Best PlacesDes Moines, IA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Des Moines area, 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 Tim Kiser ( w:User:Malepheasant ), CC BY-SA 2.5, via commons
Des Moines ranks 5th 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 what local pay buys and good schools. The weaker spots are noise, property taxes, and tree cover.
The best neighborhoods in the Des Moines 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 Des Moines
The parts of Des Moines, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first.
Waukee, Clive & Adel
Ankeny & Johnston
Winterset, Van Meter & Earlham
Grimes & Perry
Newton & Bondurant
Indianola & Carlisle
West Des Moines & Norwalk
Downtown Des Moines
Altoona & Pleasant Hill
Des Moines shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 6% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Des Moines' strengths and weaknesses
Des Moines ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. What local pay buys, good schools, and state finances are the strongest pieces.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Noise, property taxes, and tree cover hold the score down. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Des Moines ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 99% of metro areas
- School gradeA−, better than 96% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than 95% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than 88% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than 86% of metro areas
Where Des Moines ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 4% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than only 12% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than only 30% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than only 33% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 48% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Des Moines
A household needs to earn about $82,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Des Moines home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $95,588, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment and a 6.8% 30-year fixed rate. The rate updates weekly from Freddie Mac; property tax uses Des Moines' effective rate against the median home value.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Des Moines
Des Moines runs younger than the country.
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 finance & insurance. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Des Moines
Des Moines has more parkland per resident than 85% of metro areas and more late-night spots per resident than 88% of metro areas. The map and measures below show how they vary by area.
Is Des Moines growing, and who is moving in?
Des Moines has grown about 16% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Ames, IA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Des Moines go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Des Moines, month by month
Des Moines sees roughly 89 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 32, with lows near 16. Spring and fall carry most of the comfortable stretch.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 32° | 23° | 16° |
| April | 63° | 50° | 40° |
| July | 86° | 75° | 66° |
| October | 64° | 52° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Des Moines
The nearest airport, Des Moines International, is about 5 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Eppley Airfield, about 120 miles away.
The best schools in and around Des Moines
Schools across Des Moines average an A, better than 96% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Cowles Elementary SchoolA+ · 86% proficient
- North Polk West Elementary SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
- Mitchellville ElementaryA+ · 85% proficient
Top middle schools
- Pella Middle SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
- Van Meter Middle SchoolA+ · 86% proficient
- North Polk Middle SchoolA+ · 84% proficient
Top high schools
- Van Meter High SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Pella High SchoolA+ · 86% proficient
- North Polk High SchoolA+ · 84% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Des Moines school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
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 386 metro areas.
Who Des Moines suits
Families
Schools beat 96% of the country and crime runs low. Compare neighborhoods on the map for the best fit.
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 99% of metro areas, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 16% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Des Moines
Is Des Moines a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Des Moines ranks 5th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on what local pay buys, 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 Des Moines expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $281,561. The overall cost of living runs about 21% below the national average. Set against a $95,588 median income, cost of living beats 99% of metro areas.
Is Des Moines safe?
Yes, Des Moines is safer than 82% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $257 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Des Moines?
July highs average about 86 degrees, and January highs near 32 with lows near 16. The area gets its pleasant stretches in spring and fall.
What are the best neighborhoods in Des Moines?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Waukee, Clive & Adel, Ankeny & Johnston, and Winterset, Van Meter & Earlham. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Des Moines good for families?
Schools beat 96% of metro areas, and safety is best away from the urban core. Home prices are usually the catch in the strongest school areas.
Is Des Moines good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 99% of metro areas, and internet is widely advertised, so a big-employer salary stretches further here.
Compare Des Moines with other metro areas
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.
- 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.