Sutherland, Iowa.
Typical home $155,190 (+9.5% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$475 (+140%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $13,522 +10%
- $141,668$155,190 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $46,297 +43%
- $108,893$155,190 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.
- Sutherland$815
- 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 Sutherland, IA rose 9.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Sutherland, O'Brien County, Iowa
Sutherland is a city of 629 people in O'Brien County. Half its households earn more than $55,469 a year and half less, against $68,356 across O'Brien County; 14% of its people live below the poverty line. 80% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 20% are rented. Unemployment in O'Brien County was 2.4% in August 2026, and the county had 0.7% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in manufacturing, 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Sutherland is a small city in O'Brien County, Iowa, where most homes are lived in by their owners. Incomes run below the county's, and a four-year degree is less common among adults than in many places. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month and highs staying below freezing, while summers turn warm, with July the warmest.
Work. Residents work mostly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, and in shops. Across O'Brien County, some of the largest workplaces are Van Wyk, a long-distance trucking company, Maintainer Corporation of Iowa, which assembles truck bodies, and Hy-Vee, the grocery chain. Unemployment across the county is low, though the county had slightly fewer jobs last year than the year before.
Things to do. The Indian Village Site, an archaeological site, is a short drive away. A longer drive brings you to Bluebird Creek, a river, and to the Living Heritage Tree Museum. Both are good for a day out of town.
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- 277households
- 16%of adults have a degree
- 14%below the poverty line
- 21 mintypical commute
- 2%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. O'Brien County had 6,559 jobs in 2025, 0.7% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 27° and lows near 9°; warmest in July, with highs near 85° and lows near 64°. About 35 inches of snow and 31 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Primghar weather station, 10 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in O'Brien County
- Van WykTrucking, general freight, long-distance, truckload244
- Maintainer Corporation of IowaTruck bodies assembling on purchased chassis180
- Sheldon Comm School DistrictSchool district166FTE
- Hy-VeeSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores119
- Sanford Medical Center SheldonCritical access hospital119FTE
- Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn Comm School DistrictSchool district109FTE
- Associated Milk ProducersCheese manufacturing108
- South O'Brien Comm School DistrictSchool district102FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 17 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,507 people in all across the county; Sutherland has none 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
- HailVery high
- Winter weatherVery high
- Strong windRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- DroughtRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Sutherland’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 O'Brien County.
Sutherland home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Sutherland$155,190
- 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.
- Sutherland4
Zip codes with a Sutherland address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Sutherland — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.