Waverly, Iowa.
Typical home $279,813 (+1.6% in a year), asking rent $1,200 . Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$721 (+96%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $4,310 +2%
- $275,503$279,813 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $61,835 +28%
- $217,978$279,813 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.
- Waverly$1,469
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 14 years.
Typical home values in Waverly, IA rose 1.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Waverly, Bremer County, Iowa
Waverly is a city of 10,394 people in Bremer County. Half its households earn more than $80,284 a year and half less, against $86,784 across Bremer County; 11% of its people live below the poverty line. 69% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 31% are rented. Unemployment in Bremer County was 3.1% in August 2026, and the county had 1.7% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Waverly is a small city in Bremer County with a younger population than most of the country, in part because of its college. Incomes run a little below the county's, and most homes are lived in by their owners. A good share of adults hold a four-year degree, and getting to work is usually a short trip across town. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, and summers turn warm in July, with a fair amount of rain through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by shops, manufacturing, and professional and business services. The largest workplaces in Waverly include Wartburg College, Waverly Health Center and the Waverly-Shell Rock Comm School District. Across Bremer County there are slightly fewer jobs than a year earlier, though unemployment has stayed low and steady.
Things to do. The Shell Rock River is a short drive away, and Walston-Hoover Stadium is in or beside town. For a longer drive, Hartman Reserve Nature Center is a protected area for walking and watching wildlife, and the Cedar Valley Arboretum & Botanic Gardens offers a quieter afternoon among planted gardens.
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- 3,856households
- 44%of adults have a degree
- 11%below the poverty line
- 17 mintypical commute
- 11%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Bremer County had 9,525 jobs in 2025, 1.7% 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 85° and lows near 64°. About 39 inches of snow and 36 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Waterloo Municipal Airport weather station, 12 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Waverly
- Wartburg CollegeUniversity or college457
- Waverly Health CenterCritical access hospital356FTE
- Waverly-Shell Rock Comm School DistrictSchool district351FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters273
- Bartels Lutheran Retirement CommunityLong term care244
- United Equipment AccessoriesRelays, electrical and electronic, manufacturing171
- Fareway Stores, Inc. 561 WaverlyGrocery stores122
- Hy-VeeSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores109
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 14 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,702 people in all. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24), hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); 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
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Hailrelatively high in parts of WaverlyRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Waverly’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 Bremer County and the Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA metro.
Waverly home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Waverly$279,813
- Iowa$236,623
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Waverly listings, and the typical home goes pending in 17 days — the market is cooling.
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
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Waverly30.41%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Waverly55
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Waverly18
Zip codes with a Waverly address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Waverly — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.