A typical Sterling home is worth roughly $130,000
Builders were permitted 3 new homes in 2025.
What kind of housing town is Sterling?
Read from the numbers below. The page puts what stands out first.
A typical home costs 1.9 years of income
Less than across Nebraska (3.7 years). Try your own numbers below.
That covers a typical Sterling home, with $126K to spare.
A two-bedroom rents for about $960 a month here, $130 more than owning.
An estimate, not a loan offer: payments of up to 28% of income, a 30-year fixed loan, Sterling’s typical property tax (1.36% of value a year, from the Census) and insurance of about 0.35%. Mortgage insurance, HOA fees and other debts aren’t included.
78% of Sterling households own their home
Half of Sterling’s homes were built before 1942.
Nebraska: 67% own.
U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 · figures for a place this size carry wide margins of error.
A two-bedroom rents for about $960
Renters already here pay a median of $830, 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 (Johnson County, NE): 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 Sterling in 2025, all single-family houses. Over the past 10 years, Sterling has permitted 14 homes in all.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses, Sterling gained 4 residents while 5 new homes were permitted: about 0.8 new residents per new home. Building outpaced population growth, which usually means smaller households or homes used part of the year. Across Nebraska: 1.8 new residents per new home.
Every year as a table
| Year | New homes | Single-family | 2+ per building | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (Jan–Aug) | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2025 | 3 | 3 | 0 | $950,000 |
| 2024 | 1 | 1 | 0 | $60,000 |
| 2023 | 4 | 4 | 0 | $1 million |
| 2022 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2021 | 2 | 2 | 0 | $580,000 |
| 2020 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2019 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2018 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2017 | 3 | 3 | 0 | $625,000 |
| 2016 | 1 | 1 | 0 | $209,000 |
| 2015 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2014 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2013 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2012 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2011 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2010 | 1 | 1 | 0 | $35,000 |
| 2009 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2008 | 1 | 1 | 0 | $53,000 |
| 2007 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2006 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2005 | 2 | 0 | 2 | $110,000 |
| 2004 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2003 | 1 | 1 | 0 | $43,000 |
| 2002 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2001 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2000 | 4 | 4 | 0 | $197,000 |
Homes authorized by building permits, counted in the year the permit was issued. U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey.
Neighbors talk housing
What Sterling buyers, sellers and renters are saying.
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
Home values: Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI), Zillow Research. Sales, days on market and supply: Redfin Data Center. 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.