Wakarusa, Indiana.
Typical home $319,419 (+5.3% in a year). South Bend-Mishawaka, IN-MI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$938 (+127%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $16,189 +5%
- $303,230$319,419 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $73,624 +30%
- $245,794$319,419 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.
- Wakarusa$1,677
- Indiana$1,350
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Wakarusa, IN rose 5.3% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Wakarusa, St. Joseph County, Indiana
Wakarusa is a town of 1,998 people in St. Joseph County. Half its households earn more than $74,464 a year and half less, against $66,868 across St. Joseph County; 8% of its people live below the poverty line. 85% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 15% are rented. Unemployment in St. Joseph County was 4.1% in August 2026, and the county had 0.7% more 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 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Wakarusa is a small town where nearly everyone owns the home they live in, a much higher rate of ownership than most places. Household incomes run above the county's, and fewer people live below the poverty line than you might expect. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while July brings warm summer days, and the year is fairly wet.
Work. Manufacturing is the main way people here earn a living, followed by schools, hospitals and social care, and then restaurants, hotels and entertainment and shops. Some of the largest workplaces in town are Clayton, which builds manufactured homes, the Keystone RV Company plant, and Southwest Welding, which makes metal products. A small share of residents work from home.
Things to do. For a day out, Potato Creek State Park is a protected area a longer drive away, good for time outdoors. The Potawatomi Zoo and the Studebaker National Museum are also a longer drive away, and Notre Dame Stadium, one of the best known places nearby, is a longer drive as well.
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- 750households
- 30%of adults have a degree
- 8%below the poverty line
- 7%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. St. Joseph County had 121,917 jobs in 2025, 0.7% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 32° and lows near 18°; warmest in July, with highs near 83° and lows near 63°. About 45 inches of snow and 40 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Goshen 3SW weather station, 7 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Wakarusa
- ClaytonManufactured home manufacturing488
- CA AdvancedPole line construction197
- Keystone RV Company - Plant 35Rv manufacturing121
- Southwest WeldingAngle irons, metal, manufacturing112
- Arc AmericanPole line construction105
- Waters of WakarusaSkilled nursing facilities95
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 6 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,118 people in all. 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
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Wakarusa’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 St. Joseph County and the South Bend-Mishawaka, IN-MI metro.
Wakarusa home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Wakarusa$319,419
- Indiana$257,165
- 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.
- Wakarusa5
Zip codes with a Wakarusa address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Wakarusa — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.