Laurel, Nebraska.
Typical home $208,383 (+7.7% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$617 (+130%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $14,877 +8%
- $193,506$208,383 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $46,436 +29%
- $161,946$208,383 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.
- Laurel$1,094
- Nebraska$1,461
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 14 years.
Typical home values in Laurel, NE rose 7.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Laurel, Cedar County, Nebraska
Laurel is a city of 972 people in Cedar County. Half its households earn more than $58,519 a year and half less, against $73,578 across Cedar County; 19% of its people live below the poverty line. 66% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 34% are rented. Unemployment in Cedar County was 2.0% in August 2026, and the county had 2.9% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Laurel is a small city in Cedar County, Nebraska, where most homes are lived in by their owners and a good share of adults have a four-year degree. Household incomes run below the county's, and more people live below the poverty line than is typical, so it is a modest, close-knit place. Winters are cold and snowy, summers turn warm, and the year brings a moderate amount of rain and melted snow.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with shops, manufacturing, and banks, insurance and property also employing a good number. Across Cedar County, some of the largest workplaces are the Laurel-Concord-Coleridge school district, Prince Manufacturing, which makes hydraulic cylinders and fluid power equipment, and Hartington Newcastle Public Schools. Unemployment is low, though the county has fewer jobs than it did a year earlier, and the typical commute is a short one.
Things to do. For time outdoors, Ponca State Park is a protected area a longer drive away, and the Vermillion River is another water setting within a longer drive. For something indoors, the National Music Museum is a museum a longer drive away. Prentis Park, also a longer drive away, offers a more everyday park setting.
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- 456households
- 38%of adults have a degree
- 19%below the poverty line
- 21 mintypical commute
- 6%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Cedar County had 2,707 jobs in 2025, 2.9% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 31° and lows near 9°; warmest in July, with highs near 85° and lows near 62°. About 29 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Concord weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Cedar County
- Laurel-concord-coleridge SchoolSchool district92FTE
- Prince ManufacturingHydraulic cylinders, fluid power, manufacturing79
- Hartington Newcastle Public SchoolsSchool district77FTE
- Colonial ManorSkilled nursing facilities71
- Accura Healthcare of HartingtonSkilled nursing facilities65
- Randolph Public SchoolsSchool district47FTE
- Wynot Public SchoolsSchool district42FTE
- Central Valley AgFarm supplies merchant wholesalers28
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 4 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 243 people in all across the county; Laurel has one 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
- HailVery high
- Winter weatherVery high
- Strong windVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Laurel’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively high. 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 Cedar County.
Laurel home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Laurel$208,383
- Nebraska$278,299
- 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.
- Laurel10
Zip codes with a Laurel address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Laurel — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.