The Ankeny Brief
Most "cost of living in Ankeny" pages are run by national data sites that have never set foot here. This is the local version, built from public records: what a home and a rent check actually run, what you earn, what you pay in taxes, and how it stacks up against the rest of the country and the rest of Iowa.
Ankeny lands close to the U.S. average on overall cost of living (indexes put it right around 100 to 103), but above the Iowa average. Housing is what pushes it up. That's offset by a high local median household income near $106,000 and the lowest city tax levy of any Des Moines-metro city over 5,000 people.
Housing is the one category where Ankeny runs above the national average, and it's the main reason the overall index sits a touch above 100. The median home sale price has been in the low-to-mid $300,000s through 2026, ranging by area from around $280,000 in the southeast value corner to about $345,000 in the pricier northwest. See the neighborhoods guide for the quadrant breakdown and the housing dashboard for the live market.
Here's a genuine local advantage: the City of Ankeny's property-tax levy is about $9.90 per $1,000 of taxable value, the lowest of any Des Moines-metro city over 5,000 people. The catch worth understanding is that the city is only one slice of your bill; the county, the school district, DMACC and the transit authority levy the rest. Full breakdown in our property-tax guide. Iowa has a flat state income tax, and there's a local sales tax on top of the state rate.
Outside of housing, Ankeny is a pretty typical Midwestern cost picture: groceries, utilities and healthcare land close to the national average. Setting up power, gas, water and internet is straightforward, and we walk through exactly who to call in the moving-to-Ankeny guide. The one hidden cost of a spread-out suburb is the car: many errands mean a drive, though the trail network and a growing Uptown and Prairie Trail make parts of town genuinely walkable.
The Ankeny Brief is a free weekly email on the town: home sales, what's being built, new places, and what's happening. The cheapest way to know a place before you live there.
Ankeny is close to the U.S. average overall (index around 100 to 103) but higher than the rest of Iowa, driven by housing. It's offset by a high median income near $106,000 and the lowest city tax levy in the big metro cities.
Cost-of-living indexes put Ankeny near the national average and above the Iowa average. Groceries, utilities and healthcare are typical for the Midwest; housing runs above average.
The median sale price has been in the low-to-mid $300,000s in 2026, ranging from about $280,000 in the southeast to roughly $345,000 in the northwest.
The city levy is about $9.90 per $1,000, the lowest of any Des Moines-metro city over 5,000 people, though the county, schools, DMACC and transit add to your total bill.
A typical one-bedroom runs roughly $1,050 to $1,100 a month, somewhat above the national median, varying by size, neighborhood and age of the building.