Sumner, Iowa.
Typical home $148,016 (+2.3% in a year). Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$401 (+107%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $3,304 +2%
- $144,712$148,016 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $28,151 +23%
- $119,865$148,016 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.
- Sumner$777
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 16 years.
Typical home values in Sumner, IA rose 2.3% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Sumner, Bremer County, Iowa
Sumner is a city of 2,030 people in Bremer County. Half its households earn more than $58,854 a year and half less, against $86,784 across Bremer County; 14% of its people live below the poverty line. 78% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 22% are rented. Unemployment in Bremer County was 3.1% in August 2026, and the county had 1.7% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Sumner is a small city in Bremer County, Iowa, where most homes are lived in by their owners and a typical house costs less than many people would expect to pay elsewhere. Household incomes here run well below the county's, and a noticeable share of residents live below the poverty line. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month and highs staying below freezing, while summers turn warm in July and the year brings a fair amount of rain and melted snow.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, wholesale and retail also providing many jobs. Across Bremer County, the largest workplaces include Wartburg College, Waverly Health Center and the Waverly-Shell Rock Community School District. Unemployment in the county is low and about where it was a year ago, though the county has fewer jobs than it did the year before, and the typical commute is short.
Things to do. For time outdoors, the Shell Rock River is the best known nearby waterway, and Volga River State Recreation Area is a park that is a longer drive away. Fort Atkinson, an old fort, is another longer drive and offers a look at the area's history. Each of these places is a longer drive from town, so they suit a day out rather than a quick stop.
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- 863households
- 28%of adults have a degree
- 14%below the poverty line
- 21 mintypical commute
- 7%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Bremer County had 9,525 jobs in 2025, 1.7% fewer than 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 83° and lows near 62°. About 39 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Tripoli weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Bremer County
- Wartburg CollegeUniversity or college457
- Waverly Health CenterCritical access hospital356FTE
- Waverly-Shell Rock Comm School DistrictSchool district351FTE
- Schumacher Elevator CompanyElevator installation290
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters273
- Bartels Lutheran Retirement CommunityLong term care244
- FolienceAmbulances assembling on purchased chassis205
- United Equipment AccessoriesRelays, electrical and electronic, manufacturing171
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 21 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,411 people in all across the county; Sumner has two of its own. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24), hospitals 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 weatherRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- HailRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Sumner’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively low. 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 Bremer County and the Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA metro.
Sumner home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Sumner$148,016
- 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.
- Sumner16
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Sumner address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Sumner — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.