Gilbert, Iowa.
Typical home $337,759 (+3.8% in a year). Ames, IA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$953 (+116%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $12,292 +4%
- $325,467$337,759 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $80,180 +31%
- $257,579$337,759 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.
- Gilbert$1,773
- 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 Gilbert, IA rose 3.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Gilbert, Story County, Iowa
Gilbert is a city of 1,211 people in Story County. Half its households earn more than $122,656 a year and half less, against $69,685 across Story County; 3% of its people live below the poverty line. 87% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 13% are rented. Unemployment in Story County was 3.0% in August 2026, and the county had 1.1% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then government.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Gilbert is a small city in Story County, with a population that is among the smaller ones in the area. Residents tend to be older than in many places, and household incomes run well above the county's, with very few people living below the poverty line. Nearly everyone owns the home they live in, and a good share of adults hold a four-year degree.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with government, shops and manufacturing also common. Across Story County, the biggest workplaces include Mary Greeley Medical Center, the Ames Community School District and Hormel Foods. The trip to work is fairly short, and some people work from home. Unemployment across the county has held steady over the past year, though the county had slightly fewer jobs last year than the year before.
Things to do. A short drive away, Reiman Gardens is a botanical garden, and Jack Trice Stadium is a stadium where college football is played. Skunk River Greenbelt, also a short drive off, is a protected area for walking and being outdoors. Farther afield, Ledges State Park is a protected area that takes a longer drive to reach.
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- 555households
- 44%of adults have a degree
- 3%below the poverty line
- 18 mintypical commute
- 10%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Story County had 47,004 jobs in 2025, 1.1% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 29° and lows near 11°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 63°. About 36 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Ames Municipal Airport weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Story County
- Mary Greeley Medical CenterGeneral hospital1,084FTE
- Ames Comm School DistrictSchool district602FTE
- Hormel FoodsProcessed meats manufacturing561
- City of Ames, IowaBus transit systems464
- McFarland ClinicPhysicians' offices463
- New Century FSAgricultural chemicals merchant wholesalers441
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters385
- 3M Company378
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 125 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 13,395 people in all across the county; Gilbert has two of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and school districts 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
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Gilbert’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very low. 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 Story County and the Ames, IA metro.
Gilbert home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Gilbert$337,759
- 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.
- Gilbert10
Zip codes with a Gilbert address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Gilbert — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.