Marcus, Iowa.
Typical home $185,413 (-2.1% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$503 (+107%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $3,979 -2%
- $189,393$185,413 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $31,773 +21%
- $153,640$185,413 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.
- Marcus$973
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 18 years.
Typical home values in Marcus, IA fell 2.1% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Marcus, Cherokee County, Iowa
Marcus is a city of 1,079 people in Cherokee County. 83% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 17% are rented. Unemployment in Cherokee County was 2.6% in August 2026, and the county had 1.0% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Cherokee County 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Marcus is a small city in Cherokee County, Iowa, where most homes are lived in by their owners and typical home values are modest. Fewer adults here hold a four-year degree than in many parts of the country, and the share living below the poverty line is low. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while July brings warm summer days and the year sees a fair amount of rain and melted snow.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with shops, manufacturing and farming also employing people in the area. Across Cherokee County, some of the largest workplaces are Cherokee Regional Medical Center, the Cherokee Comm School District and Hy-Vee. Commutes are fairly short, and only a few people work from home.
Things to do. Several places in the surrounding area are a longer drive away. Pierson Creek and Bluebird Creek are rivers, and DeValois Stadium is a stadium. The Cherokee Sewer Site is an archaeological site and one of the better known places nearby.
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- 499households
- 23%of adults have a degree
- 5%below the poverty line
- 19 mintypical commute
- 4%work from home
What people in Cherokee County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Cherokee County had 4,908 jobs in 2025, 1.0% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 27° and lows near 7°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 62°. About 38 inches of snow and 31 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Cherokee weather station, 14 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Cherokee County
- Hy-VeeGeneral warehousing and storage352
- Cherokee Regional Medical CenterCritical access hospital209FTE
- Cherokee Comm School DistrictSchool district177FTE
- Mental Health InstitutePsychiatric hospital153FTE
- Hy-VeeSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores110
- Fareway Stores, Inc. 502 CherokeeGrocery stores82
- Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., Cherokee ProductionSeed processing, post-harvest for propagation81
- Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn Comm School DistrictSchool district80FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 16 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,629 people in all across the county; Marcus has one of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and school districts 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
- DroughtRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively 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 Marcus’ 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 Cherokee County.
Marcus home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Marcus$185,413
- Iowa$236,623
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
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.
- Marcus8
Zip codes with a Marcus address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Marcus — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.