Best PlacesIvy, IA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Ivy, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Ivy ranks 1,611th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Ivy
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.
Ivy's strengths and weaknesses
Where Ivy ranks high
- School gradeA+, better than 97% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 97% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 97% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 94% of towns
- Household income$112,183 median, better than 91% of towns
Where Ivy ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 13% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 15% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 23% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 32% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Ivy
A household needs to earn about $92,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Ivy home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $112,183, 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 Ivy's effective rate of 1.39%, 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 Ivy
Ivy runs older 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 Ivy.
Who works in Ivy, and how
Work in Ivy centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Ivy
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Ivy.
What the weather is like in Ivy, month by month
Ivy sees roughly 127 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 32, with lows near 15. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 32° | 22° | 15° |
| April | 64° | 50° | 39° |
| July | 86° | 74° | 65° |
| October | 66° | 53° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Ivy
The nearest airport, Des Moines International, is about 13 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Eppley Airfield, about 130 miles away.
The best schools in and around Ivy
Schools across Ivy average an A+, better than 97% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Mitchellville ElementaryA+ · 85% proficient
- Runnells ElementaryA+ · 77% proficient
- Clay ElementaryA · 69% proficient
Top middle schools
- Spring Creek - 6th GradeA+ · 79% proficient
- Southeast Polk Junior HighA+ · 70% proficient
Top high schools
- Southeast Polk High SchoolA− · 66% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Ivy school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Ivy 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 Ivy against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Ivy
Is Ivy a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Ivy ranks 1,611th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, cell coverage, and what local pay buys, and lowest on property taxes and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Ivy expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $325,303. The overall cost of living runs about 19% below the national average. Set against a $112,183 median income, cost of living beats 97% of towns.
Is Ivy safe?
Yes, Ivy is safer than 72% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $227 per resident a year.
Compare Ivy with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Ivy. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Ivy 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.
Ivy detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Ivy: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Ivy: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Ivy: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Ivy: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Ivy 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.