Scranton, Iowa.
Typical home $184,555 (+3.4% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$606 (+167%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $6,035 +3%
- $178,520$184,555 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $61,676 +50%
- $122,879$184,555 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.
- Scranton$969
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 9 years.
Typical home values in Scranton, IA rose 3.4% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Scranton, Greene County, Iowa
Scranton is a city of 511 people in Greene County. Unemployment in Greene County was 4.0% in August 2026, and the county had 2.1% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Greene County 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Scranton is a very small farm-country city in Greene County, Iowa, where neighbors are likely to know one another. Homes here are priced well below what many American buyers would expect, and the county's household incomes sit somewhat above the middle of the country's range. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while July brings warm summer days and the year is fairly wet, with rain and melted snow spread through the seasons.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops and farming close behind. Across Greene County, some of the largest workplaces are Mclaughlin Family Companies, Greene County Comm School District and Greene County Medical Center. Few adults here hold a four-year degree, very few work from home, and the typical commute is a moderate one. Unemployment across the county has risen over the past year, and the county has lost some jobs.
Things to do. Outdoor places dominate the nearby list, though all are a longer drive away. Springbrook State Park is a protected area of woods and trails, and Lake Creek is a river for paddling or fishing along its banks. Forest Park Museum and Arboretum, also a longer drive away, is a botanical garden for a quieter afternoon among the plantings.
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- 254households
- 6%of adults have a degree
- 21 mintypical commute
- 1%work from home
What people in Greene County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Greene County had 3,139 jobs in 2025, 2.1% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 28° and lows near 9°; warmest in July, with highs near 83° and lows near 63°. About 32 inches of snow and 35 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Jefferson weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Greene County
- Mclaughlin Family CompaniesCar bodies, kit, manufacturing263
- Greene County Comm School DistrictSchool district194FTE
- Greene County Medical CenterCritical access hospital179FTE
- Wildrose EntertainmentCasinos156
- Hy-VeeSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores90
- John Deere PatonSeeders, farm-type, manufacturing88
- Russell BrandsAthletic goods manufacturing76
- Fareway Stores, Inc. 888 JeffersonGrocery stores71
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 13 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 986 people in all across the county; Scranton has one of its own. 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
- DroughtRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively 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 Scranton’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 Greene County.
Scranton home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Scranton$184,555
- 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.
- Scranton7
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Scranton address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Scranton — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.