Iowa is not as cheap as people make it out. It looks like it is because the houses here are around 350 to 400 thousand, and rent is around 1,000 a month. But you will get paid a 1/3 of what you would get somewhere else. Don't move here thinking that you will save money. Move here because it is safer, and it has better schools for your kids. You will have a better quality of life for you and your family, but you will probably be making a lot less than you did working in California or New York. I make 40,000 a year before taxes. That's considered good pay where I'm at, and I'm struggling to keep the lights on.

Super

You should also know that Iowa is terrible for bugs. Termites, cockroaches, and wasps. If you use preventative lawn care and spray your foundations, you can mitigate the first two. But I knock down at least 2 wasp nests every year on my house. And the property damage done by storms is never ending. I replaced my roof in June and already have torn shingles from the high winds and hail. Prepare for the August humidity. Every day starts off at 80° with 100% humidity because the corn is drying and pumping oceans of water into the atmosphere. If you don’t have central air in the summer, and a good furnace in the winter, you could be risking your life. Finally, the tornadoes. Iowa is one of the most active places of Earth for tornadoes. Every year structures are destroyed and people are killed by these acts of God. This year we had the highest wind speed ever recorded on the planet in Greenfield. The Metro area is not immune to the severe weather threats. Remember the Cornbelt Derecho of 2020? 130 mph winds across the whole state. The most destructive non-cyclonic storm in American history.

property, sales, probably income tax all v high in iowa.. high taxes.

A big con I've found is that many people don't understand that allowing or enabling transients, beggars, homeless is NOT compassionate and will only worsen.

Sounds Awesome to me !!

Helpful video! About 'the pollening'--Could you describe allergy season(s) in Iowa and does it bother you? thanks

I grew up in Ankeny personally I hate the growth and miss the smaller town it used. To be

As I was recently a first time home buyer, it's important to note that it felt like Ankeny neighborhoods are getting taken over by HOAs. That's a huge turn off for a lot of people. I ultimately ended up crossing off Ankeny on the search a few weeks in because of the HOA invasion. It was becoming a waste of time because HOA wasn't in the listings and my agent kept having to disappoint me when he dug deeper.

The first in the nation politics is a big con. We tend to get spammed really early with calls, door to doors, commercials, etc because of the first in the nation status. People who dislike politics will be miserable.

I live here That is my school

I left Ankeny because I can’t drive, riding a bike up in the Delaware district is terrible and is not very walkable either. My mom Deb Stokka is a realtor with ReMax Precision, the good thing was with uptown before the bowling alley closed I had everything I needed, then times changed things. DART only has busing to downtown and on demand, where the only transportation options for me. Until 6PM Mon-Fri I am now by Merl Hay Mall and Urbandale is growing westward and doing some cool things with its bike infrastructure unlike Ankeny. Busing to downtown until 11pm 6 days a week! Transportation and personal support is better, having more family and friends here now too. I also grew up in Urbandale before moving to Ankeny. You guys should check out some options there too.

Walkable and Ankeny should never be used in the same sentence.

I can confirm that the property taxes are CRAZY high! They are nearly triple what they'd be in similar places in Missouri.

I live here

Whats parts of Des Moines is not safe or should I stay away from? I am a traveling nurse and looking for a safe area to live in for three month's starting November 1st.

I love Beaverdale! Love the houses there!

Thanks for the honest video.

Thank you for the information.I will be heading to Des Moines as a foreign teacher from the Philippines in October 2024.

I grew up in Ankeny! Was a lot smaller then, I graduated in 2008 I now live in Miami FL. Have not been back for a while I miss a lot about the Des Moines area (but don’t miss the winter)

Don’t move to Des Moines. I’ve lived here for 25 years. It’s awful here. People have common sense. Laws are enforced. You can get from one end of the city to the other in half an hour! HALF an hour! How terrible is that?! It should take an hour minimum! We have jobs. Gross. Also, there are 4 seasons (Sometimes in the same day). People are generally friendly… awful! All you people on the coast, STAY AWAY. This place is practically hell! 😂

My uncle used to live in Des Moines before he retired from owning a Thai grocery store on 2nd Ave by University Ave next to Burger King and moved to Florida as a snowbird. He said Des Moines had grown a lot but of course not booming at a fast rate like the city Austin

The phrase you were looking for I think is... Iowa. Don't like the weather? Wait a minuet, it'll change.

Major con... Des Moines city government sucks. I'd argue that Iowa schools used to be good. Currently, they're a joke. Especially Des Moines district schools. Our state motto should be changed to, "Our Taxes We Prize, And Our Roads We shall Not Maintain" For pros, there are tons of parks and trails and even woods if you know where to look for em. You've got spaces like Margo Franko Woods Walnut Woods. Whatever the woods by the art center are called I forget, and not too far outside the suburbs you've got Ledges, Thomas Mitchel, Chichaqua bottoms and the green belt. Neil Smith. And just hundreds perhaps thousands of miles of bike trails that do pretty much connect just about every pat of the city and stretch well beyond the suburbs. Another pro... Our art center is pretty decent and it's by freewill donation. So you can just go for free if you are down bad or just stingy.

Thanks Matt from a fellow Matt. My wife and I are thinking of moving to Des Moine as her family lives in the area. Grimes is an area I like as it’s close to the lake and marina.

