Ames and Ankeny come up together constantly in buyer conversations along the central corridor. Both are established communities with their own public school districts, growing job bases, and active real estate markets. But they serve fundamentally different buyers - and picking the wrong one for your situation costs real money and real convenience over time.
I work both markets regularly and know the tradeoffs in detail. Here's the straight comparison.
Ames sits about 30 miles north of Des Moines at the intersection of U.S. 30 and I-35. It's a college town built around Iowa State University - ISU is the largest employer, the largest landlord, and the largest driver of housing demand in the city. The economy is anchored in research, education, agriculture science, and a growing cluster of tech and biotech spinoffs. Population hovers around 67,000 during the academic year.
Ankeny sits 12 miles north of downtown Des Moines along I-35, and it's the fastest-growing city in Iowa. Population is now north of 75,000 and climbing with new construction on all four sides. The economy is corporate and logistics-heavy - Wellmark Blue Cross, Hy-Vee (headquarters), Casey's General Stores (headquarters), and a large professional services sector. It's a suburb doing suburb things at high velocity.
Ankeny runs higher on median price. New construction has been relentless here for a decade, and the demand from Des Moines metro spillover keeps values firm. Entry-level single-family is competitive; the mid-range is active; and the upper end ($600K+) has more inventory than it did 18 months ago.
Ames has more price variation built into it - you can find deeply affordable housing near the university (some of the oldest, most investor-heavy stock in Story County) and genuinely upscale homes in the west-side neighborhoods near the country club and Shadow Wood. The move-up market in Ames has strengthened as ISU faculty, administrators, and biotech employees have gotten more financially comfortable. Entry-level is competitive for that reason.
One structural difference: Ames carries significant rental inventory - a large portion of the housing stock is investor-owned, targeted at students. If you're buying as a homeowner, distinguishing the owner-occupied neighborhoods from the rental-heavy ones matters. The west side and the Campustown-adjacent areas tell very different stories.
Both districts are strong by Iowa standards, but they serve different communities and have different profiles.
Ankeny Community School District is large, well-funded, and consistently performs at the top of Iowa metro districts on state assessment data. Two high schools (Ankeny and Ankeny Centennial) with strong athletics, strong college prep, and significant extracurricular investment. Feeder patterns matter here - the district draws boundary lines that split some neighborhoods between buildings. Verifying your specific address before you buy is worth doing.
Ames Community School District is smaller (around 4,500 students district-wide vs. Ankeny's 12,000+) and benefits from the educational culture a university town creates - ISU faculty families, international researchers, and a community that places high value on academic programming. Test scores are strong, the high school has robust dual-enrollment options through ISU, and the district draws consistently positive reviews from families who came from other states expecting to compromise and didn't.
If school size and athletic program scale matter to you, Ankeny wins on volume. If smaller-district feel and proximity to a university research environment appeal, Ames is the one.
This is the clearest differentiator. Ankeny is a commuter suburb for Des Moines metro employers. The people buying here work at the major corporate headquarters, at Broadlawns or Methodist or UnityPoint, at the state capitol, or in the professional services sector downtown. The commute is the product - 15-25 minutes to the core of Des Moines employment, depending on where you're going.
Ames is more self-contained. A meaningful portion of Ames homebuyers work in Ames - at ISU, at Ames National Corporation, in the biotech and agri-science cluster, or in city and county government. The trade-off is a 35-45 minute commute to downtown Des Moines for anyone who works there, and an I-35 drive that has congestion patterns worth testing before you commit.
If your job is in Des Moines, the commute math nearly always favors Ankeny. If your job is in Ames - or if your spouse's job is at ISU - Ames is clearly the correct answer, and many families end up here for exactly that reason.
Ankeny has built out its retail and dining infrastructure quickly. The Ankeny Prairie district, the North Ankeny corridor along SE Oralabor Road, and the SW Ankeny development all have major grocery, dining, entertainment, and services within a short drive. The Prairie Trail development has walkable amenity density unusual for an Iowa suburb. Parks and trail access are excellent.
Ames punches above its size on culture and entertainment - ISU brings Division I athletics, the Scheman Building performing arts calendar, the Reiman Gardens, and a restaurant and bar scene that a city of 67,000 wouldn't normally sustain. Main Street and Campustown give Ames a walkable district Ankeny doesn't have. The athletic events calendar alone is a quality-of-life differentiator for a lot of buyers who value that.
If you want dense suburban amenities close to home, Ankeny is the better fit. If you want cultural programming, a walkable downtown, and the energy of a Big 12 university within walking distance of your coffee shop, Ames wins.
Ankeny appreciation has been strong and consistent. The growth story isn't over - there's still new rooftop demand feeding in from the metro - and the city has the infrastructure and employer base to sustain it. It's a reliable hold from an equity standpoint.
Ames has a different value proposition: the university creates a floor on demand. ISU doesn't shrink, it doesn't relocate, and it generates consistent housing need across the full price spectrum - from student rentals to faculty move-ups to administrator estates. That floor has historically protected Ames from the worst of market pullbacks. The ceiling on appreciation is lower than Ankeny's because the price range is more compressed, but the stability is real.
Choose Ankeny if: your job is in the Des Moines metro, you want newer construction, you have school-age kids and want a large district with maximum extracurricular options, and you want easy access to the full metro's retail and healthcare infrastructure.
Choose Ames if: you or your partner works at ISU or in the Ames employment base, you value a college-town lifestyle (athletics, performing arts, walkable downtown), you're comfortable with a longer commute to Des Moines in exchange for a more self-contained community, or you're buying an investment property near a university with durable rental demand.
Both are smart places to own in Central Iowa. The right answer depends on where you work, what you value day-to-day, and what school district serves your family best. Send me your specific situation - job location, budget, must-haves - and I'll tell you exactly where the market is in each city right now and which neighborhoods make sense for your priorities.
Jackson Krile | Flanders Team | RE/MAX Real Estate Center
515.490.8614 · [email protected]
Jackson Krile | Flanders Team | RE/MAX Real Estate Center
515.490.8614 · [email protected]
Let's talk through your specific situation - no pressure.