Ranked · Buying a home · Iowa

Best cities for buying a home in Iowa

Cities of 25,000+ residents, scored with the “Buying a home” weighting the live tool uses, heaviest on median home price, property tax rate, home price yoy, cost of living index. Scores are relative to this set; open the tool to change the weights and re-rank.

1. 1.Ottumwa, IA25k residents

   75/100

   median home price: $106,300 · property tax rate: 1.5% · home price yoy: +1.2%

2. 2.Marshalltown, IA28k residents

   70/100

   median home price: $127,700 · property tax rate: 1.5% · home price yoy: +4.0%

3. 3.Waterloo, IA67k residents

   69/100

   median home price: $152,600 · property tax rate: 1.5% · home price yoy: +0.5%

4. 4.Mason City, IA27k residents

   69/100

   median home price: $142,000 · property tax rate: 1.5% · home price yoy: +2.2%

5. 5.Davenport, IA101k residents

   65/100

   median home price: $166,400 · property tax rate: 1.5% · home price yoy: +2.5%

6. 6.Sioux City, IA86k residents

   65/100

   median home price: $173,600 · property tax rate: 1.5% · home price yoy: +2.8%

7. 7.Council Bluffs, IA63k residents

   64/100

   median home price: $171,800 · property tax rate: 1.5% · home price yoy: +2.3%

8. 8.Cedar Rapids, IA137k residents

   63/100

   median home price: $187,100 · property tax rate: 1.5% · home price yoy: +2.3%

9. 9.Marion, IA42k residents

   58/100

   median home price: $241,700 · property tax rate: 1.5% · home price yoy: +3.4%

10. 10.Urbandale, IA47k residents

    56/100

    median home price: $335,500 · property tax rate: 1.5% · home price yoy: +0.9%

Methodology: each city is scored 0–100 by min–max normalizing every weighted facet across this candidate set (direction-aware), identical math to the tool's “Best fit” tab. A different weighting produces a different order, which is the point: this is a starting shortlist, not a verdict.