Best PlacesGuthrie Center, IA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Guthrie Center, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Guthrie Center ranks 5,216th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on walkability by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Guthrie Center
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.
Guthrie Center's strengths and weaknesses
Where Guthrie Center ranks high
- WalkabilityBetter than 96% of towns
- School gradeA, better than 94% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 94% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 83% of towns
- BikingBetter than 82% of towns
Where Guthrie Center ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 21% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 31% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 35% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 40% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 41% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Guthrie Center
A household needs to earn about $39,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Guthrie Center home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $73,210, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
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 Guthrie Center's effective rate of 1.18%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Guthrie Center
Guthrie Center's age mix sits close to the national median, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Guthrie Center.
Who works in Guthrie Center, and how
Work in Guthrie Center centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Guthrie Center
Guthrie Center has more parkland per resident than 99% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Guthrie Center and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Guthrie Center, month by month
Guthrie Center sees roughly 98 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 32, with lows near 13. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 32° | 22° | 13° |
| April | 64° | 49° | 37° |
| July | 87° | 75° | 63° |
| October | 66° | 51° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Guthrie Center
The nearest airport, Des Moines International, is about 45 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Eppley Airfield, about 77 miles away.
The best schools in and around Guthrie Center
Schools across Guthrie Center average an A, better than 94% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Cr-b Elementary SchoolA · 68% proficient
- Guthrie Center Elementary SchoolA · 68% proficient
- Panorama ElementaryB+ · 53% proficient
Top middle schools
- Panorama Middle SchoolA+ · 73% proficient
- West Central Valley Middle SchoolA+ · 70% proficient
Top high schools
- Guthrie Center High SchoolA · 68% proficient
- Exiraelk Horn-kimballton High SchoolA− · 67% proficient
- Panorama High SchoolA− · 65% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Guthrie Center school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Guthrie Center 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 Guthrie Center against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Guthrie Center
Is Guthrie Center a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Guthrie Center ranks 5,216th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on walkability, good schools, and state finances, and lowest on property taxes and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Guthrie Center expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $140,964. The overall cost of living runs about 25% below the national average. Set against a $73,210 median income, cost of living beats 77% of towns.
Is Guthrie Center safe?
Yes, Guthrie Center is safer than 78% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $208 per resident a year.
Compare Guthrie Center with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Guthrie Center. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Guthrie Center 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.
Guthrie Center detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Guthrie Center: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Guthrie Center: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Guthrie Center: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Guthrie Center: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Guthrie Center 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.