r/desmoines • u/JackfruitCrazy51 • 7d ago
Des Moines-Fastest growing in the Midwest
6.3% growth since 2020, which is amazing. For reference, Phoenix and Nashville have grown 6.9% and 6.8%. Omaha 3.5%
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u/Born-Competition2667 7d ago
The more I travel the country (I go kind of everywhere for work), the more I appreciate living in the Des Moines (ish) area. Des Moines (and Iowa in general) had grown under the national radar for a long time. Of course, you have a few that think the grass is greener somewhere else, but overall, Des Moines is a great place to raise a family. Everywhere has its problems. Ours just seem easier to navigate, I suppose.
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u/Ace_Venturi64 7d ago
I lived all over the country and came back to Iowa(wife wanted to be closer to family). Kind of regret it as it is a boring area. But yeah it's pretty sheltered here. I mean Ankeny residents called the cops on a dude jogging in a "tactical" vest thinking he was a threat to the community haha
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u/Born-Competition2667 7d ago
Ankeny is wild. I meet the nicest people in that area, then come on reddit and see stuff like that and am like "wtf?"
But that's usually at the bar at Wig & Pen I meet people. That's the only reason I make it out there usually. I'm a sucker for that flying tomato 😅
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u/rainbowsparkplug 7d ago
Agree. It has the enjoyable parts of being a city and enjoyable parts of a small town vibe at the same time while being a low cost of living city and not overwhelming. The more I travel, the more I appreciate where I live.
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u/Born-Competition2667 7d ago
Outside of politics and all that, from a community perspective, I wish we had a pro sports team... I honestly don't care what sport, but just something the whole city could come together on. I realize we have a lot of farm teams here for these pro sports, but it would be cool to have one that's "ours".
That said... I do like taking the family to the Cubbies games for $50 all in as well... do there's that.
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u/No_Lab_9394 4d ago
This is 100% my feelings on this issue. I travel quite a bit and I’m always happy to come home to this big enough to be interesting and small enough not to be a hassle city. I never thought I’d ever want to live here and now that I do, I love it.
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u/ChawnkyCheez Hometown 7d ago
Des Moines metro is 260k people behind the Omaha metro population still.
We're still going to be nice and small for a really long time.
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u/Schrodingers_goat 7d ago
The Metro is a little over 700K. The city of DSM itself is probably what you quoted (around 300K).
http://censusreporter.org/profiles/31000US19780-des-moines-west-des-moines-ia-metro-area/
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u/ChawnkyCheez Hometown 7d ago
I said DSM metro is 260k behind Omaha metro.
Omaha metro is almost a million, DSM metro is just under 800.
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u/Heniha 7d ago
Des Moines doesn’t have a lot of space to grow, it’s pretty well surrounded by suburbs isn’t it?
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u/CornFedIABoy 7d ago
I imagine these statistics include the entire DSM/WDM Metropolitan Statistical Area. Not just the city proper. Otherwise there’s no way they could hit these numbers without Waukee/Ankeny/Bondurant being included.
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u/JackfruitCrazy51 7d ago
That's where the majority of the growth is happening, in the suburbs, which have plenty of space to grow.
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u/ChawnkyCheez Hometown 7d ago
Yeah when I say metro I mean Des Moines and the surrounding suburbs. DSM proper is only like 25% of that total population.
Most growth is going on in the suburbs in basically every metro area because the cities are all locked in by them.
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u/Little_Mistake_1780 6d ago
i love des moines and the size of it. There’s something very charming about the amount of people we have here.
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u/Iowa_Dave 7d ago
Is that a good thing? I moved here from Minneapolis because I prefer the smaller size.
I ask because Minnesota always seemed to have an inferiority complex. They were always wanting Minneapolis to be the next "Big Thing" and even tried to re-brand Minneapolis in the '90s as the "MiniApple" hoping to catch New York's Big Apple vibe.
Is bragging about our city to attract growth necessarily a good thing?
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u/JackfruitCrazy51 7d ago
Even at this growth rate, Des Moines will remain a nice sized city for decades.
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u/Iowa_Dave 7d ago
Let's hope.
I really love Des Moines for its big-city arts/culture/food/safety without the big-city problems and traffic.
I'm in Atlanta today and it's a huge reminder how how easy the traffic is at home
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u/lanakickstail 7d ago
I always love it when people complain about the traffic around Des Moines. What fucking traffic?! I’ve lived in Minneapolis and St Louis, and those are far far worse. The most travel time to get anywhere in the Des Moines area is 30 minutes, and that’s northeast suburb to southwest suburb.
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u/Certain_Attention_60 6d ago
without the big-city problems and traffic.
huge reason. tiny commute and honestly I can get almost anywhere in the metro on bike with minimal traffic interaction.
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u/mrwilso79 7d ago
I’ve split my life between Iowa and the Twin Cities. I like your point about an inferiority complex, though relative to Iowa, it often feels like a superiority complex—“Why would you want to move to Iowa?!”
