Gladbrook, Iowa.
Typical home $127,371 (+1.2% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$338 (+102%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $1,499 +1%
- $125,872$127,371 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $24,908 +24%
- $102,463$127,371 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.
- Gladbrook$669
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 16 years.
Typical home values in Gladbrook, IA rose 1.2% over the past year — in step with the nation.
Living in Gladbrook, Tama County, Iowa
Gladbrook is a city of 799 people in Tama County. Half its households earn more than $70,125 a year and half less, against $70,781 across Tama County; 15% of its people live below the poverty line. 83% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 17% are rented. Unemployment in Tama County was 4.4% in August 2026, and the county had 0.7% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Gladbrook is a small city in Tama County, Iowa, where the people are older than in much of the country and nearly everyone who lives in a home owns it. Incomes run just below the county's, and the typical home is modest in price. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, and summers turn warm in July, with a fair amount of rain and melted snow through the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops, and transport and warehousing also employing many. Across Tama County, some of the largest workplaces are Iowa Premium, a beef plant, South Tama County Schools, and Sunny Hill Care Center, a nursing home. Fewer adults here hold a four-year degree than in many places, commutes are fairly long, and few people work from home.
Things to do. In or beside town, the Matchstick Marvels Museum is a museum worth a visit. A short drive away are Conant's Cabin and Park, a park, and Union Grove State Park, a protected area for walking and being outdoors. For a longer outing, Pine Lake State Park is another protected area a longer drive away.
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- 422households
- 20%of adults have a degree
- 15%below the poverty line
- 28 mintypical commute
- 5%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Tama County had 5,391 jobs in 2025, 0.7% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 28° and lows near 10°; warmest in July, with highs near 83° and lows near 62°. About 33 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Marshalltown Municipal Airport weather station, 12 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Tama County
- Iowa PremiumBeef produced in slaughtering plants857
- South Tama County SchoolsSchool district225FTE
- North Tama County Comm School DistrictSchool district86FTE
- Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., Toledo, IA ProductionSeed processing, post-harvest for propagation83
- Sunny Hill Care CenterNursing homes75
- Fareway Stores, Inc. 792 ToledoGrocery stores64
- Accura HealthCare of ToledoSkilled nursing facilities54
- Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc - Dysart SPSCSeed processing, post-harvest for propagation53
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 12 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,383 people in all across the county; Gladbrook has none of its own. 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
- Strong windVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Gladbrook’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 Tama County.
Gladbrook home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Gladbrook$127,371
- 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.
- Gladbrook6
Zip codes with a Gladbrook address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Gladbrook — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zillow publishes no zip-level series with this city on the address.