Westgate, Iowa.
Typical home $183,656 (+9.3% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$569 (+144%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $15,698 +9%
- $167,957$183,656 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $61,024 +50%
- $122,631$183,656 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.
- Westgate$964
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 9 years.
Typical home values in Westgate, IA rose 9.3% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Westgate, Fayette County, Iowa
Westgate is a city of 192 people in Fayette County. Half its households earn more than $53,750 a year and half less, against $60,165 across Fayette County. Unemployment in Fayette County was 3.5% in August 2026, and the county had 0.2% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Fayette County work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Westgate is a very small Iowa city, one of the smallest places in Fayette County. Household incomes here run below the county's, and a typical home costs less than in many parts of the country. Few adults hold a four-year degree, and winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month and July the warmest.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, the building trades and shops also employing many. Across Fayette County, some of the largest workplaces are Upper Iowa University, East Penn Oelwein and the Oelwein Community School District. Commutes are long, which is common where the nearest large employers are in other towns, and only a small share of people work from home.
Things to do. For time outdoors, Backbone State Park is a protected area, and the Shell Rock River offers a place to be near water, both a longer drive away. Fort Atkinson, an old fort, is also a longer drive away, and is a place for anyone who likes local history.
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- 11%of adults have a degree
- 32 mintypical commute
- 6%work from home
What people in Fayette County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Fayette County had 6,976 jobs in 2025, 0.2% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 26° and lows near 9°; warmest in July, with highs near 83° and lows near 63°. About 39 inches of snow and 35 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Oelwein 1E weather station, 9 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Fayette County
- Upper Iowa UniversityUniversity or college399
- East Penn OelweinMotor vehicle supplies and new parts merchant wholesalers343
- Oelwein Comm School DistrictSchool district213FTE
- North Fayette Valley Comm School DistrictSchool district172FTE
- Palmer Lutheran Health CenterCritical access hospital135FTE
- Grandview Care CenterSkilled nursing facilities110
- Fareway Stores, Inc. 412 OelweinGrocery stores105
- Starmont Comm School DistrictSchool district103FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 23 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,463 people in all across the county; Westgate has none of its own. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24), school districts 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
- DroughtRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Westgate’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. 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 Fayette County.
Westgate home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Westgate$183,656
- 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 Westgate address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Westgate — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.