Buy or build in Des Moines.
2,358 homes changed hands in Des Moines in the last twelve months, at a median of $227,128 — $190 a square foot. The 120 that were built in the last two years sold at $234: a $44 premium for new. That gap is the whole question, and the number comes from the county.
What actually sold.
Source: Polk County Assessor, recorded residential sales, twelve months to 2026-07-28 — arm’s-length sales between $100,000 and $2,000,000 of homes between 800 and 6,000 square feet. Reloaded weekly from the assessor’s public bulk exports. School districts in the sample: Des Moines (2189), Southeast Polk (113), Carlisle (29).
Live via FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, and the Polk County Assessor’s recorded sales · refreshed every six hours
Resale side from recorded Polk County sales, last twelve months; build side from metro cost estimates for this year, at this week's 6.76% (Freddie Mac). Enter an address below and the ledger re-runs against recorded sales for that street.
Buy
2 months to keys- Comparable resale, 2,400 sq ft$190/sq ft · median of 2,358 recorded Des Moines sales, last 12 months
- $456,000
- Closing and inspectionabout 3%
- $13,680
Build
9 months to keys- Construction, mid finish$212/sq ft
- $508,800
- Lot in Des Moinestypical buildable lot
- $60,000
- Soft costspermits, design, survey, construction financing
- $45,504
Building costs more. About $144,624 more, and 7 months longer. That premium buys you exactly the house — whether that's worth it is the next section.
Very little of what sells in Des Moines is new — 5% built in the last two years. That keeps resale prices anchored to older stock, and it means a lot, if you can find one, is the scarce thing.
38% of owners have been in place more than ten years; the rest of the parcels turn over regularly, so there is usually a comparable resale to price against.
Where it's a record, it's cited. Where it's an estimate, it says so.
- Rates
- Freddie Mac's weekly survey, by way of the St. Louis Fed. The ledger reprices every Thursday.
- Prices
- The FHFA house-price index for the Des Moines–West Des Moines metro, quarterly.
- Permits
- Private housing units authorized in Iowa, monthly, from the Census Bureau.
- Resale prices
- Median price per square foot from every arm's-length sale the Polk County Assessor recorded in the last twelve months, by city. Reloaded weekly from the assessor's public exports.
- Parcels
- The Polk County Assessor: assessed value, year built, lot size, and the last recorded sale for the address you give.
- Cost to build
- Metro estimates by finish level for the current year, replaced by street-level sales the moment you give an address.
Talk to the right person, once.
One central-Iowa custom builder we'd put our own name on. They see your ledger before the first call.
One agent who works the neighborhoods in the ledger — and who'll tell you if what you want doesn't exist yet.
Both links send your ledger first, so nobody starts from zero.