Laurens, Iowa.
Typical home $73,618 (-20.2% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$22 (+6%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $18,667 -20%
- $92,284$73,618 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $18,796 -20%
- $92,414$73,618 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.
- Laurens$386
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Laurens, IA fell 20.2% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Laurens, Pocahontas County, Iowa
Laurens is a city of 1,264 people in Pocahontas County. Half its households earn more than $48,988 a year and half less, against $61,875 across Pocahontas County; 15% of its people live below the poverty line. 77% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 23% are rented. Unemployment in Pocahontas County was 3.5% in August 2026, and the county had 4.5% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in manufacturing, then schools and health care.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Laurens is a small city in Pocahontas County, Iowa, where most homes are lived in by their owners and the typical home is modestly priced. Household incomes here run below the county's, and a four-year degree is held by fewer adults than across much of the country. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month and a good deal of snow, and summers are warm in July.
Work. Residents work mostly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, and in the building trades. Very few work from home. Across Pocahontas County, some of the largest workplaces are Bobalee Hydraulics, a maker of cylinders and fluid power equipment, the Pocahontas Area Comm School District, and Pocahontas Community Hospital. Unemployment in the county is close to where it stood a year ago, though the county has fewer jobs than it did the year before.
Things to do. For time outdoors, Lost Island Lake and Twin Lakes State Park West are both a longer drive away, offering water and park land for a day out. Bluebird Creek, a river, is also a longer drive away, and so is the Living Heritage Tree Museum for a quieter afternoon indoors.
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- 530households
- 14%of adults have a degree
- 15%below the poverty line
- 3%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Pocahontas County had 2,525 jobs in 2025, 4.5% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 25° and lows near 8°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 62°. About 35 inches of snow and 32 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Sioux Rapids East weather station, 11 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Pocahontas County
- Bobalee HydraulicsCylinders, fluid power, manufacturing142
- Pocahontas Area Comm School DistrictSchool district109FTE
- Pocahontas Community HospitalCritical access hospital81FTE
- BrandFX, LLC - PocahontasTruck bodies assembling on purchased chassis79
- Care Initiatives60
- PositechCranes, overhead traveling, manufacturing49
- Laurens-Marathon Comm School DistrictSchool district38FTE
- Arlington Place of PocahontasAssisted-living facilities without on-site nursing care facilities26
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 8 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 496 people in all across the county; Laurens has two of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (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
- DroughtRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Laurens’ 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 Pocahontas County.
Laurens home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Laurens$73,618
- 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.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Laurens4
Zip codes with a Laurens address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Laurens — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.