Hudson, Iowa.
Typical home $273,953 (+0.7% in a year). Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$705 (+96%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $1,884 +1%
- $272,069$273,953 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $56,642 +26%
- $217,311$273,953 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.
- Hudson$1,438
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 15 years.
Typical home values in Hudson, IA rose 0.7% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Hudson, Black Hawk County, Iowa
Hudson is a city of 2,546 people in Black Hawk County. Half its households earn more than $120,481 a year and half less, against $66,417 across Black Hawk County; 4% of its people live below the poverty line. 90% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 10% are rented. Unemployment in Black Hawk County was 4.1% in August 2026, and the county had 0.2% fewer 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Hudson is a small city where nearly everyone owns the home they live in, a far higher share than is usual across the county. Household incomes run well above the county's, and few residents live below the poverty line. The population is a little older than many places, and a good share of adults have a four-year degree. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while July brings warm summer days and the year is fairly wet.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by manufacturing, wholesale, and professional and business services. Across Black Hawk County, some of the largest workplaces are Tyson Fresh Meats, the University of Northern Iowa and MercyOne Waterloo Medical Center. The trip to work is short, and a fair number of people work from home. The county has seen slightly fewer jobs than a year earlier, and unemployment there is a little lower than it was a year ago.
Things to do. A short drive away, Hartman Reserve Nature Center is a protected area for walking and watching wildlife, and the Cedar Valley Arboretum & Botanic Gardens is a botanical garden for a quieter afternoon. The UNI-Dome, a stadium, is also a short drive away, and the Shell Rock River is a longer drive for time near the water.
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- 992households
- 41%of adults have a degree
- 4%below the poverty line
- 17 mintypical commute
- 10%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Black Hawk County had 70,713 jobs in 2025, 0.2% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 28° and lows near 11°; warmest in July, with highs near 85° and lows near 64°. About 39 inches of snow and 36 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Waterloo Municipal Airport weather station, 9 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Black Hawk County
- Tyson Fresh MeatsAnimal slaughtering2,863
- Mercyone Waterloo Medical CenterGeneral hospital1,961FTE
- University of Northern IowaUniversity or college1,705
- Waterloo Comm School DistrictSchool district1,648FTE
- Allen Memorial HospitalGeneral hospital1,264FTE
- John Deere Waterloo Works Drive Train OperationsFarm tractors and attachments manufacturing1,168
- VGM GroupOffice administration services1,125
- John Deere Waterloo Works Product Engineering CenterTesting equipment manufacturing1,120
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 173 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 29,125 people in all across the county; Hudson has two of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), colleges from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) 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 high
- Strong windRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Hudson’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 Black Hawk County and the Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA metro.
Hudson home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Hudson$273,953
- Iowa$236,623
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
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.
- Hudson9
Zip codes with a Hudson address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Hudson — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.