Granger, Iowa.
Typical home $382,654 (+0.8% in a year). Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$994 (+98%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $3,127 +1%
- $379,527$382,654 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $65,154 +21%
- $317,500$382,654 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.
- Granger$2,008
- 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 Granger, IA rose 0.8% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Granger, Polk County, Iowa
Granger is a city of 1,654 people in Polk County. Half its households earn more than $112,404 a year and half less, against $83,576 across Polk County; 3% of its people live below the poverty line. 81% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 19% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Granger is a small city in Polk County where the population is young, with a median age well below what many older homeowners might expect. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and household incomes run well above the county's, with very few residents living below the poverty line. A good share of adults hold a four-year degree, and winters are cold, with January highs near freezing and a fair amount of snow, while July brings warm days.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by banks, insurance and property, shops and the building trades. In Granger itself, the biggest workplaces are the Woodward-Granger Comm School District, Granger Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and Birchwood. Commutes are fairly typical for a metro-area town, and a noticeable number of people work from home.
Things to do. A short drive away are Saylorville Lake, a reservoir good for time on the water, and Big Creek State Park, a park for walking and being outdoors. Living History Farms, a museum also a short drive off, shows how farming life once looked in Iowa. For a longer outing, the Iowa State Capitol, a museum, is a longer drive away.
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- 693households
- 40%of adults have a degree
- 3%below the poverty line
- 26 mintypical commute
- 19%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 30° and lows near 13°; warmest in July, with highs near 85° and lows near 66°. About 38 inches of snow and 36 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Des Moines Wsfo-johnston weather station, 5 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Granger
- Woodward-Granger Comm School DistrictSchool district218FTE
- Granger Nursing and Rehabilitation CenterSkilled nursing facilities103
- BirchwoodSkilled nursing facilities56
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 2 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 159 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); 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
- DroughtRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Granger’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. 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.
Granger home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Granger$382,654
- 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 2 Granger listings — the market is roughly in balance.
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.
- Granger48.79%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Granger24
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Granger4
Zip codes with a Granger address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Granger — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.