Des Moines is the state capital and the core of the metro, and it offers something the suburbs largely don't: genuine architectural variety at the metro's lowest typical price point. Neighborhoods range from the Victorian-era homes of Sherman Hill to the brick Tudors that give Beaverdale its name, to mid-century ranches on the north and south sides.

It's the practical choice for first-time buyers priced out of the western suburbs, and for anyone who wants walkability, older housing stock with character, and the shortest commute to downtown employers.

Highlights

• Distinct historic neighborhoods — Sherman Hill, Beaverdale, Drake, South of Grand
• The East Village: independent shops, restaurants, and bars near the Capitol
• Downtown's skywalk system, Gray's Lake, and the Pappajohn Sculpture Park
• The metro's largest employment base, concentrated in insurance and finance

Des Moines by the numbers

Home value, rent & market activity: Zillow Research (September 2026). Income & demographics: U.S. Census ACS (5-year).

Browse current Des Moines listings on Zillow →

Renting in Des Moines: rent figures, renters and the monthly cost to own →

School choice: who is moving in, and out

Iowa lets parents enroll a child in a public district other than the one they live in (Iowa Code §282.18). The state publishes the counts, which shows something a school rating cannot: which districts families are actively choosing, and which they are leaving.

School district boundaries do not follow city limits. Figures below describe the district, not the city, and the two can differ a great deal: the Urbandale district covers 35.9% of the city of Urbandale's land area, and the Waukee district also reaches into West Des Moines, Urbandale and Clive (federal school district boundary file; see which districts reach which cities). Check any specific address before relying on this.

Source: Iowa Department of Education, Certified Enrollment by District, 2025-26 school year. The bar shows transfers in and out as shares of all transfers, not the net. Percentages are of the public-school students who live in the district (certified enrollment), including those who open-enroll elsewhere. The state counts all of these in full-time equivalents, so the whole numbers here are rounded. A net loss is not a verdict on a school — large districts lose more simply by being large, and families transfer for childcare, a parent's commute and sibling placement as well as for academics.

Des Moines' 46 recognized neighborhoods

The City of Des Moines recognizes 46 neighborhoods. 35 have a page with its boundary streets, school and tax districts, residential parcel count and median assessed value from Polk County's records, and its parks, with Census figures where Census block groups fit its boundary. The other eleven, with fewer facts to report, each have a row in the table below.

Names and recognition years from the City of Des Moines neighborhood list (© City of Des Moines, Iowa. All rights reserved.). Parcels and assessed values from the Polk County Auditor's parcel data: residential-class parcels inside each boundary, and the median assessed value as of January 1, 2025 of those with a dwelling. Assessed values are not sale prices. Parcels in an area two neighborhoods share are counted in both.

Neighborhoods without a page of their own

Eleven neighborhoods have fewer facts to report than a page needs (the rule), so each has a row here instead: the recognition date and boundary streets from the city's list, the residential parcels and median assessed value from Polk County's records, the yearly tax on a home assessed at that median, and the parks. All eleven are wholly in the Des Moines Independent Community School District and in one taxing district, Des Moines city, Des Moines Independent schools, at $43.74496 per $1,000 of taxable value for the bills paid in September 2026 and March 2027 (Polk County Auditor's rate table).

From the City of Des Moines neighborhood list (© City of Des Moines, Iowa. All rights reserved.), the Polk County Auditor's parcel data (assessed values as of January 1, 2025, not sale prices), the city's parks layer and the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (90% margins of error). The tax is figured the estimator's way: the median × 44.5345% rollback ÷ 1,000 × the rate, less the homestead credit (who gets it).

How the neighborhood figures are counted

Neighborhoods. Recognition makes a neighborhood organization the city's official point of contact for its area and makes the neighborhood eligible for the city's Neighborhood Revitalization Program (City of Des Moines). Names, recognition dates, boundary streets and websites are the city's. Its boundaries are used only to count the parcels, parks and Census block groups inside them; this site does not reproduce the city's maps. Where the city marks an area as shared by two neighborhoods, it is counted in both.

