What it costs to own a home in Des Moines, IA
The median homeowner with a mortgage in Des Moines, IA spends about $1,734 a month to keep the house, of which property taxes are about $4,195 a year. That figure is the full cost of ownership, not just the loan payment: it includes the mortgage, property taxes, insurance, utilities and any association fees. It is the number that decides whether staying is affordable, and it is the one people underestimate when they buy.
US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates averaging 2019 to 2023. These describe the structure of ownership costs here, not this month.
- Monthly, with a mortgage
- $1,734
- Monthly, mortgage paid off
- $689
- Property taxes
- $4,195/yr
- Spending over 30% of income
- 19.8%
All in: loan, taxes, insurance, utilities
What ownership costs with no loan at all
Median for the metro
Of 138,051 mortgaged households
How many people here are stretched
About 19.8% of Des Moines homeowners with a mortgage spend more than 30% of their household income on housing. HUD and the Census Bureau treat housing costs above 30% of income as the point a household counts as cost burdened, which is where housing starts crowding out everything else. That is out of roughly 138,051 households here carrying a mortgage. That is a comparatively low share, which means most owners here have room in the budget. If you are the exception, the local averages will not reflect your situation and you should not let them talk you out of acting on it.
Across the 100 largest metros we track, that is the 4th lowest share of stretched homeowners. Property tax is an unusually large part of that: about 20% of what a Des Moines owner pays in a year goes to the tax bill, so an assessment increase here hits harder than it would in most places. Nearby, St. Louis at $1,628 is cheaper to hold each month, while Omaha at $1,823 and Kansas City at $1,784 are dearer.
For context on the other half of the picture, houses in Des Moines take about 47 days on average to go under contract, so a conventional sale is not a quick answer to a monthly cost problem even where it is the right one.
The house with no mortgage on it
Owners in Des Moines who have paid the mortgage off still spend about $689 a month against $1,734 for owners still paying one. That remainder is taxes, insurance, utilities and upkeep, and it does not stop when the loan does. It is why an inherited house with no mortgage on it can still become something the family cannot afford to hold, and why "there is no mortgage" is not the same as "there is no hurry".
What actually pushes the number up
The monthly figure above is a median across Des Moines, IA, and medians hide the thing that causes trouble, which is that these costs do not move together or predictably.
- Insurance. The most volatile line and the one least tied to what you paid for the house. It is a smaller pressure in Des Moines than in the coastal and wildfire-exposed markets, but a renewal can still move by a large percentage in a single year, and nothing about the house has to change for it to happen.
- Reassessment. Property tax follows assessed value, and a sale, an improvement or a jurisdiction-wide revaluation can reset it well above the $4,195 median. Inheriting a long-held house often triggers exactly this, and in Des Moines the tax bill alone is about 20% of the annual cost of holding the property.
- Deferred maintenance. Not in any of these figures. A roof, a furnace or a sewer line arrives as one number rather than a monthly one, and it is usually what turns a manageable house into an unmanageable one. A single $15,000 repair is about 9 months of everything else a Des Moines owner pays.
- Income, not cost. Cost burden is a ratio. A retirement, a divorce or a lost job moves it just as sharply as a rising bill, and nothing about the house has changed. At $1,734 a month, a Des Moines household needs about $69,000 a year to stay under the 30% line. Losing a second income is usually what moves a household across it, not the housing cost moving at all.
If keeping it no longer works
Nothing on this page argues you should sell. Most people carrying a high housing cost should not: they should refinance, appeal an assessment, reshop insurance, or take in the extra income before they take a discount on the largest asset they own. Those are cheaper answers and they should be tried first.
Selling to a cash buyer is worth considering when those routes are closed and the ordinary market is also closed to you: the house needs work you are not going to fund, a tenant is in place, it is full of a parent's belongings, or the timeline is set by something other than your preference. That is the narrow case we are actually useful in.
For what a conventional sale would involve here, see how long it takes to sell a house in Des Moines, and for the market as it stands this month, our Des Moines page.
Common questions
- How much does it cost to own a home in Des Moines?
- About $1,734 a month for the median owner with a mortgage, covering the loan, property taxes, insurance, utilities and any association fees. Owners who have paid off the mortgage still spend about $689 a month on everything else. Census figures averaging 2019 to 2023.
- How much are property taxes in Des Moines?
- The median household pays about $4,195 a year. That is a median across the whole metro, so an above-average house pays more, and a reassessment after a sale or an improvement can move it sharply. Your own bill is the one that matters and it is public record.
- Is Des Moines an expensive place to keep a house?
- Less so than most. About 19.8% of mortgaged owners here spend over 30% of income on housing, which is below the typical US metro. That is a statement about local costs against local incomes rather than about house prices, and it says nothing about your own budget.
- What does "cost burdened" mean?
- Housing costs above 30% of household income. That is the line HUD and the Census Bureau use. In Des Moines about 19.8% of owners with a mortgage are above it.
- I own my house outright. Why would I ever need to sell?
- Because taxes, insurance and upkeep do not stop when the mortgage does. Owners here without a mortgage still spend around $689 a month. On a fixed income, or on an inherited house nobody lives in, that figure is often the reason a family sells, and it has nothing to do with a lender.
- Are these figures current?
- No, and it matters. They come from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey 5-year estimates, which average 2019 to 2023. That makes them reliable for structure, meaning what ownership costs here relative to elsewhere, but they will not capture a recent insurance or tax shock. The market figures on our Des Moines page are separate and refresh monthly.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2019-2023. Tables B25088, B25091 and B25103. Figures are metro-wide medians and describe no individual property.
Tell us what you need for your Des Moines house
You do not need a number ready, or photos, or a plan. If you want to know what your options actually are, including the ones that do not involve us, call and ask.
Sabrina usually picks up. (615) 251-7452