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Benton County, Iowa

Single-family vs. condo trends, market pressure signals, and 5-year price history. Source: Redfin.

Median Sale Price
$242,500
—
Active Inventory
58
Days on Market
90 days
Price Drops
56.9%

Single-Family vs. Condo

Source: Redfin (property-type breakdown)
Single-Family Median
$233,750
+19.9% YoY
Condo / Co-op Median
$247,500
-0.6% YoY
SFR vs. Condo YoY Gap
+20.5%
SFR outperforming condos
DOM: SFR vs. Condo
90d / 55d
SFR / Condo

Buyer vs. Seller Market Indicators

Latest month — Redfin
Months of Supply
1.9 mo
Seller market

Inventory ÷ monthly sales. Below 3 = strong seller market; 3-6 balanced; above 6 = buyer market.

Sale-to-List Ratio
98.4%
At asking

Median closing price ÷ original list price. Above 100% = homes routinely closing above asking.

% Sold Above List
17%
Buyer-favorable

Share of closed sales priced above asking. The single cleanest read on bidder competition.

What does your sqft target cost in Benton County, Iowa?

$127/sqft median (Redfin)
+$0 adj
+$0 adj
optional
Estimated price
$253,788
Near median (+5% vs median)
Region median
$242,500
all homes
Price-tier reverse lookup — what sqft does each price band buy?
$600,000
≈ 4,728 sqft
$1,200,000
≈ 9,457 sqft
$2,000,000
≈ 15,761 sqft
$5,000,000
≈ 39,403 sqft

Estimate = (median $/sqft × your sqft) + bed/bath/lot adjustments. Bed and bath adjustments use Appraisal Institute / Fannie Mae standard rules of thumb (~$15K/extra bedroom, ~$20K/extra bathroom vs. a 3bd/2ba baseline; half-bath = half adj). Lot premium is a $1.50/sqft heuristic beyond a 6,000 sqft baseline — accuracy varies sharply by urban infill vs. acreage market. Quality, condition, year built, and HOA are not modeled here. For a deeper county-level hedonic AVM, see AVM Lite.

Rent + invest vs. buy + own — backtested

15-yr rolling history · S&P 500
Property type:
Upfront capital committed (both paths): $56K = 20% down + 3% closing on a $243K home
BUY + OWN
Median ending wealth $213K $130K real
Net gain on $56K upfront: $157K
Range: $213K → $213K
Wealth = home value (appreciated at 3%/yr) − remaining mortgage − 6% selling cost. Gain = wealth − upfront. Leveraged appreciation on full $243K asset comes from the 20% down.
RENT + INVEST
Median ending portfolio $538K $398K real
Net gain on $189K contributed: $349K
Range: $251K → $1.39M
Same upfront cash + each year's (own − rent) surplus invested in S&P 500 at actual annual returns. Median renter contributed $189K total.
Median wealth delta: $326K in favor of RENT + INVEST
What if you'd started in a recent year? (most-recent 15yr window: 2011–2025)
WindowBuy wealthBuy gainRent wealthRent gainWealth delta
2011–2025$213K$157K$790K$601K$577K rent
2010–2024$213K$157K$806K$617K$594K rent
2009–2023$213K$157K$773K$583K$560K rent
2008–2022$213K$157K$541K$352K$328K rent
2007–2021$213K$157K$701K$511K$488K rent
2006–2020$213K$157K$599K$410K$386K rent
2005–2019$213K$157K$538K$349K$326K rent
2004–2018$213K$157K$444K$255K$231K rent

Educational tool, not investment or real-estate advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Backtests use actual annual total returns including dividends from S&P 500 (Damodaran (NYU Stern) annual total return (with dividends), 1957-present.).

Buyer model: 30-yr fixed mortgage, P&I + property tax + insurance + maintenance (1% of value/yr) + HOA. Selling cost = 6%. Investor model: down payment + annual cashflow surplus invested in the chosen index at that calendar year's actual return.

