Polk County · Iowa
Des Moines, IA housing costs
What a home costs to buy and to rent here, how old the housing stock is, and how much of a paycheck rent takes — all from Census ACS 5-year estimates.
Quick answer
The median home in Des Moines, IA is worth $183,700 and median gross rent is $1,054 a month. That is 39% below the national median home value of $303,400. 60.4% of occupied homes are owner-occupied, against 65% nationally.
- Median home value
- $183,700#85 of 94 metros
- Median gross rent
- $1,054/mo#79 of 94 metros
- Owner-occupied
- 60.4%US average 65%
- Median year built
- 1960Half the homes here are older than this
Can a median household here buy a median home?
Price-to-income is the plainest affordability yardstick there is.
Des Moines's median household earns $62,191 a year while the median home is worth $183,700. That is a price-to-income ratio of 3.0×, against roughly 3.9× nationally. Lenders have historically treated anything above 4× as stretched. Renters at the median put 28.8% of household income into gross rent; 30% is the federal threshold for “cost-burdened”.
Related data for Des Moines
The same household, seen from three angles.
Tables B25077, B25064, B25003, B25035 and B25071, 2019-2023 ACS 5-year, Census place 1,921,000. Values are place-level, not metro-area-wide.