Lenox, Iowa.
Typical home $122,919 (+9.5% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$347 (+116%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $10,703 +10%
- $112,215$122,919 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $29,453 +32%
- $93,466$122,919 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.
- Lenox$645
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Lenox, IA rose 9.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Lenox, Taylor County, Iowa
Lenox is a city of 1,339 people in Taylor County. 76% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 24% are rented. Unemployment in Taylor County was 2.4% in August 2026, and the county had 1.5% more 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Lenox is a small city in Taylor County, Iowa, where most homes are lived in by their owners and the typical home value is fairly modest. Fewer adults hold a four-year degree than across the country as a whole, and the poverty rate is not far from what many small Iowa towns see. Winters are cold, with January highs only a little below freezing and lows well down in the teens, while July brings warm days; snow and rain are both regular parts of the year.
Work. Residents work mainly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, and in banks, insurance and property. Among the largest workplaces in Lenox are the Lenox Comm School District, Lenox Care Center and Dalton Ag Enterprises. Unemployment in Taylor County is low and a little lower than a year ago, and the county has added jobs, while commutes are short and very few people work from home.
Things to do. For time outdoors, Saylings Creek and the West Platte River are both rivers a short drive away. Green Valley State Park, a protected area, and Lake of Three Fires State Park are a longer drive away, as is Lake Icaria, a reservoir. Between them there are places to walk, paddle and fish within reach of town.
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- 618households
- 15%of adults have a degree
- 11%below the poverty line
- 15 mintypical commute
- 3%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Taylor County had 2,060 jobs in 2025, 1.5% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 31° and lows near 12°; warmest in July, with highs near 85° and lows near 64°. About 28 inches of snow and 35 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Corning weather station, 13 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Lenox
- Lenox Comm School DistrictSchool district81FTE
- Lenox Care CenterNursing homes55
- Dalton Ag EnterprisesHarvesting machinery and equipment, agriculture, manufacturing43
- AVE PLP423820 farm and garden machinery and equipment merchant wholesalers35
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 133 people in all. 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
- Heat wavesVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- Cold wavesVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Lenox’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 Taylor County.
Lenox home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Lenox$122,919
- 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.
- Lenox6
Zip codes with a Lenox address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Lenox — 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.