Best PlacesDes Moines, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Des Moines, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Des Moines ranks 1,439th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Des Moines
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
Des Moines' strengths and weaknesses
Where Des Moines ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 94% of cities
- TransitBetter than 90% of cities
- BikingBetter than 84% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 83% of cities
- Nice weatherabout 128 pleasant days a year, better than 73% of cities
Where Des Moines ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 2% of cities
- Cheap childcare$2,022 a month, better than only 3% of cities
- Crime safetyBetter than only 3% of cities
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of cities
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 19% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Des Moines
A household needs to earn about $156,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Des Moines home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $97,247, so buying stretches a typical household.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Des Moines' effective rate of 0.90%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Des Moines
Des Moines's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Des Moines.
Who works in Des Moines, and how
Work in Des Moines centers on health care & social and transportation & warehousing. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 10%
Life in Des Moines
Des Moines has more parkland per resident than 78% of cities. The coast is about 1 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Des Moines and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Des Moines, month by month
Des Moines sees roughly 128 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 36. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49° | 42° | 36° |
| April | 61° | 51° | 42° |
| July | 81° | 67° | 56° |
| October | 63° | 53° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Des Moines
Seattle-Tacoma International sits about 4 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 25.4 million passengers in 2025, with 172 nonstop destinations.
Des Moines measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Des Moines against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Des Moines suits
Common questions about living in Des Moines
Is Des Moines a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Des Moines ranks 1,439th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on clean air, transit, and biking, and lowest on noise and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Des Moines expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $587,224. The overall cost of living runs about 14% above the national average. Set against a $97,247 median income, cost of living beats 37% of cities.
Is Des Moines safe?
Des Moines is safer than 3% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $838 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Des Moines?
July highs average about 81 degrees, and January highs near 49 with lows near 36. That works out to about 128 pleasant days a year, more than 73% of cities.
Is Des Moines good for families?
Schools beat 29% of cities, crime safety beats 3%, and childcare runs $2,022 a month.
Compare Des Moines with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Des Moines. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Des Moines represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Des Moines detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Des Moines: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Des Moines: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Des Moines: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Des Moines: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Des Moines detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.