Best PlacesIowa City, IA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Iowa City metro, 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.
Photo by American007 at English Wikipedia, via commons
Iowa City ranks 22nd of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on an educated workforce and good schools. The weaker spots are noise, property taxes, and disaster risk.
The best neighborhoods in the Iowa City metro
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.
The best areas in Iowa City
The towns and districts of the Iowa City metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
North Liberty & Coralville
More households have young kids, local pay stretches further, and incomes run higher.
Solon
Tree cover is thicker and more adults hold degrees.
Tiffin
Biking is worse and it is noisier.
Kalona
Health outcomes score lower and streets are more car-dependent.
Downtown Iowa City
Prices have run up more and more homes sit empty.
Washington & Wellman
Homes cost less and disaster risk is lower.
Iowa City shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 10% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Iowa City's strengths and weaknesses
Iowa City ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. An educated workforce is the standout, in the top 2% of metro areas. Good schools and state finances follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Noise, property taxes, and disaster risk hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Iowa City ranks high
- Educational attainmentBetter than 98% of metro areas
- School gradeA, better than 97% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than 95% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than 93% of metro areas
- Health outlookBetter than 92% of metro areas
Where Iowa City ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 11% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than only 15% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 17% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than only 25% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than only 32% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Iowa City
A household needs to earn about $91,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Iowa City home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $85,254; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Iowa City's effective rate of 1.42%, 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 Iowa City
Iowa City runs younger than the country, 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 Iowa City.
Who works in Iowa City, and how
Work in Iowa City centers on education and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 72%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 15%
Life in Iowa City
Iowa City has more parkland per resident than 93% of metro areas. That concentrates in some parts of Iowa City and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Iowa City growing, and who is moving in?
Iowa City has grown about 11% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Cedar Rapids, IA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Iowa City go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Iowa City, month by month
Iowa City sees roughly 92 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 32, with lows near 16. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, August, and September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 32° | 23° | 16° |
| April | 63° | 51° | 40° |
| July | 86° | 76° | 67° |
| October | 66° | 54° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Iowa City
The nearest airport, The Eastern Iowa, is about 18 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Chicago O'Hare International, about 188 miles away.
The best schools in and around Iowa City
Schools across Iowa City average an A, better than 97% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Wickham ElementaryA+ · 86% proficient
- Lakeview ElementaryA+ · 78% proficient
- Lincoln Elementary SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
Top middle schools
- Solon Middle SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
- Clear Creek Amana Middle SchoolA+ · 74% proficient
- Mid-prairie Middle SchoolA+ · 70% proficient
Top high schools
- Solon High SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
- Clear Creek Amana High SchoolA · 75% proficient
- West Senior High SchoolA · 73% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Iowa City school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Iowa City 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 Iowa City against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Iowa City suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 77% of metro areas and 13% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Iowa City
Is Iowa City a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Iowa City ranks 22nd of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on an educated workforce, good schools, and state finances, and lowest on noise and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Iowa City expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $319,720. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $85,254 median income, cost of living beats 77% of metro areas.
Is Iowa City safe?
Yes, Iowa City is safer than 88% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $236 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Iowa City?
July highs average about 86 degrees, and January highs near 32 with lows near 16. That works out to about 92 pleasant days a year, more than 54% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Iowa City?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are North Liberty & Coralville, Solon, and Tiffin. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Iowa City good for families?
Schools beat 97% of metro areas, crime safety beats 88%, and childcare runs $765 a month.
Is Iowa City good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 77% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 25% of metro areas. About 13% of workers already work from home.
Compare Iowa City with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Iowa City. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Iowa City 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.
Iowa City detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Iowa City: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Iowa City: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Iowa City: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Iowa City: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Iowa City 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.