Pella, Iowa.
Typical home $359,062 (+2.3% in a year), asking rent $1,052 (+5.4%). Pella, IA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$996 (+112%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $7,969 +2%
- $351,094$359,062 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $79,792 +29%
- $279,270$359,062 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.
- Pella$1,885
- 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 Pella, IA rose 2.3% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Pella, IA rose 5.4% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Pella runs $1,583/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $1,605 in Jan 2025.
That is $2,635 a month against $1,052 rent: a $1,885 mortgage payment, plus $366 property tax and $384 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Pella
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$2,635
- Renting$1,052
- Mortgage only$1,885
Property tax · $366/mo 1.22% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Marion County, IA
Insurance & upkeep · $384/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 Pella, Marion County, Iowa
Pella is a city of 10,464 people in Marion County. Half its households earn more than $84,111 a year and half less, against $78,680 across Marion County; 6% of its people live below the poverty line. 62% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 38% are rented. Unemployment in Marion County was 2.7% in August 2026, and the county had 0.9% 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. Pella is a city in Marion County, Iowa, and a young place compared with many towns, with a median age well below that of much of the country. Household incomes run above the county's, and more adults hold a four-year degree than is typical. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and few residents live below the poverty line. Winters are cold, with January highs near freezing and lows well below it, while summers turn warm in July, and the year brings a fair amount of rain and melted snow.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, and in manufacturing, with shops and restaurants and hotels also employing a good share. The largest workplaces in Pella include Vermeer Corporation - Pella, which makes construction machinery, along with Pella Regional Health Center and Central College. Commutes are short, and some people work from home. Across Marion County, unemployment is low and has changed little from a year ago, though there are slightly fewer jobs than the year before.
Things to do. The Pella Opera House, a theatre in or beside town, is the nearest place for an evening out. A short drive away, Lake Red Rock is a large reservoir and Elk Rock State Park is protected land, both good for time outdoors. Race fans can go a longer drive to Iowa Speedway, a race track.
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- 3,995households
- 47%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 14 mintypical commute
- 10%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Marion County had 19,508 jobs in 2025, 0.9% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 30° and lows near 12°; warmest in July, with highs near 85° and lows near 66°. About 37 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Knoxville weather station, 11 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Pella
- Vermeer Corporation - PellaConstruction machinery manufacturing3,350
- Pella Regional Health CenterCritical access hospital560FTE
- Central CollegeUniversity or college488
- Pella Comm School DistrictSchool district385FTE
- Precision Pulley & IdlerBelt conveyor systems manufacturing282
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters198
- Hy-VeeSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores117
- Fareway Stores, Inc. 995 PellaGrocery stores90
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 11 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 4,291 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), colleges from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) and school districts 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
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Pella’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively low. 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 Marion County and the Pella, IA metro.
Pella home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Pella$359,062
- 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 4 Pella 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.
- Pella28.19%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Pella68
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Pella17
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Pella$337,159
- United States$371,407
Zip codes with a Pella address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Pella — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.