Early, Iowa.
Typical home $158,383 (+8.6% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$358 (+76%) since Feb 2022.
- 1 year
- Up $12,507 +9%
- $145,876$158,383 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.
- Early$831
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
Typical home values in Early, IA rose 8.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Early, Sac County, Iowa
Early is a city of 587 people in Sac County. Half its households earn more than $91,370 a year and half less, against $73,838 across Sac County; 9% of its people live below the poverty line. 69% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 31% are rented. Unemployment in Sac County was 2.7% in August 2026, and the county had 0.5% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in manufacturing, 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Early is a very small city in Sac County, Iowa, where most homes are lived in by their owners. Household incomes run higher than across the county, and homes are priced modestly. Few adults have a four-year degree, and very few work from home. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, and summers are warm in July, with a fair amount of rain and melted snow through the year.
Work. Residents work mainly in manufacturing, shops, schools, hospitals and social care, and the building trades. Across Sac County, the largest workplaces include the East Sac County Comm School District, Loring Hospital and VTI of Iowa. The commute is a moderate one, and the county's unemployment rate has eased slightly from a year earlier, though the county has slightly fewer jobs than it did the year before.
Things to do. Outdoor places are within a longer drive. Black Hawk State Park is a protected area, and Black Hawk Lake is a lake nearby, both suited to a day by the water. The Living Heritage Tree Museum is a museum, also a longer drive away.
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- 335households
- 12%of adults have a degree
- 9%below the poverty line
- 22 mintypical commute
- 1%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Sac County had 2,954 jobs in 2025, 0.5% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 26° and lows near 8°; warmest in July, with highs near 83° and lows near 62°. About 31 inches of snow and 33 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Sac City weather station, 9 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Sac County
- East Sac County Comm School DistrictSchool district119FTE
- Loring HospitalCritical access hospital99FTE
- Park View Rehabilitation CenterNursing homes82
- VTI of IowaCountertops, wood, manufacturing64
- Schaller-Crestland Comm School DistrictSchool district57FTE
- Nutrien Ag SolutionsFarm supplies merchant wholesalers49
- Care Initiatives41
- City of Lake ViewCity and town councils32
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 8 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 434 people in all across the county; Early has none of its own. School districts come 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
- HailVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Early’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 Sac County.
Early home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Early$158,383
- 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.
- Early5
Zip codes with a Early address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Early — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.