Van Meter, Iowa.
Typical home $423,961 (+1.2% in a year). Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,172 (+111%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $4,914 +1%
- $419,047$423,961 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $82,102 +24%
- $341,859$423,961 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.
- Van Meter$2,225
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 16 years.
Typical home values in Van Meter, IA rose 1.2% over the past year — in step with the nation.
Living in Van Meter, Madison County, Iowa
Van Meter is a city of 1,484 people in Madison County. Half its households earn more than $135,139 a year and half less, against $90,855 across Madison County; 3% of its people live below the poverty line. 93% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 7% are rented. Unemployment in Madison County was 3.3% in August 2026, and the county had 1.0% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Van Meter is a small city in Madison County, and nearly everyone who lives there owns their home. Household incomes run well above the county's, and very few residents live below the poverty line. A good share of adults hold a four-year degree, and typical home values are high.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by banks, insurance and property, the building trades and shops. Across Madison County, some of the largest workplaces are the Winterset Comm School District, Madison County Memorial Hospital and Hy-Vee. Many people spend a fairly ordinary commute getting to work, and a noticeable group works from home. Unemployment in the county has held steady over the past year, while the number of jobs there slipped a little compared with the year before.
Things to do. Badger Creek State Recreation Area is a park a short drive away, and the Raccoon River is a longer drive off. For a day out, the Des Moines Art Center is a museum a longer drive away, and Living History Farms is another museum a longer drive away. Winters are cold, with snow most years, and summers are warm.
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- 497households
- 43%of adults have a degree
- 3%below the poverty line
- 22 mintypical commute
- 17%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Madison County had 4,194 jobs in 2025, 1.0% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 30° and lows near 10°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 62°. About 31 inches of snow and 35 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Winterset 1S weather station, 15 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Madison County
- Hy-VeeGeneral warehousing and storage448
- Winterset Comm School DistrictSchool district233FTE
- Agriland FS - WintersetAgricultural chemicals merchant wholesalers200
- Interstate 35 Comm School DistrictSchool district141FTE
- Madison County Memorial HospitalCritical access hospital133FTE
- Van Meter Comm School DistrictSchool district124FTE
- Fareway Stores, Inc. 683 WintersetGrocery stores117
- Earlham Comm School DistrictSchool district99FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 10 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,144 people in all across the county; Van Meter has none 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
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- HailRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively 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 Van Meter’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 Madison County and the Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA metro.
Van Meter home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Van Meter$423,961
- 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.
- Van Meter18
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Van Meter address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Van Meter — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.