Sheldon, Iowa.
Typical home $227,273 (+7.6% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$680 (+133%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $16,026 +8%
- $211,247$227,273 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $64,203 +39%
- $163,071$227,273 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.
- Sheldon$1,193
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 10 years.
Typical home values in Sheldon, IA rose 7.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Sheldon, Sioux County, Iowa
Sheldon is a city of 5,512 people in Sioux County. Half its households earn more than $62,159 a year and half less, against $86,098 across Sioux County; 15% of its people live below the poverty line. 67% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 33% are rented. Unemployment in Sioux County was 2.2% in August 2026, and the county had 0.2% more 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Sheldon is a small city in Sioux County, in the northwest corner of Iowa. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and typical home values are modest compared with much of the country. Household incomes run well below the county's, and fewer adults hold a four-year degree than is common across the country. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month and July the warmest, and the town gets a fair amount of rain and melted snow over the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops and farming also employing a good number. Rosenboom Machine and Tool, which makes hydraulic cylinders, Northwest Iowa Community College and the Sheldon Comm School District are among the largest workplaces in town. The typical commute is short, and very few people work from home.
Things to do. For time outdoors, the nearest places are all a longer drive away. Iowa Lake and Indian Lake are lakes where people go for the water, and the Rock River is one of the rivers that run through this corner of the state. DeValois Stadium is also on the list of nearby places, for those who like to take in a game.
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- 2,195households
- 21%of adults have a degree
- 15%below the poverty line
- 17 mintypical commute
- 4%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Sioux County had 23,005 jobs in 2025, 0.2% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 25° and lows near 5°; warmest in July, with highs near 83° and lows near 60°. About 41 inches of snow and 31 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Sheldon weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Sheldon
- Rosenboom Machine and ToolHydraulic cylinders, fluid power, manufacturing325
- Van WykTrucking, general freight, long-distance, truckload244
- Northwest Iowa Community CollegeTwo-year college230
- Maintainer Corporation of IowaTruck bodies assembling on purchased chassis180
- Sheldon Comm School DistrictSchool district166FTE
- Hy-VeeSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores119
- Sanford Medical Center SheldonCritical access hospital119FTE
- Rome Grinding SolutionsBakery machinery and equipment manufacturing65
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 11 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,430 people in all. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24), school districts 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
- Winter weatherVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- Cold wavesVery high
- Strong windRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Sheldon’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 Sioux County.
Sheldon home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Sheldon$227,273
- 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 5 Sheldon listings — the market is cooling.
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.
- Sheldon20.15%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Sheldon35
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Sheldon8
Zip codes with a Sheldon address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Sheldon — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.