A typical Shelby home is worth about $239,000
Up 1.4% in a year, close to the Iowa typical home.
Only 1 sale in May 2026: in a market this size, monthly medians swing a lot, so the typical value is the steadier guide.
What kind of housing town is Shelby?
Read from the numbers below. The page puts what stands out first.
63% of Shelby households own their home
Half of Shelby’s homes were built before 1938.
Iowa: 72% own.
U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 · figures for a place this size carry wide margins of error.
Up 30.5% in five years
Faster than Iowa (26.1%).
Show as a table
| January | Shelby | Iowa |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | $126,000 | $152,000 |
| 2019 | $145,000 | $159,000 |
| 2020 | $157,000 | $167,000 |
| 2021 | $169,000 | $179,000 |
| 2022 | $190,000 | $195,000 |
| 2023 | $209,000 | $211,000 |
| 2024 | $209,000 | $218,000 |
| 2025 | $232,000 | $228,000 |
| 2026 | $235,000 | $236,000 |
| August 2026 | $239,000 | $240,000 |
A typical Shelby home worth $129K in February 2017 is worth about $239K today.
Zillow Home Value Index: the typical value of all homes (middle third), smoothed and seasonally adjusted, through August 2026.
A typical home costs 3.8 years of income
More than across Iowa (3.2 years). Try your own numbers below.
That’s $3K short of a typical Shelby home.
A two-bedroom rents for about $960 a month here, $550 less than owning.
An estimate, not a loan offer: payments of up to 28% of income, a 30-year fixed loan, Shelby’s typical property tax (1.31% of value a year, from the Census) and insurance of about 0.35%. Mortgage insurance, HOA fees and other debts aren’t included.
A two-bedroom rents for about $960
Renters already here pay a median of $840, so moving in tends to cost more than staying put.
Fair Market Rent a month, utilities included
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Fair Market Rents by ZIP code (Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA HUD Metro FMR Area): the 40th-percentile rent plus utilities for a standard unit. Median rent and renters: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey.
3 new homes permitted in 2025
Builders were permitted 3 new homes in Shelby in 2025, all single-family houses, worth about $1 million to build.
Every year as a table
| Year | New homes | Single-family | 2+ per building | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (Jan–Aug) | 1 | 1 | 0 | $340,000 |
| 2025 | 3 | 3 | 0 | $1 million |
| 2004 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2003 | 1 | 1 | 0 | $140,000 |
| 2002 | 1 | 1 | 0 | $140,000 |
| 2001 | 1 | 1 | 0 | $140,000 |
| 2000 | 1 | 1 | 0 | $140,000 |
Homes authorized by building permits, counted in the year the permit was issued. U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey.
Neighbors talk housing
What Shelby buyers, sellers and renters are saying.
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
Home values: Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI), Zillow Research, August 2026. Sales, days on market and supply: Redfin Data Center, May 2026. Income, ownership, taxes and rent: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey. New homes: U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey. Fair Market Rents: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Listings link to their publishers. The calculator is an estimate, not a loan offer.