Marathon, Iowa.
Typical home $105,494 (+4.5% in a year). Storm Lake, IA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$271 (+96%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $4,517 +4%
- $100,977$105,494 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $20,424 +24%
- $85,071$105,494 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.
- Marathon$554
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 16 years.
Typical home values in Marathon, IA rose 4.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Marathon, Buena Vista County, Iowa
Marathon is a city of 230 people in Buena Vista County. 89% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 11% are rented. Unemployment in Buena Vista County was 2.9% in August 2026, and the county had 3.7% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Buena Vista County 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Marathon is a very small Iowa city in Buena Vista County, with a population that places it among the smallest towns in the state. Nearly all of its homes are lived in by their owners, and typical home values are modest. Few adults hold a four-year degree, and very few people work from home.
Work. Residents work mostly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, and in shops, with some in farming, forestry and mining. Across Buena Vista County, the largest workplaces include Tyson Fresh Meats, Buena Vista University and Buena Vista Regional Medical Center. Unemployment across the county has eased a little compared with a year earlier, though the county has fewer jobs than it did the year before.
Things to do. Winters are cold, with a good deal of snow, and summers are warm; rain and melted snow add up to a moderate amount over the year. For time outdoors, Lost Island Lake is a lake and Bluebird Creek is a river, both a longer drive away. The Living Heritage Tree Museum and the Indian Village Site, an archaeological site, are also a longer drive away.
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- 113households
- 12%of adults have a degree
- 2%work from home
What people in Buena Vista County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Buena Vista County had 10,291 jobs in 2025, 3.7% 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, 5 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Buena Vista County
- Tyson Fresh MeatsAnimal slaughtering2,050
- THE Hillshire Brands CompanyPoultry processing643
- Buena Vista UniversityUniversity or college467
- Storm Lake Comm School DistrictSchool district433FTE
- Buena Vista Regional Medical CenterCritical access hospital308FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters274
- Alta-Aurelia Comm School DistrictSchool district134FTE
- Fortrex - 0080 Tyson Foods Inc. - Storm LakeJanitorial services134
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 19 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 4,835 people in all across the county; Marathon has none 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
- HailRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- DroughtRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Marathon’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 Buena Vista County and the Storm Lake, IA metro.
Marathon home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Marathon$105,494
- 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 Marathon address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Marathon — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.