Sidney, Iowa.
Typical home $193,997 (+9.0% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$587 (+136%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $15,954 +9%
- $178,043$193,997 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $56,109 +41%
- $137,888$193,997 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.
- Sidney$1,018
- 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 Sidney, IA rose 9.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Sidney, Fremont County, Iowa
Sidney is a city of 1,070 people in Fremont County. Half its households earn more than $80,714 a year and half less, against $71,621 across Fremont County; 10% of its people live below the poverty line. 78% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 22% are rented. Unemployment in Fremont County was 3.0% in August 2026, and the county had 1.3% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Sidney is a small city and the seat of Fremont County, in the farm country of southwest Iowa. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and household incomes run above the county's. Typical home values are moderate, and a smaller share of adults hold a four-year degree than in many places. Winters are cold, with snow on the ground often, and summers turn warm in July.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops, and transport, warehouses and utilities close behind. Across Fremont County, the largest workplaces include Conagra Brands, the Sidney Comm School District and Grape Community Hospital in Hamburg. The trip to work is a short one, and very few people work from home. Unemployment across the county has eased a little over the past year, though the county has lost some jobs.
Things to do. Waubonsie State Park, a protected area of woods and hills, is a short drive away. So is the Nishnabotna River, one of several rivers and creeks in the area that suit a quiet afternoon outdoors. A longer drive brings you to Arbor Lodge State Historical Park and Arboretum, a botanical garden.
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- 398households
- 16%of adults have a degree
- 10%below the poverty line
- 20 mintypical commute
- 4%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Fremont County had 2,168 jobs in 2025, 1.3% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 32° and lows near 13°; warmest in July, with highs near 86° and lows near 65°. About 21 inches of snow and 33 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Sidney 1SSE weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Fremont County
- Conagra BrandsAll other miscellaneous food manufacturing100
- Sidney Comm School DistrictSchool district83FTE
- Grape Community Hospital - HamburgCritical access hospital79FTE
- Manildra MillingStarches manufacturing77
- Sapp Bros.,IncGasoline stations with convenience stores75
- Green Plains ShenandoahManufacturer of fuel ethanol74
- The Ambassador SidneyNursing homes55
- Hamburg Comm School DistrictSchool district43FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 8 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 461 people in all across the county; Sidney 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
- TornadoesVery high
- HailRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Sidney’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 Fremont County.
Sidney home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Sidney$193,997
- 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.
- Sidney9
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Sidney address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Sidney — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.