Earling, Iowa.
Typical home $242,885 (+7.2% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$761 (+148%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $16,369 +7%
- $226,516$242,885 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $78,446 +48%
- $164,440$242,885 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.
- Earling$1,275
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 9 years.
Typical home values in Earling, IA rose 7.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Earling, Shelby County, Iowa
Earling is a city of 397 people in Shelby County. Unemployment in Shelby County was 2.9% in August 2026, and the county had 1.3% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Shelby County work in schools and health care, then shops.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Earling is a very small farm-country city in western Iowa, in Shelby County, with a population far smaller than most towns people would think of as a place to settle. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month and a fair amount of snow, while July brings real warmth. Rain and melted snow add up to a moderate amount over the year. Most adults do not hold a four-year degree, and commutes tend to be short.
Work. Residents work mainly in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in farming, and in manufacturing. Unemployment in Shelby County is low and about where it stood a year earlier, and the county has added a few more jobs than the year before. Across Shelby County, some of the largest workplaces are Monogram Prepared Meat, Myrtue Medical Center and the Harlan Comm School District. Some people also work from home.
Things to do. For time outdoors, Prairie Rose State Park is a park a longer drive away, and the Loess Hills is another park area a longer drive away. Those interested in history and heritage can visit the Museum of Danish America, a museum also a longer drive away. All of these are day trips rather than quick errands.
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- 218households
- 27%of adults have a degree
- 9%below the poverty line
- 19 mintypical commute
- 12%work from home
What people in Shelby County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Shelby County had 5,531 jobs in 2025, 1.3% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 31° and lows near 10°; warmest in July, with highs near 86° and lows near 64°. About 30 inches of snow and 34 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Harlan weather station, 10 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Shelby County
- Monogram Prepared MeatSausages and other prepared meats316
- Myrtue Medical CenterCritical access hospital215FTE
- Harlan Comm School DistrictSchool district188FTE
- Menards"general warehousing and storage"150
- Menards"wood window and door manufacturing"133
- Menards"general warehousing and storage"126
- Western Engineering CompanyAsphalt paving124
- Fareway Stores, Inc. 790 HarlanGrocery stores122
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 22 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,777 people in all across the county; Earling 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
- TornadoesVery high
- HailVery high
- Strong windVery high
- Cold wavesVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Earling’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 Shelby County.
Earling home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Earling$242,885
- 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.
Zip codes with a Earling address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Earling — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.