Merrill, Iowa.
Typical home $280,402 (+6.5% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$829 (+129%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $17,140 +7%
- $263,262$280,402 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $72,347 +35%
- $208,055$280,402 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.
- Merrill$1,472
- 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 Merrill, IA rose 6.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Merrill, Plymouth County, Iowa
Merrill is a city of 717 people in Plymouth County. Unemployment in Plymouth County was 2.8% in August 2026, and the county had 0.7% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Merrill is a very small Iowa city in Plymouth County, the kind of place where neighbors tend to know one another. Homes here are priced well below what many buyers expect elsewhere, and fewer adults hold a four-year degree than across much of the country. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while July brings warm summer days, and the year brings a fair amount of snow and rain.
Work. Residents work mostly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, and in transport, warehouses and utilities. Across Plymouth County, some of the largest workplaces are Wells Enterprises, which makes ice cream, Heyl Truck Lines, a long-distance trucking company, and the Le Mars Community School District. Unemployment in the county is low and close to where it stood a year ago, though the county has slightly fewer jobs than it did the year before. Commutes are short, and some residents work from home.
Things to do. For time outdoors, Stone State Park is a protected area a longer drive away, and the Big Sioux River runs nearby as well. Those who prefer indoor outings can head to the Sioux City Public Museum or the Orpheum Theatre, both a longer drive away. Each makes a good day trip from town.
Report a mistake
- 13%of adults have a degree
- 5%below the poverty line
- 18 mintypical commute
- 12%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Plymouth County had 11,642 jobs in 2025, 0.7% fewer 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 31 inches of snow and 30 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Le Mars weather station, 7 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Plymouth County
- Wells EnterprisesIce cream manufacturing1,376
- Heyl Truck LinesGeneral freight trucking, long-distance, truckload522
- Wells EnterpriseCorporate offices405
- Wells EnterprisesRefrigerated warehousing355
- Wells EnterprisesIce cream manufacturing329
- Le Mars Comm School DistrictSchool district294FTE
- Floyd Valley HealthcareCritical access hospital273FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters238
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 37 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 5,682 people in all across the county; Merrill 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
- HailVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Merrill’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 Plymouth County.
Merrill home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Merrill$280,402
- 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.
- Merrill5
Zip codes with a Merrill address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Merrill — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.