Rochester, Indiana.
Typical home $222,783 (+7.6% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$691 (+144%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $15,749 +8%
- $207,034$222,783 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $56,509 +34%
- $166,274$222,783 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.
- Rochester$1,169
- Indiana$1,350
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Rochester, IN rose 7.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Rochester, Fulton County, Indiana
Rochester is a city of 6,270 people in Fulton County. Half its households earn more than $57,008 a year and half less, against $61,360 across Fulton County; 18% of its people live below the poverty line. 66% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 34% are rented. Unemployment in Fulton County was 3.5% in August 2026, and the county had 0.8% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Fulton County 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Rochester is a small city in northern Indiana and the seat of Fulton County. Residents tend to be older than in much of the country, and more homes are lived in by their owners than rented. Incomes run below the county's, and a four-year degree is less common among adults here than in many places.
Work. Manufacturing is the largest line of work among residents, followed by schools, hospitals and social care, then shops and professional and business services. Among the biggest workplaces in town are Rochester Metal Products, Rochester Community School and Woodlawn Hospital. Most people get to work by a fairly short commute, and few work from home. Jobs across the county slipped a little last year, though unemployment is low.
Things to do. Lake Manitou sits in or beside town, and Nyona Lake is a short drive away. A longer drive brings you to Lake Maxinkuckee, one of the larger lakes in the area, and to Tippecanoe River State Park, a protected area for walking and being outdoors. Winters are cold and snowy, and summers are warm.
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- 2,812households
- 18%of adults have a degree
- 18%below the poverty line
- 21 mintypical commute
- 3%work from home
What people in Fulton County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Fulton County had 6,275 jobs in 2025, 0.8% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 32° and lows near 17°; warmest in July, with highs near 83° and lows near 63°. About 30 inches of snow and 41 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Rochester weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Rochester
- Rochester Metal ProductsGray iron foundries348
- Rochester Community School CorpSchool district274FTE
- Woodlawn HospitalCritical access hospital239FTE
- Morrison ProductsAir purification equipment, stationary, manufacturing205
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters174
- E & B PavingConcrete paving149
- Kroger Central KMASupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores124
- Topp IndustriesSeptic tanks, plastics or fiberglass, manufacturing72
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 15 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,391 people in all. School districts come 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
- Strong windVery high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Rochester’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 Fulton County.
Rochester home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Rochester$222,783
- Indiana$257,165
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Rochester listings — the market is heating up.
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.
- Rochester19.41%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Rochester52
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Rochester14
Zip codes with a Rochester address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Rochester — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.