Mediapolis, Iowa.
Typical home $221,987 (+7.5% in a year). Burlington, IA-IL metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$616 (+112%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $15,495 +8%
- $206,492$221,987 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $53,846 +32%
- $168,141$221,987 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.
- Mediapolis$1,165
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Mediapolis, IA rose 7.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Mediapolis, Des Moines County, Iowa
Mediapolis is a city of 1,688 people in Des Moines County. Half its households earn more than $75,543 a year and half less, against $62,928 across Des Moines County; 10% of its people live below the poverty line. 78% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 22% are rented. Unemployment in Des Moines County was 5.2% in August 2026, and the county had 1.2% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Mediapolis is a small city where most homes are lived in by their owners, and incomes run higher than across Des Moines County. Residents are younger than in many small towns, and a good share of adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month and a fair amount of snow, while summers turn properly warm by July. Rain and melted snow add up to a moderate amount over the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops, and transport and warehousing also employing a lot of people. The largest workplaces in town include Afinitas, which makes concrete products forming machinery, the Mediapolis Community School District, and Azria Health Prairie Ridge, a skilled nursing facility. Commutes are of moderate length, and few people work from home.
Things to do. Otter Creek, a river a short drive away, and the Florence-Council On The Iowa Site, an archaeological site also a short drive away, are the closest places to explore. A longer drive brings you to Big River State Forest, a protected area, and Crapo Park, a botanical garden. The Iowa River and Cedar River are also reachable on a longer drive for time by the water.
Report a mistake
- 732households
- 36%of adults have a degree
- 10%below the poverty line
- 24 mintypical commute
- 5%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Des Moines County had 20,080 jobs in 2025, 1.2% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 32° and lows near 16°; warmest in July, with highs near 86° and lows near 67°. About 17 inches of snow and 37 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Gladstone Dam weather station, 11 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Mediapolis
- Afinitas- Mediapolis, Iowa LocationConcrete products forming machinery manufacturing217
- Mediapolis Comm School DistrictSchool district130FTE
- Azria Health Prairie RidgeSkilled nursing facilities50
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 2 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 267 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
- Strong windVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Mediapolis’ 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 Des Moines County and the Burlington, IA-IL metro.
Mediapolis home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Mediapolis$221,987
- 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.
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
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Mediapolis11
Zip codes with a Mediapolis address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Mediapolis — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.