What rent you can actually carry, what a landlord will screen you on, and how both compare to what Iowa really costs.
The median across Iowa’s 92 FMR areas — unweighted by population, so it runs below what a typical resident of a metro pays. Pick a county for a local figure. Two-bedroom FMRs in this state range from $919 to $1,368. An FMR is the 40th percentile of gross rent, including tenant-paid utilities — so roughly 60% of units rent for more, and it is not directly comparable to an advertised rent that excludes utilities.
The honest break-even, including what selling costs and what the down payment would have earned if it stayed invested.
What actually reaches your account after federal tax, FICA, and your state's own brackets — with local income tax disclosed rather than guessed at.
Needs, wants, and savings as shares of your TAKE-HOME pay — not of gross, which is the version that never balances.
If your lease ends in December or January, the renewal letter arrives in September or October — and it arrives at the one time of year your landlord least wants the unit empty. Here is the arithmetic of a winter vacancy, what the law does and does not cap, what moving would actually cost you, and how to turn an 8% increase into a 4% one.
Nearly every deposit dispute is really one argument: is this damage, or is it wear and tear? Here is where the line actually sits, what the statutes permit, and the deadline that ends the argument before it starts.
Five gates, in order, each with a number you can compute. Includes the 50-state break-even table built from each state's own property tax, insurance and appreciation — and why that table is not a forecast.
The cash a move actually takes, split into what comes back and what never does — because a deposit and an application fee are different kinds of money and averaging them hides the real cost. Covers the lines people plan for and the ones they do not: the overlap month when two leases run at once, utility deposits, cleaning the old place, and unpaid time off. Gives you the total as a multiple of one month's rent so you can see whether yours is normal, a straight answer on whether your cash covers it, and a before-you-sign checklist built around the evidence that actually decides a deposit dispute.
Iowa guide
In Polk County, Iowa, a three-bedroom fair market rent is $1,794 and a four-bedroom is $1,841.
$47 a month. The fourth bedroom in Des Moines costs $564 a year — a 2.6% step, the smallest bedroom step this series has found anywhere.
Statewide Iowa is not far behind: $1,222 for a three-bedroom and $1,342 for a four, a 9.8% step against a national pattern nearer 15%.
Iowa's statewide two-bedroom is $919, fortieth-highest in the country, and that is also Iowa's cheapest rent area.
A note before you start. This is general education, not housing, legal or financial advice. Rent figures come from HUD's Fair Market Rents for FY2026, published under 24 CFR 888.113. An FMR is the 40th percentile of GROSS rent — rent plus tenant-paid utilities — for standard-quality units in a defined rent area, so roughly 60% of units cost more. Take-home figures are computed by this site's own tax engine for tax year 2026 on a single filer taking the standard deduction. Iowa landlord-tenant law is outside this dataset.
The expensive step is two to three — $303, or 33%, $3,636 a year.
Everything either side of it is cheap. The one-bedroom costs $648 a year more than a studio; the fourth bedroom costs $1,440 a year more than the third.
So Iowa's rent ladder has one steep rung and four shallow ones, and where you sit on it matters more than the state average.
Des Moines is $247 a month above Cedar Rapids on a two-bedroom — $2,964 a year — and $325 above on a studio, a 44% difference.
Linn County's studio at $738 is remarkable for a metropolitan area. It is within $2 of Iowa's statewide one-bedroom figure of $736 — a metro studio priced at the rural rate for a bigger unit.
Read the full Iowa guide →16 min read · Updated 2026-09-01