Wayne, Nebraska.
Typical home $242,407 (+6.7% in a year), asking rent $1,305 .
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$739 (+139%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $15,226 +7%
- $227,181$242,407 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $72,418 +43%
- $169,989$242,407 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.
- Wayne$1,272
- Nebraska$1,461
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 10 years.
Typical home values in Wayne, NE rose 6.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Wayne, Wayne County, Nebraska
Wayne is a city of 5,973 people in Wayne County. Half its households earn more than $53,702 a year and half less, against $66,215 across Wayne County; 20% of its people live below the poverty line. 42% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 58% are rented. Unemployment in Wayne County was 3.0% in August 2026, and the county had 3.5% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then restaurants and hotels.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Wayne is a small college city in northeast Nebraska, and the college shapes much of daily life. The population is very young, with a median age well below what most communities see, and household incomes run below the county's. Most homes are rented rather than lived in by their owners, and a good many residents hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold and snowy, with January highs near freezing, while July brings warm summer days.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with others in restaurants and hotels, in shops, and in manufacturing. The largest workplaces in Wayne are Wayne State College, Providence Medical Center and Wayne Community Schools. Commutes are short, and a share of people work from home. Across Wayne County, there were somewhat fewer jobs last year than the year before, and unemployment is low.
Things to do. The Wayne State College Arboretum, a botanical garden in or beside town, is the easiest place to take a walk among trees and plantings. A longer drive away are the John G. Neihardt State Historic Site, a protected area honoring the Nebraska poet, and Rock Creek, a river. Norfolk Community Theatre, also a longer drive away, offers live performances.
Report a mistake
- 2,182households
- 36%of adults have a degree
- 20%below the poverty line
- 10 mintypical commute
- 15%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Wayne County had 4,042 jobs in 2025, 3.5% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 30° and lows near 11°; warmest in July, with highs near 85° and lows near 63°. About 32 inches of snow and 27 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Wayne weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Wayne
- Wayne State CollegeUniversity or college517
- Providence Medical CenterCritical access hospital151FTE
- Wayne Community SchoolsSchool district125FTE
- Heritage Homes of NebraskaBuildings, prefabricated, wood, manufacturing72
- Kinship Pointe at WayneRest homes without nursing care67
- Wayne Countryview Care and RehabilitationSkilled nursing facilities64
- Sand Creek Post and BeamDoors, wood and covered wood, manufacturing60
- Williams Form Engineering NebraskaBars, concrete reinforcing, manufacturing46
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 9 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 598 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
- TornadoesVery high
- Heat wavesVery high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Wayne’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 Wayne County.
Wayne home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Wayne$242,407
- Nebraska$278,299
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 6 Wayne listings — the market is roughly in balance.
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.
- Wayne16.00%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Wayne22
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Wayne8
Zip codes with a Wayne address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Wayne — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.