Wauneta, Nebraska.
Typical home $144,159 (+7.6% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$363 (+92%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $10,154 +8%
- $134,005$144,159 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $11,654 +9%
- $132,505$144,159 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.
- Wauneta$757
- Nebraska$1,461
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 41 years.
Typical home values in Wauneta, NE rose 7.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Wauneta, Chase County, Nebraska
Wauneta is a village of 549 people in Chase County. Half its households earn more than $47,143 a year and half less, against $68,173 across Chase County. Unemployment in Chase County was 3.0% in August 2026, and the county had 2.3% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Chase County work in schools and health care, then farming.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Wauneta is a village in Chase County, Nebraska, small enough that most people know one another. Household incomes run well below the county's, while homes cost less than in much of the country. Not many adults hold a four-year degree, and the winters are cold while the summers turn hot, with only modest rain and melted snow across the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, and a good number work in farming, with others in shops and wholesale. Across Chase County, some of the largest workplaces are Chase County Schools, Chase County Community Hospital and Imperial Beef. The typical commute is short, and a share of people work from home.
Things to do. Enders Reservoir State Recreation Area is a protected area a short drive away, a place for time by the water. The South Fork Republican River is a longer drive away and suits anyone who likes to spend a day along a river.
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- 236households
- 17%of adults have a degree
- 15 mintypical commute
- 10%work from home
What people in Chase County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Chase County had 1,738 jobs in 2025, 2.3% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 42° and lows near 16°; warmest in July, with highs near 91° and lows near 62°. About 17 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Imperial Municipal Airport weather station, 15 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Chase County
- Chase County SchoolsSchool district103FTE
- Chase County Community HospitalCritical access hospital68FTE
- Imperial BeefBeef cattle feedlots60
- Imperial Manor Parkview HeightsSkilled nursing facilities60
- Frenchman Valley ProducePotato farming, field and seed potato production49
- Frenchman Valley Farmers Coop Agronomy-ImperialAgricultural chemicals merchant wholesalers23
- Wauneta-palisade Public SchsSchool district22FTE
- Nutrien Ag SolutionsFarm supplies merchant wholesalers21
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 5 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 213 people in all across the county; Wauneta has one 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
- Strong windVery high
- LightningVery high
- Cold wavesVery high
- Winter weatherVery high
- TornadoesVery high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Wauneta’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 Chase County.
Wauneta home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Wauneta$144,159
- 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.
- Wauneta6
Zip codes with a Wauneta address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Wauneta — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.