Fayette, Iowa.
Typical home $173,113 (+5.1% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$502 (+123%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $8,380 +5%
- $164,733$173,113 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $48,187 +39%
- $124,926$173,113 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.
- Fayette$909
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 11 years.
Typical home values in Fayette, IA rose 5.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Fayette, Fayette County, Iowa
Fayette is a city of 1,256 people in Fayette County. Unemployment in Fayette County was 3.5% in August 2026, and the county had 0.2% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then transport and warehouses.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Fayette is a small city in northeastern Iowa, and its people are young for a town of any kind, which fits a place built around a college. Homes here cost less than the typical American home, and many adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, and summers turn warm in July, with a fair amount of rain through the year.
Work. Upper Iowa University is the largest workplace in town, and Maple Crest Manor, a skilled nursing facility, is another of the biggest. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, and others work in transport, warehouses and utilities, in manufacturing, or in restaurants and hotels. Commutes are short, and most people get to work without a long drive.
Things to do. Volga River State Recreation Area is a park in or beside town, handy for time outdoors. A longer drive brings you to Fort Atkinson, a historic fort, and to Backbone State Park, a protected area of woods and trails.
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- 451households
- 33%of adults have a degree
- 15 mintypical commute
- 8%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Fayette County had 6,976 jobs in 2025, 0.2% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 24° and lows near 6°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 60°. About 41 inches of snow and 40 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Fayette weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Fayette
- Upper Iowa UniversityUniversity or college399
- Maple Crest ManorSkilled nursing facilities86
- AramarkFood service contractors36
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 2 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 122 people in all. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24). 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
- Strong windVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively 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 Fayette’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 Fayette County.
Fayette home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Fayette$173,113
- 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.
- Fayette9
Zip codes with a Fayette address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Fayette — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.