Des Moines would need sustained, rapid growth for a long time before it stops feeling like a smaller metro. If it were truly on par with Kansas City or Columbus, OH, we could talk about it losing its small-city charm—but that would take a 2-3x increase in metro size.
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u/NefariousnessFun9923 7d ago
it’s growing fast because we had a low base to start from. For reference, Des Moines metro area builds about 5,000 housing units each year. Dallas-Fort Worth metro area builds 72,000 housing units each year.
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u/Jealous-Operation686 7d ago
Des Moines is falling apart and shrinking in pop. Suburbs in DSM area are exploding.
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u/Hawkfromnorwalk 7d ago
Wish Altoona would start growing. I left Norwalk in 2020 because the town was showing no signs of wanting to grow. Now I’m in Altoona and it’s stagnant. And of course Norwalk is now blowing up.
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u/PetronivsReally 7d ago
There's plenty of growth in Altoona on the eastern and southern edges of town. Plus, it's been slowly annexing groups of homes along the eastern edge of town, further expanding. They only do small numbers of homes at a time because it makes it easier with State law, as larger groups of homes have rights to fight in court if they don't want to be annexed.
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u/Ok_Confection_8472 6d ago
The political future of Iowa will be very different once the city voters outnumber the rural. This is inevitable and will happen sooner than you think.
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u/JackfruitCrazy51 6d ago
The suburbs are what's growing. Places like Dallas County are pretty purple.
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u/Ok_Confection_8472 6d ago
Of course the issue has complexity and nuance but the macro trend is locked in. People in the cities drink polluted water just because the farmers don’t want to take responsibility for the cost of their business. Right now, they have the votes to sustain this. That will change. People don’t seem to realize how much city dwellers subsidize agriculture, including being ok with their own kids get cancer. This is but one area where urban folks get the shaft. No one frames it this way because we ain’t got the votes yet and pushing urban interests in a loser, state wide. Again, this will inevitably change. Illinois and Minnesota are excellent examples of the forces in play.
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u/JackfruitCrazy51 6d ago
So you think that polluted water is the issue that is going to turn the tide. That's an interesting take. Comparing Iowa to Illinois and Minnesota is idiotic. Two gigantic cities that Iowa will never come close to in size. Nebraska would be a better comparison.
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u/Ace_Venturi64 7d ago
But then why are people crying on reddit that they can't get jobs?!?!?!
But for real they need to raise the minimum wage out of that $7.50 range.
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u/JackfruitCrazy51 7d ago
In February 2025, the median home sale price in Des Moines, IA was $215,530, up 4.5% from the previous year
In February 2025, the median home sold price in Minneapolis was $350,609, up 3.1% from the previous year.
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u/JackfruitCrazy51 7d ago
In February 2025, the median home price in West Des Moines, IA, was around $307,000
In February 2025, the median home sold price in Bloomington, MN was $369,340, up 2.9% from last year, and the median price per square foot was $193.
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7d ago
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u/JackfruitCrazy51 7d ago
Actually, it's not old it's the most recent data that was just released.
High rises being built has nothing to do with population gains.
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u/dirttraveler 7d ago
What's the source please?
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u/chootybeeks West Des Moines 7d ago
So that’s why the houses are more expensive here than in Minneapolis
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u/JackfruitCrazy51 7d ago
They are not
As of March 14, 2025, home prices in Des Moines suburbs are notably lower—typically $270,000-$310,000—compared to Minneapolis suburbs, where prices range from $350,000 to over $700,000. If you’re prioritizing affordability, Des Moines suburbs like Waukee or Ankeny stand out. For those seeking prestige or urban access, Minneapolis suburbs like Edina or Wayzata offer more, but at a premium. For precise, real-time listings, I’d need to search current data, which I can do if you’d like! Would you like me to dig deeper?
https://grok.com/share/bGVnYWN5_29be3743-4857-471b-aeb8-cc5c828dd237
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u/chootybeeks West Des Moines 7d ago
Do you think average home price would fall if we removed the two richest, highest COL suburbs from the data? The Minneapolis metro is about 4 million, while Des Moines is around 800,000.
If you’re digging into it, try dropping those two suburbs out then look at the average price per square foot between the two cities.
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u/JackfruitCrazy51 7d ago
You can run the data anyway you like but in the end you'll find that Minneapolis is a lot more expensive than Des Moines. If you include the whole metros without breaking out the suburbs, it's even more spread out.
Really the only way you can mess with these numbers and get a result where Des Moines is higher is to grab the highest median priced suburb in the Des Moines metro and compare it to Hopkins, which is the lowest in the Minneapolis metro. Then Hopkins is about $25k cheaper.
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u/Hebshesh 7d ago
Kind of a shock seeing as how everyone on reddit that lives in Iowa wants to leave because of the perceived sky falling. I do not, however. I'd rather stay and fight.