The 10 Cheapest Des Moines, IA Neighborhoods To Live In For 2024


The cheapest Des Moines neighborhoods are Garton West and Mckinley School for 2024 based on Saturday Night Science.

Worst Neighborhoods In Des Moines
Source: Public domain

Everything else equal, we can all agree that living in a cheaper place is better than living in a more expensive place.

I’d much rather pay $500/mo in rent than $1,000. And I’d rather pay $2 for coffee than $5.

And while every neighbhorhood in Des Moines might be more expensive than living in rural Iowa, there are certain neighborhoods that are definitely cheaper.

What exactly are those Des Moines neighborhoods where your dollar goes a little further — you can get that one bedroom instead of the studio?

Instead of relying on public opinion and speculation, we wanted to get the facts straight and determine which neighborhoods in Des Moines are the cheapest using Saturday Night Science.

The Cheapest Neighborhoods In Des Moines For 2024

  1. Garton West
  2. McKinley School
  3. Capitol View South
  4. Douglas Acres
  5. Valley High Manor
  6. Fairmont Park
  7. Laurel Hill
  8. New Vision
  9. Oak Park
  10. Capitol East

What’s the cheapest neighborhood to live in Des Moines for 2024? According to the most recent census data, Garton West looks to be the cheapest Des Moines neighborhood to live in.

At this point, we should make it clear that you do get what you pay for — some of these neighborhoods might not be the best places to live in Des Moines. You could be sacrificing location or crime rates for more space and cheaper groceries.

Read on to see how we determined the places around Des Moines that deserve a little bragging rights, or maybe you’re interested in the worst neighborhoods in Des Moines.

For more Iowa reading, check out:


Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table


The 10 Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In Des Moines For 2024

Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 57
Cost Of Living Index: 80 (8th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 1.4 (cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.014 (13th cheapest)
More on Garton West: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

7
/10

Population: 1,750
Cost Of Living Index: 80 (8th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 1.9 (7th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.015 (20th cheapest)
More on Mckinley School: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

3
/10

Population: 421
Cost Of Living Index: 79 (4th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 1.9 (5th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.018 (3cheapest)
More on Capitol View South: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 2,996
Cost Of Living Index: 80 (8th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.4 (25th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.012 (8th cheapest)
More on Douglas Acres: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 235
Cost Of Living Index: 90 (42nd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 1.8 (2nd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.011 (4th cheapest)
More on Valley High Manor: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 4,619
Cost Of Living Index: 83 (22nd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.0 (9th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.015 (19th cheapest)
More on Fairmont Park: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 322
Cost Of Living Index: 87 (34th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 1.8 (4th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.014 (14th cheapest)
More on Laurel Hill: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

3
/10

Population: 858
Cost Of Living Index: 76 (2nd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 1.9 (6th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.024 (45th cheapest)
More on New Vision: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 4,111
Cost Of Living Index: 81 (12th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.1 (14th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.018 (30th cheapest)
More on Oak Park: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

3
/10

Population: 1,488
Cost Of Living Index: 80 (8th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.0 (8th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.023 (43rd cheapest)
More on Capitol East: Data | Real Estate

Methodology: How We Determined The Cheapest Des Moines Hoods In 2024

To rank the cheapest places to live in Des Moines, we had to determine what criteria define “cheap” and then apply Saturday Night Science.

Using Census and extrapolated BLS data, we arrived at the following set of criteria:

  • Overall Cost Of Living
  • Rent To Income Ratio
  • Median Home Value To Income Ratio

We then ranked each neighborhood with scores from 1 to 51 in each category, where 1 was the cheapest.

Next, we averaged the rankings for each neighborhood to create a cheap neighborhood index.

And finally, we crowned the neighborhood with the lowest cheapest neighborhood index, the “Cheapest City Neighborhood In Des Moines.” We’re lookin’ at you, Garton West.

We updated this article for 2024. This is our fourth time ranking the cheapest neighborhoods to live in Des Moines. Skip to the end to see the list of all the neighborhoods in the city, from cheapest to most expensive.

Summary: Lowest Cost Places To Live In Des Moines

If you’re measuring the neighborhoods in Des Moines where prices are low, and it’s cheap to live, this is an accurate list.

The most affordable neighborhoods in Des Moines are Garton West, McKinley School, Capitol View South, Douglas Acres, Valley High Manor, Fairmont Park, Laurel Hill, New Vision, Oak Park, and Capitol East.

As mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in Des Moines aren’t all cheap. Sherman Hill takes the title of the most expensive neighborhood to live in Des Moines.

The most expensive neighborhoods in Des Moines are Sherman Hill, Arbor Peaks, Jordan Park, Downtown Des Moines, and Greenwood.

We ranked the neighborhoods from cheapest to most expensive in the chart below.

For more Iowa reading, check out:

Detailed List Of The Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In Des Moines For 2024

Rank Neighborhood Cost Of Living Index
1 Garton West 80
2 Mckinley School 80
3 Capitol View South 79
4 Douglas Acres 80
5 Valley High Manor 90
6 Fairmont Park 83
7 Laurel Hill 87
8 New Vision 76
9 Oak Park 81
10 Capitol East 80
11 Martin Luther King Jr Park 79
12 Accent 84
13 Waterbury 98
14 Fairground 80
15 Southwestern Hills 88
16 Meredith 85
17 Capitol Park 80
18 Gray’s Woods 86
19 Bloomfield-Allen 89
20 Cheatom Park 82
21 Waveland Park 92
22 Union Park 83
23 Mondamin Presidentia 81
24 Beaverdale 89
25 Indianola Hills 82
26 Lower Beaver 88
27 Greater South Side 86
28 East Village 88
29 Highland Park 83
30 Chautauqua Park 81
31 North Of Grand 83
32 Waveland Woods 90
33 Merle Hay 87
34 South Park 85
35 Drake 86
36 Magnolia Park 86
37 Salisbury Oaks 107
38 Drake Park 82
39 River Bend 82
40 Somerset 75
41 Woodland Heights 86
42 Ingersoll Park 92
43 Linden Heights 106
44 King-Irving Park 82
45 Westwood 106
46 Kirkwood Glen 81
47 Greenwood 104
48 Downtown Des Moines 98
49 Jordan Park 85
50 Arbor Peaks 89
51 Sherman Hill 90
About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.