Humeston, Iowa.
Typical home $81,638 (+3.7% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$243 (+130%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $2,889 +4%
- $78,749$81,638 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $16,619 +26%
- $65,020$81,638 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.
- Humeston$428
- 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 Humeston, IA rose 3.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Humeston, Wayne County, Iowa
Humeston is a city of 465 people in Wayne County. Half its households earn more than $58,836 a year and half less, against $61,964 across Wayne County; 16% of its people live below the poverty line. Unemployment in Wayne County was 3.1% in August 2026, and the county had 3.6% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Wayne 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Humeston is a very small city in Wayne County, Iowa, where neighbors are likely to know one another. Household incomes run a little below the county's, and a good share of residents live below the poverty line. Homes here are priced low compared with most of the country, and a minority of adults hold a four-year degree.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, farming and shops also employing local people. Across Wayne County, some of the largest workplaces are Wayne County Hospital, the Wayne Comm School District and Shivvers Manufacturing. Jobs across the county have slipped from the year before, while unemployment there has held steady over the past year, and very few residents work from home.
Things to do. The Weldon River is a short drive away and a natural place for time near the water. A longer drive brings you to Red Haw State Park and Nine Eagles State Park, both protected areas set aside for outdoor recreation. Winters are cold, with a fair amount of snow, and summers turn warm, so the seasons shape much of what's practical outdoors.
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- 255households
- 26%of adults have a degree
- 16%below the poverty line
- 4%work from home
What people in Wayne County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Wayne County had 2,023 jobs in 2025, 3.6% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 33° and lows near 13°; warmest in July, with highs near 86° and lows near 63°. About 28 inches of snow and 39 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Leon Ese weather station, 12 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Wayne County
- East Penn CorydonStorage battery manufacturing376
- Wayne County HospitalCritical access hospital134FTE
- Wayne Comm School DistrictSchool district105FTE
- Shivvers ManufacturingBale throwers manufacturing97
- Care Initiatives70
- Seymour Comm School DistrictSchool district56FTE
- Mormon Trail Comm School DistrictSchool district54FTE
- AIR Filtration CompanyFilters, air-conditioner, manufacturing31
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 6 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 869 people in all across the county; Humeston has none 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 high
- Strong windRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Humeston’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 Wayne County.
Humeston home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Humeston$81,638
- 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 Humeston address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Humeston — 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.