Elkhart, Indiana.
Typical home $229,980 (+6.1% in a year), asking rent $1,185 (+5.7%). Elkhart-Goshen, IN metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$691 (+134%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $13,171 +6%
- $216,809$229,980 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $58,756 +34%
- $171,223$229,980 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.
- Elkhart$1,207
- Indiana$1,350
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Elkhart, IN rose 6.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Elkhart, IN rose 5.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Elkhart runs $424/mo more than renting one — the widest that gap has been in this data.
That is $1,610 a month against $1,185 rent: a $1,207 mortgage payment, plus $156 property tax and $246 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Elkhart
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$1,610
- Renting$1,185
- Mortgage only$1,207
Property tax · $156/mo 0.82% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Elkhart County, IN
Insurance & upkeep · $246/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Elkhart, Elkhart County, Indiana
Elkhart is a city of 53,923 people in Elkhart County. Half its households earn more than $51,028 a year and half less, against $68,561 across Elkhart County; 18% of its people live below the poverty line. 53% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 47% are rented. Unemployment in Elkhart was 4.2% in August 2026, and Elkhart County had 0.1% 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. Elkhart is a city in northern Indiana, split by the Elkhart River, with a population somewhat younger than the rest of the country. Incomes run well below the county's overall, and homes are about as often rented as owned, so renting is a normal part of life here. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while July is warm and comfortable for being outdoors, and rain and melted snow arrive steadily through the year.
Work. Manufacturing is the main line of work for residents, followed by schools, hospitals and social care, then restaurants, hotels and entertainment, and shops. The largest workplaces in Elkhart are recreational vehicle makers, among them Thor Motor Coach and Heartland RV, along with Alliance RV. Commutes are short, and very few people work from home.
Things to do. In or beside town, the Elkhart River runs through the city, and The Lerner Theatre and the Midwest Museum of American Art offer evenings of live performance and an afternoon among paintings. A short drive away is the RV/MH Hall of Fame, a museum devoted to the industry that shaped the area. Those willing to go farther can reach Notre Dame Stadium, a longer drive away.
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- 21,552households
- 18%of adults have a degree
- 18%below the poverty line
- 18 mintypical commute
- 3%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Elkhart County had 126,935 jobs in 2025, 0.1% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 32° and lows near 18°; warmest in July, with highs near 83° and lows near 63°. About 45 inches of snow and 40 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Goshen 3SW weather station, 10 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Elkhart
- Thor Motor CoachRecreational vehicle manufacturing1,221
- Heartland RVTravel trailers, recreational, manufacturing913
- Alliance RVRecreational vehicle manufacturer894
- LCI635
- Voyant BeautyHair sprays manufacturing634
- Patrick Industries, Inc, d/b/a/Adhesives manufacturing468
- Welch PackagingBoxes, corrugated and solid fiber, made from purchased paper or paperboard383
- Highwater MarineMotorboat, inboard or outboard, building373
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 148 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 17,651 people in all. 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
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Elkhart’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively low. 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 Elkhart County and the Elkhart-Goshen, IN metro.
Elkhart home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Elkhart$229,980
- Indiana$257,165
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Elkhart listings, and the typical home goes pending in 16 days — the market is cooling.
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.
- Elkhart28.66%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Elkhart16
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Elkhart325
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Elkhart121
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Elkhart$234,995
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Elkhart99.68%
Zip codes with a Elkhart address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Elkhart — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Elkhart
| Zip activate to sort by Zip | Place activate to sort by Place | Population sorted descending, activate to sort ascending | Rent activate to sort by Rent | Home value activate to sort by Home value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 46514 | Elkhart | 42,389 | $1,288 | $250,777 |
| 46516 | Elkhart | 31,871 | $1,171 | $189,846 |
| 46517 | Elkhart | 25,433 | $899 | $244,258 |