Tax model: pre-tax comparison. Toggle "after-tax mode" to apply MID, SALT, LTCG, and the Sec 121 capital-gains exclusion.

This calculator does not adjust for: PMI (assumed 20%+ down), differential transaction costs by state, lifestyle factors (commute, schools, kids), illiquidity / forced-sale risk, or insurance availability constraints (e.g., FL/CA wildfire). Consult a fiduciary advisor and tax professional before acting on any of this.

Market Pressure Signals

Derived from Redfin trend
Inventory vs. Long-Term Avg
-26.8%
deficit — seller leverage
DOM vs. 24-Mo Avg
+68.9%
currently 90 days
Long-Term Avg Inventory
79
Long-Term Avg DOM
53 days

Mortgage & Price Stress

State HPI + national delinquency
State HPI YoY
+4.0%
positive — appreciating
State HPI vs. Peak
0.0%
at or near peak peak 2025-10-01
National Mortgage Delinquency
1.89%
benchmark — 2026-01-01 county-grain delinquency requires paid data

State-grain HPI YoY + drawdown from peak is the cleanest free price-stress proxy. The national delinquency rate gives the macro mortgage-stress backdrop. True county-level mortgage delinquency lives in paid datasets (MBA NDS, CoreLogic LP).

Value Ratios

Median home price ÷ county median income
Value / Income
2.9×
bargain
Median Household Income
$84,742
Census ACS B19013

Historically affordable markets sit at 3–4× income; over 5× is stretched, over 6× is severely overvalued. Lower ratios point to bargain opportunities.

Housing Stock & Owners

Census ACS 5-year (B19013, B01003, B25002, B25003, B25034, B25007)
Population
25,698
total residents
Total Housing Units
11,095
all units, occupied + vacant
Vacancy Rate
8.9%
tight
Homeownership Rate
84.3%
of occupied units owner-occupied
Boomer Owners (65+)
26.8%
of homeowner households
Millennial / Gen-X Owners (35-54)
10.5%
of homeowner households
Pre-1949 Housing Stock
36.8%
structures built before 1949

When boomer-owner share is high, expect more inventory hitting the market over the next decade as homes transition. High vacancy + high old-stock often signals deferred-maintenance markets where buyers can negotiate.

Net Migration (IRS Tax Returns)

IRS Statistics of Income — Migration Data
Net Migration
+15
losing people (2022–2023)
Inbound Returns
404
716 people moved in
Outbound Returns
434
701 people moved out
Net Returns
-30
household-filer basis

Top 5 Origins (where movers came from)

  1. Linn, Iowa — 302 returns
  2. Iowa, Iowa — 35 returns
  3. Johnson, Iowa — 34 returns
  4. Black Hawk, Iowa — 33 returns

Top 5 Destinations (where movers went)

  1. Linn, Iowa — 263 returns
  2. Black Hawk, Iowa — 46 returns
  3. Iowa, Iowa — 39 returns
  4. Johnson, Iowa — 36 returns
  5. Tama, Iowa — 29 returns

IRS Statistics of Income tracks county-to-county migration via tax-return change-of-address. Net migration uses the exemption count (a proxy for people, including dependents). True net flow can lag by 1–2 years vs. real-time movements.

Who's Moving In (Census ACS)

Source: Census ACS B07001 (5-year)
Inbound Movers (1 yr)
1,344
5.29% of pop. — moved here from outside the county
From Other States
122
0.48% of pop. — interstate inbound
From Abroad
32
moved into the county from outside the U.S.
Same House 1 Year Ago
92%
stable residents

Census ACS asks where people lived 1 year ago, so this counts inbound movers but does not show outbound — true net migration would require IRS SOI parsing.

Trends

Up to 5 years of monthly data

Median Sale Price

Trailing 12 months

Active Inventory

Trailing 12 months

Days on Market

Trailing 12 months

Looking for state-level data? See Iowa statewide stats →

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