly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, and in the building trades. Across Platte County, some of the largest workplaces are Becton Dickinson, which makes medical supplies, Columbus Community Hospital, and Columbus Public Schools. The typical commute is a modest drive, and very few people work from home. Unemployment across the county is low and has edged down over the past year, though the county has a slightly smaller number of jobs than it did a year ago.
Things to do. For an evening out, the closest well-known options are theatres, all a longer drive away. The Clarkson Opera House is the best known, and Norfolk Community Theatre and Schneider's Opera House are other stage venues in the region. Battle Creek, a river, is also a longer drive away and offers a quieter outing outdoors.
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- 5%below the poverty line
- 21 mintypical commute
- 1%work from home
What people in Platte County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Platte County had 19,915 jobs in 2025, 0.5% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 32° and lows near 10°; warmest in July, with highs near 85° and lows near 62°. About 28 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Madison weather station, 10 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Platte County
- BD MedicalHypodermic needles and syringes manufacturing1,100
- Becton DickinsonPharmaceutical manufacturing plant construction830
- Columbus Community HospitalGeneral hospital675FTE
- Columbus Public SchoolsSchool district659FTE
- Behlen Mfg. CoWarehouses, prefabricated metal, manufacturing620
- Archer Daniels Midland Company379
- CargillMeat products made from a combination of poultry and other meats378
- Vishay Dale Plant 2 and HRResistors, electronic, manufacturing310
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 61 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 8,591 people in all across the county; Creston 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
- HailVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- Strong windVery high
- Winter weatherVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Creston’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively high. 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 Platte County and the Columbus, NE metro.
Creston home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Creston$407,652
- Nebraska$278,299
- 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.
Zip codes with a Creston address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Creston — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.