Fairfield, Iowa.
Typical home $156,855 (+0.6% in a year), asking rent $748 . Fairfield, IA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$405 (+97%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $891 +1%
- $155,964$156,855 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $24,766 +19%
- $132,089$156,855 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.
- Fairfield$823
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 20 years.
Typical home values in Fairfield, IA rose 0.6% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Fairfield, Jefferson County, Iowa
Fairfield is a city of 9,416 people in Jefferson County. Half its households earn more than $51,311 a year and half less, against $61,620 across Jefferson County; 21% of its people live below the poverty line. 60% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 40% are rented. Unemployment in Jefferson County was 4.1% in August 2026, and the county had 1.8% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Fairfield is a small city and the center of Jefferson County, Iowa. Its residents are older than the typical American, and a large share of adults hold a four-year degree, which is unusual for a town this size. Incomes run below the county's, and more people live below the poverty line than you might expect, though most homes are lived in by their owners. Winters are cold, with January highs near freezing and lows well below it, and summers turn properly warm by July. Snow falls through the winter, and rain and melted snow come at a moderate pace across the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with shops, banks and insurance, and manufacturing following behind. Among the largest workplaces in Fairfield are Maharishi International University, the Fairfield Comm School District and Jefferson County Hospital. Across the county there are fewer jobs than the year before, and commutes are short, with a good number of people working from home.
Things to do. Closest to hand is Blum Stadium, in or beside town. For time outdoors, Lake Darling State Park is a protected area and a longer drive away, as is the Skunk River, which offers water to walk beside. Indoors, the McHaffey Opera House is a theatre, also a longer drive away.
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- 4,115households
- 53%of adults have a degree
- 21%below the poverty line
- 13 mintypical commute
- 25%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Jefferson County had 7,058 jobs in 2025, 1.8% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 31° and lows near 14°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 64°. About 22 inches of snow and 38 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Fairfield weather station, a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Fairfield
- Maharishi International UniversityUniversity or college508
- Fairfield Comm School DistrictSchool district279FTE
- Dexter LaundryCommercial and industrial machinery & equipment manufacturing240
- Jefferson County HospitalCritical access hospital231FTE
- Fairfield Carrier STAMail and parcel delivery35
- Addington Place of FairfieldAssisted-living facilities without on-site nursing care facilities30
- H & H Mold and ToolingMolds for forming materials manufacturing22
- Drish ConstructionExcavation contractors20
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 7 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 742 people in all. 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
- LightningVery high
- Strong windVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- HailRelatively 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 Fairfield’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 Jefferson County and the Fairfield, IA metro.
Fairfield home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Fairfield$156,855
- Iowa$236,623
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Fairfield listings — the market is cooling.
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
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Fairfield21.59%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Fairfield89
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Fairfield20
Zip codes with a Fairfield address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Fairfield — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.