Menlo, Iowa.
Typical home $229,028 (+6.3% in a year). Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$664 (+123%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $13,503 +6%
- $215,525$229,028 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $56,413 +33%
- $172,615$229,028 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.
- Menlo$1,202
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Menlo, IA rose 6.3% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Menlo, Guthrie County, Iowa
Menlo is a city of 345 people in Guthrie County. Half its households earn more than $77,396 a year and half less, against $77,711 across Guthrie County; 5% of its people live below the poverty line. 88% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 12% are rented. Unemployment in Guthrie County was 3.2% in August 2026, and the county had 2.0% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Guthrie County work in schools and health care, then finance and property.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Menlo is a very small Iowa city, and most of its homes are lived in by their owners, a good deal more than is usual across the country. Household incomes are close to the county's, and few residents live below the poverty line. Winters are cold, with January highs near freezing and lows well below it, and summers turn warm in July, with rain and melted snow spread through the year.
Work. Residents work mainly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by banks, insurance and property, then manufacturing and shops. Across Guthrie County, some of the largest workplaces are Rose Acre Farms, an egg producer, the Guthrie County Hospital and the West Central Valley school district. A typical commute is a fairly short drive, and some residents work from home.
Things to do. For time outdoors, Lake Anita State Park is a protected area a longer drive away, and the Thompson River and the Platte River offer water to walk beside. The Iowa Aviation Museum, also a longer drive away, makes a good indoor outing.
Report a mistake
- 9%of adults have a degree
- 5%below the poverty line
- 21 mintypical commute
- 11%work from home
What people in Guthrie County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Guthrie County had 3,205 jobs in 2025, 2.0% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 30° and lows near 10°; warmest in July, with highs near 85° and lows near 63°. About 37 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Guthrie Ctr weather station, 11 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Guthrie County
- Rose Acre FarmsChicken egg production172
- West Central Valley Comm School DistrictSchool district145FTE
- Panorama Comm School DistrictSchool district123FTE
- Guthrie County HospitalCritical access hospital110FTE
- Guthrie Center Comm School DistrictSchool district81FTE
- Iowa TrenchlessUtility line, construction74
- The New HomesteadHomes for the elderly with nursing care73
- Poet Bioprocessing MenloDenatured alcohol manufacturing56
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 16 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 976 people in all across the county; Menlo has none of its own. School districts come 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
- TornadoesVery high
- Strong windVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- HailRelatively 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 Menlo’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 Guthrie County and the Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA metro.
Menlo home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Menlo$229,028
- 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.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Menlo5
Zip codes with a Menlo address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Menlo — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.