Newell, Iowa.
Typical home $168,972 (-3.1% in a year). Storm Lake, IA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$460 (+108%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $5,372 -3%
- $174,344$168,972 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $32,489 +24%
- $136,483$168,972 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.
- Newell$887
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 16 years.
Typical home values in Newell, IA fell 3.1% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Newell, Buena Vista County, Iowa
Newell is a city of 906 people in Buena Vista County. Unemployment in Buena Vista County was 2.9% in August 2026, and the county had 3.7% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Newell is a small city in Buena Vista County, Iowa, small enough that most people here know one another by sight if not by name. Homes cost less than in much of the country, and very few residents live below the poverty line. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month and temperatures well below freezing, while summers turn warm in July. Rain and melted snow add up to a moderate amount over the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with many others in manufacturing, shops and other services. The biggest workplaces across Buena Vista County include Tyson Fresh Meats, Buena Vista University and Buena Vista Regional Medical Center. Fewer adults here hold a four-year degree than across much of the country, and a typical commute is short. Very few people work from home, and unemployment across the county has eased a little compared with a year earlier, though the county has fewer jobs than it did the year before.
Things to do. The nearest outdoor choices are all a longer drive away. Black Hawk State Park is a protected area, and Black Hawk Lake is a lake for time on the water. The Living Heritage Tree Museum is the best known of the nearby places and is a museum worth planning a day around.
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- 356households
- 20%of adults have a degree
- 2%below the poverty line
- 20 mintypical commute
- 5%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Buena Vista County had 10,291 jobs in 2025, 3.7% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 26° and lows near 9°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 64°. About 34 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Storm Lake weather station, 10 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Buena Vista County
- Tyson Fresh MeatsAnimal slaughtering2,050
- THE Hillshire Brands CompanyPoultry processing643
- Buena Vista UniversityUniversity or college467
- Storm Lake Comm School DistrictSchool district433FTE
- Buena Vista Regional Medical CenterCritical access hospital308FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters274
- Alta-Aurelia Comm School DistrictSchool district134FTE
- Fortrex - 0080 Tyson Foods Inc. - Storm LakeJanitorial services134
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 19 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 4,835 people in all across the county; Newell has none of its own. 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
- HailVery high
- Winter weatherVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively 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 Newell’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 Buena Vista County and the Storm Lake, IA metro.
Newell home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Newell$168,972
- 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.
- Newell6
Zip codes with a Newell address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Newell — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.