All 15 Iowa Markets, Ranked by Gross Yield
Program and regulatory figures verified October 7, 2026. Details change; confirm your scenario with us.
One table, every Iowa metro where both series publish, same month, same publisher. It is the fastest way to see that the best-known Iowa markets are not the ones that carry debt.
How this is built
Zillow typical home value (ZHVI, 33rd–67th percentile, smoothed and seasonally adjusted) against Zillow typical asking rent (ZORI, smoothed and seasonally adjusted). Same publisher, same month: 31 August 2026. Gross yield is annual rent divided by typical value.
★ Read it as a screen, not an underwrite. Gross yield excludes property taxes, insurance, vacancy, management, maintenance and capital expenditure. It tells you where to look. It does not tell you whether a specific property carries a specific loan, and we will not pretend otherwise. That is what an actual file is for.
The table
| Market | Typical value | Typical rent | Gross yield |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burlington | $146,371 | $1,006 | ★ 8.25% |
| Sioux City | $226,131 | $1,317 | 6.99% |
| Fort Madison | $126,448 | $690 | 6.55% |
| Davenport | $196,628 | $1,009 | 6.16% |
| Cedar Rapids | $245,444 | $1,250 | 6.11% |
| Waterloo | $199,692 | $1,010 | 6.07% |
| Marshalltown | $196,594 | $987 | 6.03% |
| Clinton | $182,192 | $862 | 5.68% |
| Mason City | $203,113 | $954 | 5.64% |
| Iowa City | $302,216 | $1,395 | 5.54% |
| Des Moines | $294,192 | $1,297 | ★ 5.29% |
| Fairfield | $183,390 | $743 | 4.86% |
| Ames | $279,794 | $1,122 | 4.81% |
| Dubuque | $279,670 | $1,068 | 4.58% |
| Spirit Lake | $386,064 | $1,350 | ★ 4.20% |
★★ What the table actually says
The spread is 4.05 points and the sort order runs against reputation.
Des Moines is the state's largest market, its capital, and the first place an out-of-state investor looks. It ranks eleventh of fifteen. Iowa City at 5.54% and Ames at 4.81% are university towns and they price like it, strong rent, stronger values. Dubuque at 4.58% and Spirit Lake at 4.20% round out the bottom, and Spirit Lake is also the most expensive metro in the state at $386,064.
The yield sits in two places: the Mississippi river towns (Burlington, Fort Madison, Davenport, Clinton) and Sioux City on the Missouri. Burlington at $146,371 against $1,006 of rent is the arithmetic the rest of the state cannot match.
★ The honest counterweights
Three, and they matter more in small markets than the yield does.
Depth. Burlington and Fort Madison are small. A property bought cheaply there also sells slowly, and a vacancy is a larger share of the year's rent than the same vacancy in Des Moines.
The yield is gross. Iowa property tax lands on a rental without the homestead credit and, since 2022, without the multiresidential class for 3-plus unit parcels. Those are real deductions from this table and they are not in it. The tax line.
One month is one month. This is a single reading. We are not forecasting from it.
The markets, individually
Burlington, the state's best gross yield.
Des Moines, the market everyone starts with, 11th of 15.
Sioux City, the best yield in a market with real size.
Davenport and Cedar Rapids, the middle, with volume.
And the reason the exit matters alongside it
Yield tells you what a property earns. The exit tells you what happens when it stops. In Iowa a non-owner-occupied rental sits on a two-month post-judgment delay with no post-sale redemption, which is the shortest clean path in a judicial state. Why.
Call Mike at (480) 296-6513 to run a specific property.
Frequently asked questions
Which Iowa city has the best rental property yield?
Burlington, at a gross yield of 8.25% on a typical home value of $146,371 against typical asking rent of $1,006 for the month ending 31 August 2026. Sioux City was second at 6.99% and Fort Madison third at 6.55%. Gross yield is annual rent divided by typical value and excludes taxes, insurance, vacancy and management.Is Des Moines a good market for a rental property?
On gross yield it ranked eleventh of fifteen Iowa metros, at 5.29% on a typical value of $294,192 and typical asking rent of $1,297 for the month ending 31 August 2026. It is the state's largest and most liquid market, which matters for resale and vacancy, but the yield arithmetic is better in the river towns and Sioux City.What is the spread between Iowa's best and worst rental yields?
4.05 percentage points for the month ending 31 August 2026, from Burlington at 8.25% to Spirit Lake at 4.20%. Spirit Lake was also the state's most expensive metro at a typical home value of $386,064. Fifteen Iowa metros published both a typical value and a typical asking rent for that month.Is gross yield enough to decide on a rental purchase?
No. Gross yield is annual rent divided by typical value and excludes property taxes, insurance, vacancy, management, maintenance and capital expenditure. It is a screen for where to look rather than an underwrite of a specific property, and in Iowa the tax side matters because a rental gets neither the homestead credit nor, since 2022, the multiresidential class.Mike Certo · NMLS #260555 · Cornerstone First Mortgage NMLS #173855 · Equal Housing Lender. Educational content about investment-property financing, not a loan commitment and not legal or tax advice. Iowa foreclosure procedure, redemption and deficiency rules are set by the Iowa Code and change; figures here carry the date we verified them against the code itself. Gross yield figures are a market indicator built from published typical values and typical asking rents, not a property-level underwrite: they exclude taxes, insurance, vacancy and management. Property classification and assessment are determined by the county assessor. All loans are subject to borrower, property and program qualification.