Spencer, Iowa.
Typical home $198,647 (+3.6% in a year). Spencer, IA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$530 (+104%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $6,817 +4%
- $191,830$198,647 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $40,161 +25%
- $158,486$198,647 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.
- Spencer$1,043
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 15 years.
Typical home values in Spencer, IA rose 3.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Spencer, Clay County, Iowa
Spencer is a city of 11,325 people in Clay County. Half its households earn more than $59,667 a year and half less, against $65,428 across Clay County; 14% of its people live below the poverty line. 68% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 32% are rented. Unemployment in Clay County was 3.0% in August 2026, and the county had about as many jobs in 2025 as the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then shops.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Spencer is a small city and the main town of Clay County, in northwest Iowa. Residents are somewhat older than across much of the country, and most homes are lived in by their owners. Household incomes run a little below the county's, and a typical home costs less than in many parts of the country. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while July brings warm summer days.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with shops, manufacturing, and restaurants, hotels and entertainment also employing a good number. Among the largest workplaces in Spencer are Spencer Municipal Hospital, the Spencer Comm School District and Walmart. Commutes are short, and unemployment across Clay County is low and has barely moved from a year earlier.
Things to do. The Iowa Great Lakes area lies a longer drive away and offers the most to do outdoors. West Okoboji Lake and Spirit Lake are both lakes, good for boating, swimming and fishing. Pillsbury Point State Park, also a longer drive away, is a protected area on the water.
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- 5,201households
- 30%of adults have a degree
- 14%below the poverty line
- 16 mintypical commute
- 6%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Clay County had 8,536 jobs in 2025, about as many as the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 25° and lows near 7°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 62°. About 43 inches of snow and 31 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Spencer North weather station, a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Spencer
- Spencer Municipal HospitalGeneral hospital400FTE
- Spencer Comm School DistrictSchool district327FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters228
- Hy-VeeSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores166
- Menards"home centers"144
- St. Luke Homes & Services, Inc.Nursing facility142
- UPSCouriers and express delivery services113
- Midwestern Mechanical-SpencerPlumbing and heating contractors93
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 23 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,135 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); 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
- Inland floodingVery high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesrelatively high in parts of SpencerRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Spencer’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 Clay County and the Spencer, IA metro.
Spencer home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Spencer$198,647
- 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 Spencer listings — the market is roughly in balance.
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.
- Spencer21.30%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Spencer80
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Spencer18
Zip codes with a Spencer address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Spencer — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Spencer
| Zip activate to sort by Zip | Place activate to sort by Place | Population sorted descending, activate to sort ascending | Rent activate to sort by Rent | Home value activate to sort by Home value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 51301 | Spencer | 12,638 | — | $198,888 |
| 51357 | Royal | 910 | — | $131,680 |