Preston, Iowa.
Typical home $231,841 (+5.6% in a year). Clinton, IA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$661 (+119%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $12,370 +6%
- $219,471$231,841 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $52,656 +29%
- $179,185$231,841 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.
- Preston$1,217
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Preston, IA rose 5.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Preston, Jackson County, Iowa
Preston is a city of 949 people in Jackson County. Unemployment in Jackson County was 4.3% in August 2026, and the county had 2.0% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Preston is a small city in Jackson County, Iowa, with a population small enough that it feels like a place where neighbors know one another. Homes here are priced below what is typical in much of the country. Incomes in the county are somewhat modest, and a somewhat larger share of residents live below the poverty line than you might find in the nation's wealthier towns. Winters are cold and snowy, with January highs staying below freezing, while July brings warm days.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by manufacturing, wholesale and shops. Among the largest workplaces in Preston are Plastics Unlimited, which makes awnings and rigid plastics, the Easton Valley Comm School District, and Kunau Implement, a seller of farm planting machinery and equipment. The county has seen slightly fewer jobs than the year before, and unemployment is about where it was a year earlier. Most people drive a fair stretch to work, and only a small group work from home.
Things to do. Goose Lake is a short drive away and is the closest spot for time by the water. Farther afield, a longer drive brings you to Maquoketa Caves State Park and to Mississippi Palisades State Park, both protected natural areas good for walking and being outdoors. The Maquoketa River, also a longer drive away, offers another place to spend time near the water.
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- 523households
- 27%of adults have a degree
- 13%below the poverty line
- 24 mintypical commute
- 6%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Jackson County had 5,754 jobs in 2025, 2.0% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 27° and lows near 11°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 63°. About 30 inches of snow and 37 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Maquoketa weather station, 14 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Preston
- Plastics UnlimitedAwnings, rigid plastics or fiberglass, manufacturing90
- Easton Valley Comm School DistrictSchool district76FTE
- Kunau Implement -PrestonPlanting machinery and equipment, farm-type, merchant wholesalers21
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 2 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 111 people in all. 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
- Strong windVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Preston’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 Jackson County and the Clinton, IA metro.
Preston home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Preston$231,841
- 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.
- Preston5
Zip codes with a Preston address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Preston — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.