State Center, Iowa.
Typical home $297,496 (+22.2% in a year). Marshalltown, IA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$932 (+148%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $53,965 +22%
- $243,531$297,496 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $99,930 +51%
- $197,566$297,496 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.
- State Center$1,561
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 8 years.
Typical home values in State Center, IA rose 22.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in State Center, Marshall County, Iowa
State Center is a city of 1,391 people in Marshall County. 82% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 18% are rented. Unemployment in Marshall County was 5.5% in August 2026, and the county had 0.6% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then shops.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 24 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. State Center is a small Iowa city where most homes are lived in by their owners, a good deal more than across most of the country. Typical home values sit well above what many people expect for a town this size, and fewer residents live below the poverty line than is common. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while summers turn warm in July, and the year brings a fair amount of rain and melted snow.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with others in shops, manufacturing and a range of other services. Across Marshall County, some of the largest workplaces are Swift Pork Company Marshalltown, Lennox Residential Marshalltown and the Marshalltown Community School District. The county had slightly fewer jobs last year than the year before, and its unemployment rate was unchanged over the past year.
Things to do. Minerva Creek, a river, is a short drive away. Farther afield, Rock Creek State Park is a protected area for time outdoors, and Reiman Gardens is a botanical garden. Iowa Speedway, a race track, is also a longer drive away.
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- 583households
- 34%of adults have a degree
- 5%below the poverty line
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Marshall County had 15,942 jobs in 2025, 0.6% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 27° and lows near 10°; warmest in July, with highs near 83° and lows near 63°. About 31 inches of snow and 36 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Colo weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Marshall County
- Swift Pork Company MarshalltownPork carcasses, half carcasses, and primal and sub-primal cuts produced in slaughtering plants2,308
- Lennox Residential MarshalltownAir-conditioning and warm air heating combination units manufacturing734
- Marshalltown Comm School DistrictSchool district731FTE
- Fisher Controls InternationalControl valves, industrial-type, manufacturing445
- Veterans Health AdministrationFederal government · Department of Veterans Affairs332
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters325
- Unitypoint Health-marshalltownGeneral hospital260FTE
- Hy-VeeSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores238
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 41 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 6,777 people in all across the county; State Center has two of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24), federal offices from OPM's federal workforce data (2026) 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
- DroughtRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in State Center’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 Marshall County and the Marshalltown, IA metro.
State Center home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- State Center$297,496
- 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.
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.
- State Center10
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a State Center address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls State Center — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.