Valentine, Nebraska.
Typical home $221,627 (-6.0% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$560 (+93%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $14,127 -6%
- $235,754$221,627 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $37,512 +20%
- $184,115$221,627 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.
- Valentine$1,163
- Nebraska$1,461
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 19 years.
Typical home values in Valentine, NE fell 6.0% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Valentine, Cherry County, Nebraska
Valentine is a city of 2,633 people in Cherry County. 62% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 38% are rented. Unemployment in Cherry County was 1.8% in August 2026, and the county had 2.6% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in restaurants and hotels, 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Valentine is a small city and the seat of Cherry County, in the sandhills country of north-central Nebraska. Most homes are lived in by their owners, though not by as large a margin as in many rural places, and a four-year degree is held by a modest share of adults. Winters are cold and snowy, summers turn hot, and the rain and melted snow add up to a fairly dry year.
Work. Residents work mostly in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, in shops, in schools, hospitals and social care, and in the building trades. Among the largest workplaces in town are Valentine Community Schools, Cherry County Hospital and Cherry Hills Estates. Unemployment across the county is very low, though the county had fewer jobs last year than the year before, and very few people work from home.
Things to do. Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge, a protected area, is a short drive away, as is Minnechaduza Creek, a river. Smith Falls, a waterfall, is a longer drive away, and so is the Niobrara National Scenic River, another protected area. These make for easy outings into open country along the Niobrara valley.
Report a mistake
- 1,093households
- 26%of adults have a degree
- 9%below the poverty line
- 2%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Cherry County had 2,263 jobs in 2025, 2.6% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 36° and lows near 13°; warmest in July, with highs near 89° and lows near 62°. About 29 inches of snow and 21 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Valentine #1 weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Valentine
- Valentine Community SchoolsSchool district116FTE
- Cherry County HospitalCritical access hospital89FTE
- Cherry Hills EstatesAssisted-living facilities without on-site nursing care facilities32
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 1 workplace with 20 or more staff, 32 people in all. 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
- Winter weatherVery high
- Cold wavesVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Valentine’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 Cherry County.
Valentine home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Valentine$221,627
- Nebraska$278,299
- 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.
- Valentine9
Zip codes with a Valentine address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Valentine — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.