Dunkerton, Iowa.
Typical home $241,071 (+1.2% in a year). Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$660 (+109%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $2,917 +1%
- $238,154$241,071 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $59,345 +33%
- $181,726$241,071 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.
- Dunkerton$1,265
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Dunkerton, IA rose 1.2% over the past year — in step with the nation.
Living in Dunkerton, Black Hawk County, Iowa
Dunkerton is a city of 842 people in Black Hawk County. Half its households earn more than $86,413 a year and half less, against $66,417 across Black Hawk County; 7% of its people live below the poverty line. 85% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 15% are rented. Unemployment in Black Hawk County was 4.1% in August 2026, and the county had 0.2% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Dunkerton is a very small city, and most homes in it are lived in by their owners. Household incomes run well above the county's, and fewer people live below the poverty line than you might expect. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, and a good deal of snow falls each year. Summers turn warm, with July the warmest month, and rain and melted snow add up to a fair amount over the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, government and retail also employing many. Across Black Hawk County, some of the biggest workplaces are Tyson Fresh Meats, MercyOne Waterloo Medical Center and the University of Northern Iowa. Unemployment in the county has eased a little compared with a year earlier, though the number of jobs has slipped slightly. A fair number of people work from home, and the commute for most is a moderate one.
Things to do. For time outdoors, Hartman Reserve Nature Center is a protected area with trails, and the Shell Rock River is a longer drive away. Cedar Valley Arboretum & Botanic Gardens is a botanical garden, also a longer drive. For an indoor outing, the Grout Museum is a museum, likewise a longer drive from town.
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- 312households
- 18%of adults have a degree
- 7%below the poverty line
- 24 mintypical commute
- 12%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Black Hawk County had 70,713 jobs in 2025, 0.2% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 28° and lows near 11°; warmest in July, with highs near 85° and lows near 64°. About 39 inches of snow and 36 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Waterloo Municipal Airport weather station, 12 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Black Hawk County
- Tyson Fresh MeatsAnimal slaughtering2,863
- Mercyone Waterloo Medical CenterGeneral hospital1,961FTE
- University of Northern IowaUniversity or college1,705
- Waterloo Comm School DistrictSchool district1,648FTE
- Allen Memorial HospitalGeneral hospital1,264FTE
- John Deere Waterloo Works Drive Train OperationsFarm tractors and attachments manufacturing1,168
- VGM GroupOffice administration services1,125
- John Deere Waterloo Works Product Engineering CenterTesting equipment manufacturing1,120
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 173 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 29,125 people in all across the county; Dunkerton has two of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), colleges from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) 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
- DroughtRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
- HailRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Dunkerton’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 Black Hawk County and the Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA metro.
Dunkerton home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Dunkerton$241,071
- 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.
- Dunkerton7
Zip codes with a Dunkerton address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Dunkerton — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.