Dayton, Indiana.
Typical home $233,755 (+2.9% in a year). Lafayette-West Lafayette, IN metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$692 (+129%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $6,678 +3%
- $227,077$233,755 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $58,253 +33%
- $175,502$233,755 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.
- Dayton$1,227
- Indiana$1,350
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Dayton, IN rose 2.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Dayton, Tippecanoe County, Indiana
Dayton is a town of 1,330 people in Tippecanoe County. Half its households earn more than $78,289 a year and half less, against $60,636 across Tippecanoe County; 12% of its people live below the poverty line. 81% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 19% are rented. Unemployment in Tippecanoe County was 3.6% in August 2026, and the county had 0.9% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Dayton is a small town in Tippecanoe County, and its residents are younger on the whole than in many small towns. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and household incomes run well above the county's. Fewer adults hold a four-year degree than you might expect given those incomes, and the poverty rate is modest. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month and a fair amount of snow, while July brings warm summer days and the year as a whole is fairly wet.
Work. Residents work mainly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, and in the building trades. The biggest employers across Tippecanoe County include Purdue University, Subaru of Indiana Automotive and Lafayette Engine Center. Unemployment across the county has eased a little compared with a year earlier, though the county has seen a slight dip in the number of jobs. Commutes are fairly short, and only a small share of people work from home.
Things to do. The Tippecanoe River is a short drive away for time on the water. Prophetstown State Park, also a short drive off, is a protected area with room to walk and watch wildlife. For something indoors, the Haan Mansion Museum of Indiana Art is a museum a short drive away, and Fort Ouiatenon, a fort, is a longer drive.
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- 19%of adults have a degree
- 12%below the poverty line
- 18 mintypical commute
- 7%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Tippecanoe County had 91,936 jobs in 2025, 0.9% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 33° and lows near 18°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 64°. About 20 inches of snow and 40 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Lafayette South weather station, 9 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Tippecanoe County
- Purdue UniversityUniversity or college12,300
- Subaru of Indiana AutomotiveAssembly plants, passenger car, on chassis of own manufacture6,415
- Lafayette Engine CenterDiesel and semidiesel engines manufacturing2,834
- Purdue University GlobalUniversity or college2,670
- Wabash Lafayette NorthTruck trailers1,780
- Tippecanoe School CorpSchool district1,456FTE
- Franciscan Health LafayetteGeneral hospital1,222FTE
- IU Health Arnett HospitalGeneral hospital1,010FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 145 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 33,390 people in all across the county; Dayton has one of its own. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24), school districts 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
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Dayton’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 Tippecanoe County and the Lafayette-West Lafayette, IN metro.
Dayton home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Dayton$233,755
- Indiana$257,165
- 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.
- Dayton6
Zip codes with a Dayton address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Dayton — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.