Watkins, Iowa.
Typical home $412,680 (+17.2% in a year). Cedar Rapids, IA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,323 (+157%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $60,459 +17%
- $352,221$412,680 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $144,188 +54%
- $268,491$412,680 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.
- Watkins$2,166
- 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 Watkins, IA rose 17.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Watkins, Benton County, Iowa
Watkins, in Benton County, had 116 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $96,296 a year and half less, against $86,962 across Benton County. Unemployment in Benton County was 3.3% in August 2026, and the county had 0.5% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Benton County work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
Written by AI Claude Haiku 5.5 wrote this on 22 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Watkins is a community in Benton County, Iowa, where household incomes run higher than the county's as a whole. Winters are colder than in most of the country, with the coldest weather in January, while summers are warm, peaking in July. The year is fairly wet, so rain and melted snow are a regular part of life here.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in manufacturing, in shops, or in the building trades. Across Benton County, unemployment is lower than it was a year earlier, though the number of jobs has eased slightly over the same period. Neighbours often find work close to home in these familiar fields.
Things to do. The Frontier Organic Research Farm Botanical Garden is a botanical garden a short drive away, and Knapp Creek, a river, is also close by. For a longer outing, the Hanging Bog State Preserve is a park a longer drive away.
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What people in Benton County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Benton County had 6,040 jobs in 2025, 0.5% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 28° and lows near 11°; warmest in July, with highs near 83° and lows near 63°. About 36 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Cedar Rapids Municipal Airport weather station, 14 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Benton County
- Frontier CooperativeSpices and spice mix manufacturing441
- Vinton-Shellsburg Comm School DistrictSchool district271FTE
- Benton Comm School DistrictSchool district214FTE
- ClickstopCrating goods for shipping212
- Center Point-Urbana Comm School DistrictSchool district198FTE
- Virginia GAY HospitalCritical access hospital131FTE
- Fareway Stores, Inc. 462 VintonGrocery stores100
- Belle Plaine Comm School DistrictSchool district62FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 16 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,196 people in all across the county; Watkins 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
- Strong windRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Watkins’ 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 Benton County and the Cedar Rapids, IA metro.
Watkins home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Watkins$412,680
- 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.
Zip codes with a Watkins address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Watkins — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.