West Bend, Iowa.
Typical home $163,859 (+1.8% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$378 (+78%) since Feb 2022.
- 1 year
- Up $2,956 +2%
- $160,902$163,859 since Sep 2025
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.
- West Bend$860
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
Typical home values in West Bend, IA rose 1.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in West Bend, Palo Alto County, Iowa
West Bend is a city of 791 people in Palo Alto County. Half its households earn more than $86,154 a year and half less, against $72,781 across Palo Alto County; 7% of its people live below the poverty line. 85% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 15% are rented. Unemployment in Palo Alto County was 2.6% in August 2026, and the county had 1.2% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. West Bend is a small city in Palo Alto County, Iowa, and most of its homes are lived in by their owners. Household incomes run higher than across the county, and a smaller share of people live below the poverty line than you might expect for a small farm-country town. Winters are cold, with January highs staying below freezing, while July is warm, and rain and melted snow add up to a moderate amount over the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by farming, forestry and mining, then shops and manufacturing. Across Palo Alto County, some of the largest workplaces are Palo Alto County Hospital, the Emmetsburg Community School District and Fareway Stores in Emmetsburg. Unemployment across the county is low and has been steady over the past year, and the county has added a few more jobs than it had the year before.
Things to do. For time outdoors, Ambrose A. Call State Park is a protected area a longer drive away. Lost Island Lake is another longer drive, a place for time on the water, and Union Slough National Wildlife Refuge is a protected area for watching wildlife, also a longer drive from town.
Report a mistake
- 320households
- 25%of adults have a degree
- 7%below the poverty line
- 4%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Palo Alto County had 3,659 jobs in 2025, 1.2% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 25° and lows near 6°; warmest in July, with highs near 83° and lows near 61°. About 34 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Algona weather station, 14 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Palo Alto County
- Palo Alto County HospitalCritical access hospital156FTE
- Wild Rose Casino EmmetsburgCasinos154
- MacArthur Company - Energy Panel StructuresBuildings, prefabricated metal, manufacturing152
- Emmetsburg Comm School DistrictSchool district119FTE
- Fareway Stores, Inc. 849 EmmetsburgGrocery stores80
- Graettinger-Terril Comm School DistrictSchool district75FTE
- West Bend CareSkilled nursing facilities75
- Emmetsburg Care CenterSkilled nursing facilities71
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 15 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,188 people in all across the county; West Bend has one of its own. Hospitals come 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
- HailVery high
- LightningVery high
- Cold wavesVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in West Bend’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 Palo Alto County.
West Bend home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- West Bend$163,859
- 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.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- West Bend7
Zip codes with a West Bend address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls West Bend — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zillow publishes no zip-level series with this city on the address.