Shelton, Nebraska.
Typical home $244,470 (+5.6% in a year). Kearney, NE metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$714 (+126%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $12,981 +6%
- $231,490$244,470 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $66,334 +37%
- $178,136$244,470 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.
- Shelton$1,283
- Nebraska$1,461
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 11 years.
Typical home values in Shelton, NE rose 5.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Shelton, Buffalo County, Nebraska
Shelton is a village of 1,034 people in Buffalo County. Half its households earn more than $81,278 a year and half less, against $75,911 across Buffalo County; 7% of its people live below the poverty line. 79% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 21% are rented. Unemployment in Buffalo County was 2.5% in August 2026, and the county had 0.1% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in shops, 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Shelton is a small village in Buffalo County, Nebraska, home to a small community of neighbours who know one another. The population is younger than in many small towns, and household incomes run above the county's. Nearly everyone owns the home they live in, and fewer residents fall below the poverty line than you might expect. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, and some snow falls each year. Summers turn warm to hot, with July the warmest.
Work. Residents work mostly in shops, in schools, hospitals and social care, in manufacturing, and in the building trades. Across Buffalo County, some of the largest workplaces are Baldwin Filters, the University of Nebraska at Kearney, and Kearney Public Schools. Few people work from home, and the typical commute is a moderate drive. Job numbers across the county have held roughly steady, and unemployment there has stayed low.
Things to do. Fort Kearny, a historic fort, is a longer drive away and makes a good outing for anyone interested in the westward trails. The Museum of Nebraska Art and Pioneer Village, both museums, are also a longer drive off. The Rainwater Basin, a protected area, is another longer trip for those who like open country.
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- 498households
- 18%of adults have a degree
- 7%below the poverty line
- 26 mintypical commute
- 3%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Buffalo County had 28,130 jobs in 2025, 0.1% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 36° and lows near 14°; warmest in July, with highs near 87° and lows near 63°. About 22 inches of snow and 26 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Kearney Northeast weather station, 15 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Buffalo County
- Baldwin FiltersOther motor vehicle parts manufacturing1,211
- University of Nebraska at KearneyUniversity or college939
- Kearney Public SchoolsSchool district782FTE
- The BuckleClothing stores, family695
- CHI Health Good SamaritanGeneral hospital677FTE
- AFGAnimal fats produced in slaughtering plants634
- Kearney Regional Medical CenterGeneral hospital570FTE
- LandMark ImplementAgricultural implements merchant wholesalers527
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 50 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 7,871 people in all across the county; Shelton has none of its own. 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
- HailVery high
- Strong windVery high
- LightningVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Shelton’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively high. 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 Buffalo County and the Kearney, NE metro.
Shelton home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Shelton$244,470
- Nebraska$278,299
- 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.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Shelton address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Shelton — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.