Galva, Iowa.
Typical home $203,498 (+5.2% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$349 (+48%) since Feb 2022.
- 1 year
- Up $10,141 +5%
- $193,356$203,498 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.
- Galva$1,068
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
Typical home values in Galva, IA rose 5.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Galva, Ida County, Iowa
Galva is a city of 435 people in Ida County. Half its households earn more than $73,750 a year and half less, against $63,073 across Ida County. Unemployment in Ida County was 2.6% in August 2026, and the county had 2.0% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Ida County work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Galva is a very small city in Ida County, Iowa, where everyone is likely to know one another by sight. Household incomes run higher than across the county, and a typical home costs less than many in larger cities. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while July brings warm days; the year also sees a fair amount of rain and melted snow.
Work. Residents most often work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by manufacturing, farming and shops. Across Ida County, the largest workplaces include Gomaco Corporation, which makes concrete finishing machinery, Horn Memorial Hospital, a critical access hospital, and the Odebolt Arthur Battle Creek Ida Grove Community School District. Joblessness in the county is low, and the number of jobs grew a little last year. Commutes are fairly short, and very few people work from home.
Things to do. Black Hawk State Park, a protected area with Black Hawk Lake beside it, is a longer drive away and suits a day of walking or time by the water. The Living Heritage Tree Museum is also a longer drive away for those who enjoy a quiet museum visit. Battle Creek runs through the area and is a longer drive away as well.
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- 155households
- 18%of adults have a degree
- 19 mintypical commute
- 2%work from home
What people in Ida County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Ida County had 3,654 jobs in 2025, 2.0% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 26° and lows near 9°; warmest in July, with highs near 81° and lows near 63°. About 35 inches of snow and 33 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Holstein weather station, 7 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Ida County
- VTI - Architectural Wood ProductsDoors, wood and covered wood, manufacturing618
- Midwest IndustriesBoat transporter trailers, single-unit, manufacturing278
- Gomaco Corporation PlantConcrete finishing machinery manufacturing215
- Odebolt Arthur Battle Creek Ida Grove Comm School DistrictSchool district153FTE
- Gomaco Corporation PlantConcrete finishing machinery manufacturing138
- Horn Memorial HospitalCritical access hospital120FTE
- Galva-Holstein Comm School DistrictSchool district86FTE
- Willow Dale Wellness VillageSkilled nursing facilities60
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 11 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,643 people in all across the county; Galva 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
- Strong windRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Galva’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 Ida County.
Galva home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Galva$203,498
- 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 Galva address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Galva — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.