Iowa has the second highest cancer rate in country due to farm chemicals in air, water, earth and gvt is totally MAGA on all levels and they passed a law that you can't sue for getting cancer or health problems due to roundup, all this is due to excess amounts of pigs in iowa in factory farms, called CAFO's. check out how many pigs live in IOWA, it will blow your mind, considering they don't do much of anything with all the shit, except spray it in the air so it lands on dirt.

If I paid the same rent at 9th & Washington as I did at say 8400 Franklin in Clive, someone is getting rooked. That old section of DSM is not exactly a slightly neighborhood.

1:28 wow!!! Been living in Phoenix 12 years now, grew up in iowa. Lived there 21 years, in Norwalk… I remember a party on the corner at the house connected to something was wasted couldn’t find……. Damn

Ok, this is going to sound really odd maybe but me and my dad and my dog take these "vacations" for 5 or 6 days at a time, one because we want to have fun.. but two we are looking to see if we would like the areas. Omaha, NE is an area we really liked (yes, Omaha) but we are visiting and looking at all kinds of areas (as time and money allow us to do so). We are coming to Ankeny on 9/26/25 for around 5-6 days and another thing that is important to me, is pet/dog friendly things to do. It might be trails (which you seem to mention Ankeny has a lot of ) but also pet friendly stores and restaurants and things of that nature. Anything you can speak on regarding that? Thank you.

To those of you complaining about grocery prices, my penny pinching 35 yo daughter texted me yesterday and was amazed at the amount of groceries she got at Aldi for $100. She went to the newer one on E. Hickman in Waukee.

Lived in Illinois all my life and just moved to northern iowa for work. Its AMAZING.. but then again i was ready to be around more people that didnt have that chicago voting record

Interesting fact for ya. At 4:50 you drove past the house that the only homicide in grimes took place in.

Oh sorry....I get it now...he's trying to keep the "Riff Raff" out of Iowa (aka best kept secret in the USA)....okay...now I get it....Yeah! Don't come to Iowa....we don't want you!! hahahahhahahahah

hahahahh I've lived in Iowa for over 25 years. I love it. I'm still waiting for him to give me a good reason not to live here....still waiting....

I appreciate your video Yeah don’t move to Iowa

Just move to Europe

Huh...where are the women?

Great video! Loved learning their HyVee is the largest in the world. It's a wonderful place to shop! Grimes is such a great town, and so is Dallas Center. I moved there from NorCal, once upon a time; but kept on heading East...., all the way to Delaware. The area has grown up so much and the new neighborhoods are real nice. Had built a house on 5 acres, just outside of town, and worked at John Deere in Johnston when it first opened. Great memories. Still have family in the Grimes who contribute to the local economy as small business owners, and happy homeowners. Highly recommend the area if you can weather the bitter cold winters. It's pretty extreme!

I just crossed the Mississippi River today for the first time on land. It’s also the first time I’ve been to Iowa. I went to Clinton and it was exactly like Illinois just with more pickup trucks and construction machines everywhere. It’s amazing how a 1 1/2 hour drive can change how people live and work. After watching more videos about Iowas pros and cons. It may not make sense for me to move there because it’s to similar to Illinois,it’s far less populated,less opportunity,but I did feel more of a sense of freedom and people were more friendly.

Everything you’ve mentioned here is just called life. These are problems I’ve seen and experienced in many different states. Truthfully, if these are the reasons you have for not moving to Des Moines, Iowa (or Omaha, Nebraska or Grand Rapids, Michigan or Cleveland, Ohio or Duluth, Minnesota or Buffalo, New York, for that matter) then you probably won’t really be happy anywhere, except on the coasts, down south, or in the southwest.

That’s a lot of chem trails

Why move here from CA, Winters cold, Humid Summers, Ragweed, alergies, more conservative values. Adapt the culture, don’t bring CA’s.

I have a secret service friend who has been traversed to many states his whole career, he lived in New York, California, Maryland , etc. He said raising a family is best place is Iowa , Good public schools, low crime , the traffic is a lot less , I live here all my life , the winters are a lot milder and not as severe 20 years ago, you mentioned Bugs , I don't see a problem , Iowa of all the states have one best bikes paths system. I 🤔 your reason are pretty nice picky, . I travel to many states , the big reason to live in Iowa , is the traffic is a lot less and crime is really low.

Beaverdale? Laughable. Not a good section of town and really old. Intermingles with the worst parts of Des Moines

I was born and raised in,Iowa and am highly considering moving back to the Des Moines area to be closer to my son and great granddaughter in Ankeny I live in the PNR area in Oregon

At 5:08 there’s only a couple of neighborhoods to avoid where the vast majority of crime occurs. Other than those neighborhoods, it’s a very safe city.

I lived in Des Moines from 95-2022 in a low middle class area to the edge of Jefferson on a 1 1/2 acre, so much better, quiet but do miss some things from the bigger city but the trade off is worth it, couldn’t have got the property we have bow for the price we got in the des moines area.

I love living in Iowa beautiful state lots of good paying jobs

IDK man snow removal in Iowa sucks.I moved here from Rochester NY and the snow removal here is much closer to that of North Carolina than it is Rochester. I've also lived in St. Louis.MO, which os significantly better than here. Now, I'm in Southeast Iowa, not the big city of Des Moines, which is certainly a factor, but the inadequate snow removal is frustrating.

The Tax is super high on homes