Winterset, Iowa.
Typical home $289,777 (+1.0% in a year). Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$762 (+100%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $2,761 +1%
- $287,015$289,777 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $52,252 +22%
- $237,524$289,777 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.
- Winterset$1,521
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 17 years.
Typical home values in Winterset, IA rose 1.0% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Winterset, Madison County, Iowa
Winterset is a city of 5,353 people in Madison County. Half its households earn more than $67,708 a year and half less, against $90,855 across Madison County; 10% of its people live below the poverty line. 65% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 35% are rented. Unemployment in Madison County was 3.3% in August 2026, and the county had 1.0% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Winterset is a small city and the seat of Madison County, Iowa. Residents tend to be somewhat younger than in many small towns, and most homes are lived in by their owners. Incomes run well below the county's as a whole, and relatively few adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold, with highs near freezing in January and a fair amount of snow, while July is warm. Rain and melted snow through the year are moderate.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in the building trades, and in banks, insurance and property. The largest workplaces in town include the Winterset Comm School District, Agriland FS - Winterset and Madison County Memorial Hospital. Unemployment across Madison County is the same as it was a year ago, though the county has a few fewer jobs than the year before. A typical commute is short, and some residents work from home.
Things to do. Winterset City Park is a garden in or beside town, and Badger Creek State Recreation Area is a park a short drive away. For a longer drive, the Iowa State Capitol is a museum-like landmark in Des Moines, and the Des Moines Art Center is an art museum there as well.
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- 2,389households
- 22%of adults have a degree
- 10%below the poverty line
- 24 mintypical commute
- 14%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Madison County had 4,194 jobs in 2025, 1.0% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 30° and lows near 10°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 62°. About 31 inches of snow and 35 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Winterset 1S weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Winterset
- Winterset Comm School DistrictSchool district233FTE
- Agriland FS - WintersetAgricultural chemicals merchant wholesalers200
- Madison County Memorial HospitalCritical access hospital133FTE
- Fareway Stores, Inc. 683 WintersetGrocery stores117
- Hy-VeeSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores99
- BCPSkilled nursing facilities47
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 4 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 463 people in all. 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
- Strong windVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- HailRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Winterset’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 Madison County and the Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA metro.
Winterset home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Winterset$289,777
- Iowa$236,623
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Winterset listings — the market is heating up.
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.
- Winterset27.59%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Winterset53
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Winterset13
Zip codes with a Winterset address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Winterset — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.