Van Buren County, Iowa Housing Market

Median Sale Price

$80,000

low-volume — YoY suppressed

Active Inventory

Days on Market

107 days

Price Drops

33.3%

Single-Family vs. Condo

Source: Redfin (property-type breakdown)

Single-Family Median

$80,000

Buyer vs. Seller Market Indicators

Latest month — Redfin

Months of Supply

1.5 mo

Seller market

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

Sale-to-List Ratio

88.3%

Heavy price cuts

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

% Sold Above List

Buyer-favorable

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

What does your sqft target cost in Van Buren County, Iowa?

$87/sqft median (Redfin)

Square footage 2,000 sqft

Bedrooms +$0 adj

Bathrooms +$0 adj

Lot size optional

Estimated price

$174,357

Above median range (+118% vs median)

Region median

$80,000

all homes

Price-tier reverse lookup — what sqft does each price band buy?

$600,000

≈ 6,882 sqft

$1,200,000

≈ 13,765 sqft

$2,000,000

≈ 22,941 sqft

$5,000,000

≈ 57,354 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:

Home price

Monthly rent

Down %

Rate %

Property tax %

Insurance / yr

Maintenance %

HOA / mo

Home appreciation %

Rent inflation %

Horizon (yrs)

Invest in

After-tax mode (MID, SALT, LTCG, Sec 121) Show inflation-adjusted (real) side-by-side VA loan (0% down, no PMI, funding fee)

BUY + OWN

Median ending wealth $70K $43K real

Net gain on $18K upfront: $52K

Range: $70K → $70K

Wealth = home value (appreciated at 3%/yr) − remaining mortgage − 6% selling cost. Gain = wealth − upfront. Leveraged appreciation on full $80K asset comes from the 20% down.

RENT + INVEST

Median ending portfolio $-69K $-43K real

Net gain on $18K contributed: $-88K

Range: $-138K → $-30K

Same upfront cash + each year's (own − rent) surplus invested in S&P 500 at actual annual returns. Median renter contributed $18K total.

Median wealth delta: $140K in favor of BUY + OWN

What if you'd started in a recent year? (most-recent 15yr window: 2011–2025)

Window	Buy wealth	Buy gain	Rent wealth	Rent gain	Wealth delta
2011–2025	$70K	$52K	$-75K	$-93K	$145K buy
2010–2024	$70K	$52K	$-74K	$-93K	$144K buy
2009–2023	$70K	$52K	$-54K	$-73K	$124K buy
2008–2022	$70K	$52K	$-103K	$-121K	$173K buy
2007–2021	$70K	$52K	$-138K	$-156K	$208K buy
2006–2020	$70K	$52K	$-113K	$-131K	$183K buy
2005–2019	$70K	$52K	$-107K	$-125K	$177K buy
2004–2018	$70K	$52K	$-87K	$-105K	$157K buy

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

-50.3%

deficit — seller leverage

DOM vs. 24-Mo Avg

-56.9%

currently 107 days

Long-Term Avg Inventory

Long-Term Avg DOM

248 days

Mortgage & Price Stress

State HPI + national delinquency

National Mortgage Delinquency

1.86%

benchmark — 2026-04-01 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).

Getting a Mortgage Here

CFPB HMDA 2025

Applications Denied

34.2%

18.4 pts harder than Iowa

Loans Actually Made

25 turned down

Average Loan Made

$137,708

what lenders here actually wrote

National Denial Rate

23.4%

benchmark — all 51 states

Every lender above a size threshold has to report each application and what they did with it. The denial rate here counts only applications a lender actually ruled on — approved or denied. Files the applicant withdrew, and files closed as incomplete, are left out of both halves, so this runs higher than tables that bury them in the denominator. Compare every state and county →

Value Ratios

Median home price ÷ county median income

Value / Income

1.3×

bargain

Median Household Income

$60,183

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

7,236

total residents

Total Housing Units

3,506

all units, occupied + vacant

Vacancy Rate

17.3%

high vacancy

Homeownership Rate

83.1%

of occupied units owner-occupied

Boomer Owners (65+)

32.4%

of homeowner households

Millennial / Gen-X Owners (35-54)

9.2%

of homeowner households

Pre-1949 Housing Stock

36.0%

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

-83

losing people (2022–2023)

Inbound Returns

—

— people moved in

Outbound Returns

83 people moved out

Net Returns

-46

household-filer basis

Top 5 Destinations (where movers went)

Jefferson, Iowa — 26 returns
Lee, Iowa — 20 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)

558

7.82% of pop. — moved here from outside the county

From Other States

145

2.03% of pop. — interstate inbound

From Abroad

moved into the county from outside the U.S.

Same House 1 Year Ago

90%

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 →

Verify any number on this page: data sources, formulas, and cross-references →