Norfolk, Nebraska.
Typical home $258,233 (+3.4% in a year), asking rent $1,247 (+2.7%). Norfolk, NE metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$713 (+111%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $8,512 +3%
- $249,721$258,233 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $59,417 +30%
- $198,815$258,233 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.
- Norfolk$1,355
- Nebraska$1,461
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Norfolk, NE rose 3.4% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Norfolk, NE rose 2.7% over the past year — in step with the nation.
Owning the typical home in Norfolk runs $679/mo more than renting one — the widest that gap has been in this data.
That is $1,926 a month against $1,247 rent: a $1,355 mortgage payment, plus $295 property tax and $276 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Norfolk
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$1,926
- Renting$1,247
- Mortgage only$1,355
Property tax · $295/mo 1.37% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Madison County, NE
Insurance & upkeep · $276/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 Norfolk, Madison County, Nebraska
Norfolk is a city of 24,955 people in Madison County. Half its households earn more than $58,884 a year and half less, against $63,128 across Madison County; 14% of its people live below the poverty line. 61% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 39% are rented. Unemployment in Norfolk was 2.5% in August 2026, and Madison County had 0.3% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then shops.
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. Norfolk is a city in Madison County, in northeast Nebraska. Household incomes run a little below the county's, and a good share of people live below the poverty line. Most homes are lived in by their owners, though there are still plenty of renters. Winters are cold and snowy, with January highs around freezing and lows well below it, while July days get warm. Rain and melted snow add up to a moderate amount over the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with shops, manufacturing, and restaurants and hotels close behind. Faith Regional Health Services, Norfolk Public Schools and Northeast Community College are among the largest workplaces in town. Unemployment is low and has barely moved from a year ago, though the county has lost a few jobs over the past year. Most people have a short drive to work, and few work from home.
Things to do. Norfolk Community Theatre is in or beside town, and Battle Creek, a river, is a short drive away. For a longer outing, Willow Creek State Recreation Area is a protected area with room to get outdoors, and Gilman Park Arboretum is a botanical garden worth a walk.
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- 10,990households
- 24%of adults have a degree
- 14%below the poverty line
- 13 mintypical commute
- 5%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Madison County had 21,946 jobs in 2025, 0.3% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 32° and lows near 10°; warmest in July, with highs near 85° and lows near 63°. About 26 inches of snow and 28 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Norfolk 4W weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Norfolk
- Faith Regional Health Services West CampusHospitals, general medical and surgical803
- Faith Regional Health ServicesGeneral hospital786FTE
- Norfolk Public SchoolsSchool district653FTE
- Northeast Community CollegeTwo-year college599
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters414
- Associated Wholesale GrocersGeneral line grocery merchant wholesalers375
- Hy-VeeSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores225
- Heritage of Bel AirSkilled nursing facilities180
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 34 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 4,069 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and colleges from IPEDS (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
- Winter weatherVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- HailRelatively 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 Norfolk’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 Madison County and the Norfolk, NE metro.
Norfolk home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Norfolk$258,233
- Nebraska$278,299
- 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 Norfolk listings, and the typical home goes pending in 19 days — 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.
- Norfolk31.23%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Norfolk19
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Norfolk121
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Norfolk37
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Norfolk$212,276
- United States$370,717
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Norfolk97.43%
Zip codes with a Norfolk address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Norfolk — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.