Which neighborhoods have a page. A neighborhood gets a page of its own when it has at least four distinct facts to report. The recognition date, boundary streets, parcel count and median assessed value, which every neighborhood has, count as one between them; the school and taxing districts count as one when both are the citywide default (the Des Moines Independent Community School District and the city's taxing district with no SSMID or other special district added, as in 35 of the 46) and as two otherwise; an association website, Census figures and parks count one each. 35 have a page; the other 11 have a row in the table above instead.

Parcels and assessed values. A parcel is counted when the center of its boundary (as the county's map server computes it), or its condominium unit point, is inside a neighborhood, and the county lists it in the Residential class (class code R) with an assessed value (Polk County Auditor). Apartment buildings the county classes as "Residential (MR R3+)", and commercial, exempt and government parcels, are not counted. Nor are condominium units that are parking, garage or storage units, though the county classes those as residential too: units whose legal description in the county's parcel table says so, and, within one condominium, units labelled with letters (such as "L12" or "G4") that are assessed at under a third of the median of the condominium's numbered units ("206", or "A1" in building A) with a dwelling value. That second test left out 122 units of Brown Camp Lofts Condo in Downtown Des Moines (assessed at $19,300 to $56,600, against a median of $295,400 for its numbered units); and 10 units of Olive Street Condominiums in Sherman Hill (assessed at $4,600, against a median of $154,800 for its numbered units). The median and the middle half are over the parcels with a dwelling value, so vacant lots are left out. Values are the county's assessed values as of January 1, 2025 (its tax year 2025), the values behind the bills paid in September 2026 and March 2027; they are not sale prices.

School districts. Each parcel's school district is the one in its county tax district, and a share is that district's part of the neighborhood's residential parcels. Which school serves an address depends on the address, so the pages do not name schools. The Johnston, Southeast Polk and West Des Moines districts publish an address look-up, linked on the pages that need them; for the Carlisle, Des Moines Independent, Saydel and Urbandale districts, check a specific address with the district. The Des Moines district's robots.txt asks Anthropic's agents to stay out, so its attendance-area map was not fetched.

Property taxes. Each page's example bill is the estimator's method at the neighborhood's median assessed value: the value × 44.5345% rollback ÷ 1,000 × the district's consolidated rate, less the homestead credit, with no other credits or exemptions. The example takes off the homestead credit, but a new owner must file a homestead claim with the assessor by July 1 of the year it is claimed for (Iowa Code §425.2), so someone buying now first gets the 10% homestead exemption on January 1, 2027 values, not this credit (Department of Revenue).

Census figures. A block group counts as inside a neighborhood ("mostly inside") when at least 80% of its area and at least 80% of its 2020 Census housing units are inside (2020 Census blocks, block group boundaries). A page quotes American Community Survey 2020–2024 figures (5-year estimates) only when those block groups cover at least 80% of the neighborhood's area and of its housing units, which is true of 19 of the 46; elsewhere the block groups do not line up closely enough with the boundary, and the page says so. A figure is left out when its margin of error, at 90% confidence, is wider than 25% of a median value, 10 years for a median year built or 10 points for the owner-occupied share, and a median value is left out for a block group with fewer than 100 owner-occupied homes. When the block groups with a figure shown hold under half of a neighborhood's 2020 housing units, the page names them and their share. Value is the owner's own estimate of what the home would sell for (ACS subject definitions), not the county's assessed value. "1939 or earlier" is the survey's earliest year-built range, which has no margin of error published. The owner-occupied share adds up the block groups' published counts, with margins of error from the Census Bureau's formulas for sums and proportions (ACS handbook, chapter 8). This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.

Parks. Parks, linear parks and open space in the city's parks layer that are inside or touch a boundary. Cemeteries and golf courses are left out. A park is "mostly inside" when at least 50% of its area is. A park drawn in several pieces (most trails) is measured over all its pieces, in any city; two pieces with the same name more than 10 km apart are taken to be different parks.

Websites. An association website is linked only after this site fetched it and found the neighborhood's name on it: 24 of the 42 the city lists. Sites whose robots.txt asks automated visitors (or Anthropic's agents) to stay out, such as Facebook, and sites that refuse automated requests were not fetched and are not linked.

Metro context

Source: Realtor.com via FRED · Des Moines–West Des Moines, IA · figures for October 2026.

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General guide only — verify school boundaries, taxes, and current prices for any specific address. Not real-estate or financial advice.