Garner, Iowa.
Typical home $228,634 (+4.5% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$676 (+129%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $9,919 +5%
- $218,715$228,634 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $53,829 +31%
- $174,805$228,634 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.
- Garner$1,200
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Garner, IA rose 4.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Garner, Hancock County, Iowa
Garner is a city of 3,065 people in Hancock County. Half its households earn more than $70,726 a year and half less, against $70,601 across Hancock County; 12% of its people live below the poverty line. 80% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 20% are rented. Unemployment in Hancock County was 2.8% in August 2026, and the county had 3.7% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in manufacturing, then schools and health care.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Garner is a small city in Hancock County, Iowa, where most households own their homes and the population is older than in much of the country. Incomes are about the same as across the county, and a four-year degree is less common among adults here than in many places. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while summers turn warm in July, and the year brings a fair amount of rain and melted snow.
Work. People in Garner work mainly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, and in transport, warehouses and utilities. Among the largest workplaces in town are Stellar Industries, which makes and installs truck equipment, the Garner-Hayfield-Ventura Comm School District, and Hy-Vee. Commutes are short, and few people work from home. Across Hancock County there were fewer jobs last year than the year before, though unemployment there has stayed low.
Things to do. Clear Lake, a lake a short drive away, is the best known spot nearby, and McIntosh Woods State Park, also a short drive away, offers a park setting beside it. For a longer drive, Pilot Knob State Park is a protected area, and the MacNider Art Museum is a museum for a day out. Garner sits in open farm country, so most outings are by car.
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- 1,381households
- 22%of adults have a degree
- 12%below the poverty line
- 11 mintypical commute
- 5%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Hancock County had 5,761 jobs in 2025, 3.7% fewer 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 62°. About 34 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Britt 3E weather station, 7 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Garner
- Stellar IndustriesManufacturing and installation of truck equipment510
- VocationalManufacturing plant282
- Garner-Hayfield-Ventura Comm School DistrictSchool district118FTE
- Concord Care CenterSkilled nursing facilities75
- Plas-Tech ToolingIndustrial mold manufacturing47
- Hy-VeeSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores34
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 5 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 948 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); 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
- Winter weatherVery high
- Cold wavesVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Garner’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 Hancock County.
Garner home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Garner$228,634
- Iowa$236,623
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Garner listings — the market is roughly in balance.
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.
- Garner32.38%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Garner21
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Garner6
Zip codes with a Garner address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Garner — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.