Monroe, Iowa.
Typical home $259,721 (+3.7% in a year). Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$712 (+109%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $9,244 +4%
- $250,477$259,721 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $56,426 +28%
- $203,295$259,721 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.
- Monroe$1,363
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 14 years.
Typical home values in Monroe, IA rose 3.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Monroe, Jasper County, Iowa
Monroe is a city of 1,967 people in Jasper County. Half its households earn more than $80,375 a year and half less, against $71,311 across Jasper County; 8% of its people live below the poverty line. 78% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 22% are rented. Unemployment in Jasper County was 3.6% in August 2026, and the county had 2.2% more 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Monroe is a small city in Jasper County, Iowa, where most homes are lived in by their owners and the typical home value sits well above what the county's lower-income areas might suggest. Household incomes run higher than across the county, and the population is on the younger side for a place of its size. Fewer adults hold a four-year degree than in many parts of the country, and winters are cold, with summers that turn warm in July and a steady year of rain and melted snow.
Work. Residents work mostly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, in the building trades, and in restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Across Jasper County, some of the largest workplaces are TPI Composites, which makes wind turbines, the Newton Comm School District, and Van Maanen Electric, an electrical contractor. Jobs across the county grew over the last year, and the typical commute is a modest drive.
Things to do. Close to town, Elk Rock State Park and the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge are protected areas a short drive away, and Teter Creek and White Breast Creek are small waterways within easy reach. For a longer outing, Adventureland is an amusement park a longer drive away.
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- 877households
- 19%of adults have a degree
- 8%below the poverty line
- 24 mintypical commute
- 4%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Jasper County had 10,688 jobs in 2025, 2.2% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 30° and lows near 13°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 64°. About 37 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Des Moines East weather station, 10 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Jasper County
- Newton Comm School DistrictSchool district413FTE
- TPI CompositesWind turbines manufacturing300
- Van Maanen ElectricElectrical contractors282
- Co-Line WeldingMachine shops255
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters236
- City of Newton IowaExecutive offices, federal, state, and local199
- Hy-VeeSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores186
- PCM Comm School DistrictSchool district164FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 38 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,516 people in all across the county; Monroe has one of its own. School districts come 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
- DroughtRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Monroe’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 Jasper County and the Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA metro.
Monroe home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Monroe$259,721
- 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.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Monroe 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.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Monroe19
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Monroe6
Zip codes with a Monroe address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Monroe — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.