Donnellson, Iowa.
Typical home $138,388 (-6.6% in a year). Fort Madison-Keokuk, IA-IL-MO metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$256 (+54%) since Feb 2022.
- 1 year
- Down $9,776 -7%
- $148,164$138,388 since Sep 2025
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.
- Donnellson$726
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
Typical home values in Donnellson, IA fell 6.6% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Donnellson, Lee County, Iowa
Donnellson is a city of 885 people in Lee County. Half its households earn more than $54,453 a year and half less, against $62,382 across Lee County; 14% of its people live below the poverty line. 72% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 28% are rented. Unemployment in Lee County was 4.0% in August 2026, and the county had 0.9% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Donnellson is a very small city in Lee County, Iowa, with a population that makes it a place where neighbors tend to know one another. Residents are somewhat younger than you might expect for a small Midwestern town, and most homes are lived in by their owners. Incomes run below the county's, and typical home values sit modest by national standards. Winters are cold, with real snow, and summers turn warm, with rain and melted snow spread through the year.
Work. Residents work mainly in shops, in schools, hospitals and social care, in manufacturing, and in professional and business services. A four-year degree is held by fewer adults than in many places, and few people work from home, so most head out to a job each day. Across Lee County, some of the largest workplaces are Conagra Brands, Fort Madison Community Hospital and the Fort Madison Community School District. Jobs across the county slipped a little last year, and unemployment there is lower than it was a year earlier.
Things to do. A short drive away is Shimek State Forest, a protected area good for walking among the trees, and the Battle of Athens State Historic Site, another protected area with a story from the region's past. The Faeth Farmstead and Orchard District, a garden, is also a short drive off. For a longer outing, Geode State Park and Nauvoo State Park are both protected areas a longer drive away.
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- 317households
- 23%of adults have a degree
- 14%below the poverty line
- 25 mintypical commute
- 4%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Lee County had 13,598 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 15°; warmest in July, with highs near 86° and lows near 65°. About 27 inches of snow and 39 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Donnellson weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Lee County
- Conagra BrandsMeat processed from carcasses539
- Henniges Automotive IowaExtruded, molded or lathe-cut rubber goods manufacturing428
- Fort Madison Community HospitalGeneral medical and surgical hospitals413
- Fort Madison Comm School DistrictSchool district349FTE
- Keokuk Comm School DistrictSchool district300FTE
- The Scotts Company - Fort MadisonPesticide and fertilizer manufacturing298
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters290
- Koch Fertilizer WeverNitrogenous fertilizer materials manufacturing256
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 52 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 5,472 people in all across the county; Donnellson has none 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
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Donnellson’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 Lee County and the Fort Madison-Keokuk, IA-IL-MO metro.
Donnellson home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Donnellson$138,388
- 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.
- Donnellson10
Zip codes with a Donnellson address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Donnellson — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zillow publishes no zip-level series with this city on the address.