Crete, Nebraska.
Typical home $242,963 (-1.2% in a year). Lincoln, NE metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$715 (+128%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $2,955 -1%
- $245,918$242,963 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $55,930 +30%
- $187,033$242,963 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.
- Crete$1,275
- Nebraska$1,461
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Crete, NE fell 1.2% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Crete, Saline County, Nebraska
Crete is a city of 7,099 people in Saline County. Half its households earn more than $77,209 a year and half less, against $79,910 across Saline County; 12% of its people live below the poverty line. 69% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 31% are rented. Unemployment in Saline County was 3.0% in August 2026, and the county had 0.3% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Crete is a small city in Saline County, Nebraska, with a population on the younger side and incomes a little below the county's. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and the typical commute is short. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while July brings the warmest days of summer.
Work. Residents work mainly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, and in shops, with professional and business services close behind. Among the largest workplaces in Crete are Doane University, Crete Public Schools and Crete Area Medical Center. Few people work from home, and unemployment across Saline County is low.
Things to do. In or beside town, the Doane College Osterhout Arboretum is a botanical garden open for walking. A short drive away are Salt Creek, a river, and Spring Creek Prairie Audubon Center, a protected area of native prairie. For a longer outing, Sheldon Museum of Art is a museum a longer drive away.
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- 2,400households
- 18%of adults have a degree
- 12%below the poverty line
- 18 mintypical commute
- 4%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Saline County had 6,630 jobs in 2025, 0.3% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 34° and lows near 14°; warmest in July, with highs near 86° and lows near 65°. About 25 inches of snow and 31 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Crete 4ESE weather station, 4 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Crete
- Doane UniversityUniversity or college462
- Crete Public SchoolsSchool district374FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters169
- Crete Area Medical CenterCritical access hospital121FTE
- Grain Craft CornGrain mills96
- Eventide CreteService-nursing home56
- Compass Group35
- Eventide Crete - the GardensAssisted living31
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 5 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 387 people in all. 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
- Winter weatherVery high
- Ice stormsVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- LightningVery high
- HailRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Crete’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 Saline County and the Lincoln, NE metro.
Crete home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Crete$242,963
- Nebraska$278,299
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Crete listings — the market is roughly in balance.
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
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Crete29.28%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Crete23
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Crete7
Zip codes with a Crete address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Crete — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.