Fairfield, Nebraska.
Typical home $160,358 (+14.4% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$486 (+137%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $20,134 +14%
- $140,224$160,358 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $42,288 +36%
- $118,069$160,358 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$842
- Nebraska$1,461
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 11 years.
Typical home values in Fairfield, NE rose 14.4% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Fairfield, Clay County, Nebraska
Fairfield is a city of 330 people in Clay County. Half its households earn more than $67,188 a year and half less, against $78,986 across Clay County; 8% of its people live below the poverty line. 74% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 26% are rented. Unemployment in Clay County was 2.1% in August 2026, and the county had 2.0% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then finance and property.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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 very small city in Clay County, Nebraska, where most homes are lived in by their owners. Incomes here run below the county's, and typical home values are modest. Fewer adults hold a four-year degree than in many places, and the town has the quiet, close-knit feel that comes with its size.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with others in banks, insurance and property, professional and business services, and manufacturing. Across Clay County, some of the largest workplaces are South Central Nebraska Unified 5, the Agricultural Research Service and Sutton Public Schools. Jobs across the county have dipped a little in the past year, while unemployment remains low. Commutes are short, and a small group works from home.
Things to do. For an outing, the Lawrence Opera House is a theatre a longer drive away, and the Hastings Museum is a museum, also a longer drive away. Rabbit Run Creek, a river, is another longer drive for time outdoors. Winters are cold and snowy, summers are hot, and rain and snowmelt come in fair measure through the year.
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- 151households
- 19%of adults have a degree
- 8%below the poverty line
- 22 mintypical commute
- 12%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Clay County had 2,036 jobs in 2025, 2.0% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 35° and lows near 16°; warmest in July, with highs near 87° and lows near 66°. About 18 inches of snow and 30 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Clay Ctr weather station, 7 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Clay County
- South Central Nebraska Unified 5School district145FTE
- Agricultural Research ServiceFederal government · Department of Agriculture83
- Sutton Public SchoolsSchool district70FTE
- Sutton Community HomeNursing homes66
- Harvard Public SchoolsSchool district57FTE
- R Lazy KCattle feedlots39
- George Brothers Propane & FertilizerAgricultural chemicals merchant wholesalers27
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 132 people in all across the county; Fairfield has none of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and federal offices from OPM's federal workforce data (2026); 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
- Strong windVery high
- LightningVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- Winter weatherVery high
- Ice stormsVery 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, very 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 Clay County.
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$160,358
- Nebraska$278,299
- 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 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.