Kearney, Nebraska.
Typical home $318,869 (+6.1% in a year), asking rent $1,686 (+5.5%). Kearney, NE metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$884 (+112%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $18,412 +6%
- $300,456$318,869 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $77,295 +32%
- $241,573$318,869 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.
- Kearney$1,674
- Nebraska$1,461
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Kearney, NE rose 6.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Kearney, NE rose 5.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Kearney runs $712/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $755 in Nov 2024.
That is $2,398 a month against $1,686 rent: a $1,674 mortgage payment, plus $383 property tax and $341 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Kearney
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$2,398
- Renting$1,686
- Mortgage only$1,674
Property tax · $383/mo 1.44% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Buffalo County, NE
Insurance & upkeep · $341/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Kearney, Buffalo County, Nebraska
Kearney is a city of 33,790 people in Buffalo County. Half its households earn more than $69,724 a year and half less, against $75,911 across Buffalo County; 12% of its people live below the poverty line. 61% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 39% are rented. Unemployment in Kearney was 2.6% in August 2026, and Buffalo County had 0.1% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then shops.
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. Kearney is a city in Buffalo County with a young population by national standards, which fits a town that is home to a university. Household incomes run a little below the county's, and more people here rent than across the county as a whole. Winters are cold and snowy, summers are warm, and precipitation is moderate through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by shops, restaurants and hotels, and manufacturing. Some of the largest workplaces in Kearney are the University of Nebraska at Kearney, The Buckle and CHI Health Good Samaritan. Commutes are short, and very few people work from home.
Things to do. Fort Kearny is a historic fort a short drive away, and the Museum of Nebraska Art and the Rainwater Basin, a protected area, are both in or beside town. Pioneer Village, a museum, is a longer drive away for a day out.
Report a mistake
- 14,028households
- 36%of adults have a degree
- 12%below the poverty line
- 14 mintypical commute
- 4%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Buffalo County had 28,130 jobs in 2025, 0.1% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 36° and lows near 14°; warmest in July, with highs near 87° and lows near 63°. About 22 inches of snow and 26 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Kearney Northeast weather station, 4 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Kearney
- Baldwin FiltersOther motor vehicle parts manufacturing1,211
- University of Nebraska at KearneyUniversity or college939
- The BuckleClothing stores, family695
- CHI Health Good SamaritanGeneral hospital677FTE
- Kearney Regional Medical CenterGeneral hospital570FTE
- LandMark ImplementAgricultural implements merchant wholesalers527
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters438
- Cash-Wa Distributing -KearneyFrozen foods, packaged, merchant wholesalers316
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 33 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 5,956 people in all. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); 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
- HailVery high
- Strong windVery high
- LightningVery high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Kearney’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively 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 Buffalo County and the Kearney, NE metro.
Kearney home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Kearney$318,869
- Nebraska$278,299
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Kearney listings, and the typical home goes pending in 16 days — the market is cooling.
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.
- Kearney29.64%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Kearney16
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Kearney81
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Kearney32
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Kearney$322,786
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Kearney99.12%
Zip codes with a Kearney address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Kearney — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Kearney
| Zip activate to sort by Zip | Place activate to sort by Place | Population sorted descending, activate to sort ascending | Rent activate to sort by Rent | Home value activate to sort by Home value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 68845 | Kearney | 20,536 | $1,638 | $347,137 |
| 68847 | Kearney | 18,354 | — | $290,993 |