Buyers weighing Ankeny against Bondurant are usually choosing between scale and newness. Both cities sit entirely in Polk County, about eight miles apart, and as of the end of September 2026 their typical home values were within about six thousand dollars of each other. The real differences are size, the share of rental housing in the existing stock, how many listings are available at any given moment, and which school district the exact address falls in. Here is the side by side, built only on public data, with the source behind every figure.
Ankeny counted 67,887 residents at the 2020 Census and the Census Bureau estimates 77,833 as of July 1, 2025, a change of 14.3 percent against the estimates base. Bondurant counted 7,365 in 2020 with an estimate of 9,647 in 2025, a change of 30.3 percent. Ankeny is adding more people; Bondurant is growing faster off a smaller base.
Ankeny covers about 31.9 square miles of land and Bondurant about 11.1, by the Census Bureau's 2024 Gazetteer. Both cities lie wholly within Polk County, by the Census Bureau's 2020 place by county file. Ankeny's ZIP codes are 50021 and 50023; Bondurant's is 50035.
Zillow puts the typical Ankeny home value at $338,600 as of the end of September 2026, up 0.6 percent from $336,700 a year earlier. The typical Bondurant home value is $332,200, down 0.9 percent from $335,200. That is a gap of about $6,400 on the typical home, with the two cities moving in opposite directions over the past year.
Available supply is the bigger practical difference. Zillow's October 13, 2026 market report for the 50021 area showed 431 active listings and 63 recently sold. Its October 27, 2026 report for the 50035 area showed 177 active listings and 14 recently sold. If you need options inside a narrow window, Ankeny gives you more of them. The current reads for both cities, and for the rest of the corridor, sit on my Central Iowa market page.
One caution on the value figures. These are typical value estimates, smoothed and seasonally adjusted, rounded to the nearest hundred dollars. They are not closed sale medians, and they are not a substitute for comparable sales on the street you are buying on.
This is where buyers get caught, in both cities. The district follows the address, not the city name.
By US Census Bureau school district maps, about 83.5 percent of Ankeny's area is in the Ankeny Community School District, with about 8.5 percent in the North Polk Community School District on the north side and about 8.0 percent in the Saydel Community School District on the south. About 97.0 percent of Bondurant's area is in the Bondurant Farrar Community School District, with about 3.0 percent on the southeast side in the Southeast Polk Community School District.
Scale differs a great deal. NCES Common Core of Data puts 2024 to 2025 membership at 12,746 students in the Ankeny district and 2,824 in Bondurant Farrar. That shows up in the number of buildings and the breadth of programs, not in any ranking claim I would make. Compare the specifics you care about on the Iowa Department of Education district profiles. My Ankeny schools page and Bondurant schools page name each district with links to the official sources. Confirm the district for any address before you write an offer.
Measured between the two cities' Census internal points, Ankeny and Bondurant are about 8 miles apart in a straight line. Relative to Des Moines, Ankeny sits about 11 miles from the Des Moines Census point and Bondurant about 12, both straight line. The two cities approach the metro from different sides, Ankeny from the north along Interstate 35 and Bondurant from the northeast.
The Census Bureau's 2020 to 2024 American Community Survey puts the mean travel time to work at 21.1 minutes for Ankeny workers and 22.3 minutes for Bondurant workers, so on average the two are close. Averages hide your own route. Drive your real commute at your real rush hour from each address you are considering, in both directions. A few minutes each way adds up across a year.
The 2020 to 2024 American Community Survey shows the clearest structural difference between the two markets:
Ankeny's median runs about $12,200 higher.
US Census Bureau, 2020-2024 American Community Survey: the homes already standing, not current list prices.
These are five year survey figures describing the homes already standing, not current list prices, which is why the ACS median value and the Zillow typical value do not match. Read them together, then price the specific property.
For investors the ownership split matters most. Ankeny's stock carries a meaningfully larger renter occupied share, which generally means more existing rental property to evaluate and more comparable rents to pull. Bondurant's stock is overwhelmingly owner occupied, so there is less of it to look at, and median gross rent there is slightly higher than Ankeny's despite the lower median owner value. Either way the numbers on the individual property decide it. My Bondurant house hacking guide and the deal calculator run those figures with real rent and real taxes.
Because both cities are in Polk County, the county portion of the levy comes from the same county budget. The city and school district portions differ by address, and in Ankeny three school districts are in play.
Under Iowa Code section 24.2A, the county auditor mails each property owner a statement of proposed property taxes by March 15, and each city, county and school district holds a separate public hearing on its proposed property tax amount where residents and property owners can give testimony. The governing body can decrease, but not increase, the proposed amount at that hearing. If the home will be your primary residence, ask the assessor's office about Iowa's homestead exemption, and if a future assessment looks off, the protest window runs April 2 through April 30.
Search both cities as one search area, then narrow with these three questions:
If you are comparing more than these two, my Ankeny and Johnston comparison and the Altoona and Bondurant comparison cover the neighboring choices, and the Central Iowa areas map shows how all of them sit together.
What this means for your strategy: Run Ankeny and Bondurant as a single search, sorted by school district line and commute rather than by city. Pull the assessed value and tax history on any address you like, check the district with the official source, and price it off recent comparable sales rather than a typical value estimate. Investors should run the actual rent and the actual tax figure through the calculator before writing.
Start with the Ankeny area guide and the Bondurant area guide, or go deeper on daily life with living in Ankeny and living in Bondurant. For a no pressure look at specific homes in either city, reach out and the Flanders Team at RE/MAX Real Estate Center will lay out the numbers clearly. New buyers can start with the buyers guide.
Sources: US Census Bureau QuickFacts for Ankeny city, Iowa and Bondurant city, Iowa, vintage 2025 population estimates and 2020 to 2024 American Community Survey five year estimates for owner occupied rate, median value of owner occupied housing units, median gross rent and mean travel time to work, accessed 2026-11-03; US Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer place file for land area and city internal points; US Census Bureau 2020 place by county file for county assignment; US Census Bureau TIGERweb place and unified school district boundaries for the district area shares; NCES Common Core of Data district membership, 2024 to 2025, for enrollment; Zillow Home Value Index, all homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted, Zillow Research data file through September 30, 2026, a typical value estimate rounded to the nearest hundred dollars and not an MLS closed sale median; Zillow market report emails for the 50021 area dated October 13, 2026 and the 50035 area dated October 27, 2026; Iowa Code section 24.2A, Iowa Code 2026, legis.iowa.gov. Equal Housing Opportunity. This post compares objective public data only and is general information, not legal or tax advice.
Jackson Krile | Flanders Team | RE/MAX Real Estate Center
515.490.8614 · Jackson@FlandersTeam.com
Let's talk through your specific situation - no pressure.