Iowa, Louisiana.
Typical home $245,185 (+3.0% in a year). Lake Charles, LA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$490 (+61%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $7,152 +3%
- $238,033$245,185 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $15,048 +7%
- $230,137$245,185 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.
- Iowa$1,287
- Louisiana$1,123
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 55 years.
Typical home values in Iowa, LA rose 3.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Iowa, Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana
Iowa is a town of 3,436 people in Calcasieu Parish. 81% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 19% are rented. Unemployment in Calcasieu Parish was 3.8% in August 2026, and the county had 0.7% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then shops.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Iowa is a small town in Calcasieu Parish, and most of its homes are lived in by their owners, a larger share than in many places. A fair number of residents live below the poverty line, and a four-year degree is held by a minority of adults. Winters are mild and cool rather than cold, summers are hot, and the year brings a great deal of rain.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by shops, transport and warehouses, and restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Across Calcasieu Parish, some of the largest workplaces are Calcasieu Parish Schools, Lake Charles Memorial Hospital and Citgo Petroleum. Unemployment across the parish is lower than it was a year earlier, and the number of jobs has edged up. A typical commute is a moderate one, and few people work from home.
Things to do. The land around Iowa is a mix of rivers, bayous, lakes and protected wildlife areas. The Calcasieu River and Calcasieu Lake are the best known, both a longer drive away, and Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge, a protected area, is also a longer drive away. For a day outdoors, Sam Houston Jones State Park is another protected area within a longer drive.
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- 1,261households
- 28%of adults have a degree
- 16%below the poverty line
- 22 mintypical commute
- 5%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Calcasieu Parish had 89,310 jobs in 2025, 0.7% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 62° and lows near 40°; warmest in August, with highs near 92° and lows near 72°. About 69 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Moss Bluff Nnw weather station, 14 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Calcasieu Parish
- Calcasieu Parish SchoolsSchool district4,019FTE
- Golden Nugget Lake CharlesHotels, resort, with casinos1,938
- Penn EntertainmentCasino hotels1,631
- Lake Charles Memorial HospitalGeneral hospital1,531FTE
- Citgo PetroleumOil refineries1,173
- Westlake Chemical SouthChlorine compounds, not specified elsewhere by process, manufacturing1,084
- Sasol Chemicals (USA)Olefins made from refined petroleum or liquid hydrocarbons787
- Phillips 66Petroleum refineries749
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 198 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 27,452 people in all across the county; Iowa has two of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals 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
- LightningRelatively high
- HurricanesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- HailRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Iowa’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 Calcasieu Parish and the Lake Charles, LA metro.
Iowa home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Iowa$245,185
- Louisiana$213,867
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Iowa listings — the market is heating up.
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.
- Iowa18.53%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Iowa31
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Iowa9
Zip codes with a Iowa address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Iowa — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.