Lafayette, Indiana.
Typical home $264,702 (+2.9% in a year), asking rent $1,282 (+2.7%). Lafayette-West Lafayette, IN metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$788 (+131%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $7,458 +3%
- $257,244$264,702 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $63,661 +32%
- $201,040$264,702 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.
- Lafayette$1,389
- Indiana$1,350
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Lafayette, IN rose 2.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Lafayette, IN rose 2.7% over the past year — in step with the nation.
Owning the typical home in Lafayette runs $527/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $533 in Jan 2025.
That is $1,809 a month against $1,282 rent: a $1,389 mortgage payment, plus $136 property tax and $283 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Lafayette
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$1,809
- Renting$1,282
- Mortgage only$1,389
Property tax · $136/mo 0.62% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Tippecanoe County, IN
Insurance & upkeep · $283/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 Lafayette, Tippecanoe County, Indiana
Lafayette is a city of 70,783 people in Tippecanoe County. Half its households earn more than $53,716 a year and half less, against $60,636 across Tippecanoe County; 18% of its people live below the poverty line. 47% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 53% are rented. Unemployment in Lafayette was 3.3% in August 2026, and Tippecanoe County had 0.9% 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. Lafayette is a city with a younger population than most of the country, and incomes below those across Tippecanoe County. Fewer homes are lived in by their owners than renters' homes, so it is a place where many people rent. Winters are cold, with the coldest weather in January, and summers are warm, with July the warmest month. Rain and melted snow add up to a fair amount through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops and restaurants and hotels also employing a good number. Among the larger workplaces in Lafayette are Franciscan Health Lafayette, Tippecanoe School and Lafayette Engine Center. Unemployment has eased a little over the past year, though Tippecanoe County has fewer jobs than it did the year before, and most people have a fairly short trip to work.
Things to do. Columbian Park Zoo and the Jerry E. Clegg Botanic Garden are in or beside town, and the Haan Mansion Museum of Indiana Art is there too. A short drive away, Prophetstown State Park is a protected area for walking and being outdoors, and the Tippecanoe River offers a place to be by the water.
Report a mistake
- 32,242households
- 28%of adults have a degree
- 18%below the poverty line
- 16 mintypical commute
- 8%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Tippecanoe County had 91,936 jobs in 2025, 0.9% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 33° and lows near 18°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 63°. About 37 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Lafayette Purdue Univ Airport weather station, 4 miles away (NOAA).
Largest employers in Lafayette
- Purdue University16,201
- Subaru Indiana Automotive Inc. (SIA)6,465
- IU Health Arnett Hospital2,550
- Caterpillar2,529
- Wabash National Corp1,688
- Tippecanoe School Corp.1,571
- Franciscan Health Lafayette1,235
- Lafayette School Corp.1,098
From the City of Lafayette’s annual financial report for 2025, its schedule of principal employers (its source: “Greater Lafayette Commerce, hoosierdata.in.gov”), as Indiana’s State Board of Accounts publishes it: the report. Employees as the report counts them.
Natural hazards
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively 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 Lafayette’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 Tippecanoe County and the Lafayette-West Lafayette, IN metro.
Lafayette home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Lafayette$264,702
- Indiana$257,165
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Lafayette listings, and the typical home goes pending in 20 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.
- Lafayette33.31%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Lafayette20
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Lafayette344
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Lafayette136
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Lafayette$269,943
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Lafayette99.01%
Zip codes with a Lafayette address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Lafayette — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Lafayette
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 47909 | Lafayette | 43,561 | $1,509 | $277,466 |
| 47905 | Lafayette | 42,219 | $1,351 | $293,481 |
| 47904 | Lafayette | 16,257 | $1,116 | $182,987 |
| 47901 | Lafayette | 4,585 | $1,317 | $251,345 |