827 Robley Street

Where the Missouri River Bends and the Housing Market Quietly Surprises

Burt County sits in Nebraska's far northeast corner, where the Missouri River forms the border with Iowa and small towns like Tekamah and Oakland carry the quiet weight of agricultural history. With just 6,730 residents spread across roughly 480 square miles — a density of 14 people per square mile — this is deeply rural America. But look closely at the housing data and something unexpected emerges: a market moving faster than most people would guess.

A 9.2% Price Jump in Farm Country

Year-over-year home prices in Burt County rose 9.2%, a figure that would turn heads in any suburban market. In a county where the median home is valued at $162,500 and sells for roughly $107 per square foot, that kind of appreciation signals real demand pressure in a place with limited inventory. Only 19 sales were recorded in the past 12 months across the tracked dataset — a thin market where a handful of transactions can swing averages dramatically, but also one where supply is genuinely constrained.

The wide spread between the 10th percentile price ($58,418) and the 90th ($410,000) tells the story of two very different buyer experiences here: distressed rural properties at the low end, and larger agricultural or riverfront acreages at the high end pulling the average sale price up to $227,554.

Key Statistics

Stat	Value	Context
Median Home Price	$162,500	roughly half the national median of $320,000
YoY Price Change	+9.2%	well above national appreciation norms
Homeownership Rate	77.2%	nearly 20 points above U.S. average
Vacancy Rate	14.1%	high, suggesting hollowing rural housing stock

The Aging Ownership Economy

A median age of 44.8 and a population that is nearly one-quarter aged 65 or older shapes everything here. Homeownership at 77.2% — far above the national rate of around 65% — reflects a generation that bought decades ago and stayed. The median year built of 1920 is striking: these are genuinely old homes, many predating the Great Depression, which explains the low price-per-square-foot but also suggests deferred maintenance costs that don't show up in the listing price.

Labor force participation at 59.0% is notably low, partly a function of that older demographic. Yet unemployment sits at just 2.6%, meaning those who want to work are working — a hallmark of Nebraska's agricultural economy, which creates steady if modest employment.

Income Inequality Hiding in Plain Sight

The Gini index of 0.454 is surprisingly high for a rural Nebraska county, approaching inequality levels more typical of urban cores. The gap between a median household income of $57,303 and the astronomical-looking mean household income figure points to a small number of large farm operations or landowners skewing the distribution sharply. Meanwhile, a child poverty rate of 19.9% — nearly one in five children — against an overall poverty rate of 13.7% suggests that working-age families with children are disproportionately struggling. Affordable rent at a median of $688 helps: renters here carry a burden of just 25.4% of income, comfortably below the 30% stress threshold.

The 18.0% limited English figure is also notable for a county this rural, likely reflecting agricultural labor communities in and around the county's smaller towns.

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FAQs

What makes Burt County, Nebraska unique? Burt County combines one of the oldest housing stocks in the Great Plains — median year built of 1920 — with a surprisingly active appreciation market. It's a place where you can buy a home for under $60,000 or spend over $400,000 on riverfront or agricultural land, and where multigenerational ownership patterns have kept homeownership rates far above national norms.

Is Burt County affordable to buy a home in? By raw numbers, yes — at $162,500, the median home costs less than 3x the county's median household income, well below the national benchmark of 4x. But the aging housing stock means buyers should budget carefully for repairs and updates. The low inventory (just 19 recent sales) also means desirable properties move quickly despite the rural setting.

Why is the vacancy rate so high in Burt County? At 14.1%, the vacancy rate reflects a broader rural Nebraska trend: as younger residents move toward Omaha or Lincoln for economic opportunity, older homes sit unused or are held by estate owners. This hollowing of the housing stock is common across the Missouri River valley counties and represents both a challenge and an opportunity for buyers willing to invest in rehabilitation.