Malcom, Iowa.
Typical home $233,372 (+11.7% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$713 (+139%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $24,368 +12%
- $209,004$233,372 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $61,742 +36%
- $171,629$233,372 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.
- Malcom$1,225
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 11 years.
Typical home values in Malcom, IA rose 11.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Malcom, Poweshiek County, Iowa
Malcom is a city of 270 people in Poweshiek County. Half its households earn more than $76,750 a year and half less, against $67,391 across Poweshiek County; 10% of its people live below the poverty line. 88% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 12% are rented. Unemployment in Poweshiek County was 3.0% in August 2026, and the county had 3.8% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Poweshiek County 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Malcom is a very small city in Poweshiek County, Iowa, where nearly everyone lives in a home they own. Household incomes run above the county's, and a smaller share of residents live below the poverty line than is common in many places. Winters are cold, with January highs below freezing and lows well down in the single digits and teens, while July turns warm; snow falls through the winter and rain and melted snow are steady across the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with others in manufacturing, shops and the building trades. Some people work from home, though most travel to a job. Across Poweshiek County, the largest workplaces include Grinnell College, Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Co and Jeld-Wen, and the county has seen somewhat fewer jobs than the year before.
Things to do. Several protected natural areas lie within a longer drive, including Rock Creek State Park and Lake Keomah State Park, and Honey Creek is a river in the same area. For something indoors, the Masonic Opera House and the Wieting Theater are both theatres a longer drive away. Iowa Speedway, a race track, is also a longer drive from town.
Report a mistake
- 10%below the poverty line
- 6%work from home
What people in Poweshiek County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Poweshiek County had 9,222 jobs in 2025, 3.8% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 28° and lows near 10°; warmest in July, with highs near 83° and lows near 62°. About 31 inches of snow and 38 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Grinnell Southwest weather station, 10 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Poweshiek County
- Grinnell CollegeUniversity or college927
- Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance CoAgricultural insurance carriers, direct726
- Jeld-WenWood window and door manufacturing381
- ManattsRoad and highway construction312
- Grinnell-Newburg Comm School DistrictSchool district249FTE
- Grinnell Regional Medical CenterGeneral hospital242FTE
- Fremont Farms of IowaChicken egg production203
- St. Francis ManorAssisted-living facilities with on-site nursing facilities190
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 32 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,652 people in all across the county; Malcom has one of its own. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24), school districts 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
- Strong windVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Malcom’s 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 Poweshiek County.
Malcom home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Malcom$233,372
- 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.
Zip codes with a Malcom address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Malcom — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.