Clive, Iowa.
Typical home $431,230 (+1.1% in a year), asking rent $1,694 . Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,106 (+96%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $4,723 +1%
- $426,507$431,230 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $70,673 +20%
- $360,557$431,230 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Clive$2,263
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 19 years.
Typical home values in Clive, IA rose 1.1% over the past year — in step with the nation.
Living in Clive, Polk County, Iowa
Clive is a city of 18,601 people in Polk County. Half its households earn more than $132,121 a year and half less, against $83,576 across Polk County; 7% of its people live below the poverty line. 75% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 25% are rented. Unemployment in Polk County was 3.8% in August 2026, and the county had 0.9% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then finance and property.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Clive is a city in Polk County, on the western side of the Des Moines area, and most of its homes are lived in by their owners. Households here earn well above the county's typical income, and a smaller share of people live below the poverty line than you might expect. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, and the town sees a fair amount of snow before summers turn warm, with July the warmest.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in banks, insurance and property, and in professional and business services, with shops close behind. Some of the larger workplaces in Clive are Menards, Clive Behavioral Health and Presbyterian Homes & Services. Most people have a four-year degree, a good number work from home, and the typical commute is fairly short.
Things to do. Living History Farms, a museum of rural life, is in or beside town. A short drive away are the Des Moines Art Center, the Des Moines Botanical Center and the Raccoon River. For a longer outing, the Iowa State Capitol and Blank Park Zoo are a longer drive away.
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- 7,053households
- 61%of adults have a degree
- 7%below the poverty line
- 21 mintypical commute
- 28%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Polk County had 314,942 jobs in 2025, 0.9% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 31° and lows near 14°; warmest in July, with highs near 86° and lows near 66°. About 36 inches of snow and 37 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Des Moines International Airport weather station, 9 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Clive
- Menards"home centers"207
- Clive Behavorial HealthPsychiatric hospital138FTE
- Presbyterian Homes & Services125
- Mercyone Rehabilitation Hospital DESRehabilitation hospital107FTE
- Leep Investment GroupAutomobile dealers, new only or new and used100
- City of CliveParks and recreation commission, government83
- City of CliveFire and rescue service81
- Kohl's71
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 23 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,681 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- Strong windRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Hailrelatively high in parts of CliveRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesrelatively high in parts of CliveRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingrelatively high in parts of CliveRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Clive’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively low. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Polk County and the Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA metro.
Clive home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Clive$431,230
- Iowa$236,623
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Clive listings, and the typical home goes pending in 28 days — the market is cooling.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Clive33.91%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Clive28
- United States24
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Clive103
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Clive28
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Clive$452,614
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Clive97.86%
Zip codes with a Clive address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Clive — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.