Boone is the county seat of Boone County and a full-service small city on US Route 30 - its own hospital, its own community college campus, its own school district, all inside 9.08 square miles. It sits about 17 miles west of Ames, and the City of Boone describes itself as 42 miles north of Des Moines. If you work along the US 30 corridor and you want a housing market priced off Boone County rather than the metro growth corridors, Boone belongs on your list.
Boone is not a bedroom suburb, and that changes how you should shop it. Three things bring buyers here:
One piece of local history worth stating plainly, because it gets repeated wrong: Fareway's first store opened in Boone on May 12, 1938, but the company moved its corporate headquarters to Johnston in 2024. The first Casey's opened in Boone in 1968, and Casey's has been headquartered in Ankeny since 1990. Both are Boone heritage. Neither is headquartered here today.
Here is the honest read: Boone's population was 12,460 at the 2020 Census and an estimated 12,471 as of July 1, 2025 (US Census Bureau QuickFacts), so the city is essentially flat. Flat population inside a compact 9.08 square miles means most of what trades here is existing housing stock rather than new subdivision inventory. Think in terms of three types instead of a dozen sub-markets:
Older in-town homes near downtown and the Lincoln Highway corridor - Established, gridded streets within walking distance of Main Street, the schools, and the depot. These are the most affordable entry points in the city and the deepest part of the inventory. Expect to underwrite roof, mechanicals, electrical service, and sometimes knob-and-tube or original plumbing. Suits: buyers who will trade updated finishes for price and location.
Newer subdivisions on the city's edges - Where most of Boone's more recent construction sits: modern floor plans, attached garages, larger lots than the same money buys in the metro growth corridors. Suits: buyers who want newer without a metro price tag. Inventory in this bucket is thin, so timing matters.
Acreages outside city limits - The ground around Boone opens up into larger parcels with outbuildings and hobby-farm potential. These carry their own wrinkles: well and septic inspections, road maintenance, and financing that not every lender handles the same way. Suits: buyers who specifically want land and are willing to run a longer diligence list.
Operated by the Boone Railroad Historical Society, established in 1983, the Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad runs excursions from Memorial Day through October 31 and pulls them with China Railways JS No. 8419, a working steam locomotive. The route crosses the Bass Point Creek High Bridge, 156 feet above the creek. Three miles west of town stands the Kate Shelley High Bridge: the original, completed in 1901, runs 2,685 feet long and 185 feet above the Des Moines River and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 13, 2009; its replacement opened on August 20, 2009. For a lot of buyers, the rail history is the reason Boone ends up on the list in the first place.
I will give you the number I can actually stand behind, and I will tell you exactly what it is. These are Boone COUNTY figures, not city-of-Boone figures.
Source: Redfin, for the three months ending June 2026. County-level, not city-level.
Why county and not city? Because the city-level series for a town this size is too thin to publish honestly. Redfin's Boone city page was still showing November 2025 the last time I checked it, and that month recorded only 9 sales. A single unusual closing swings a 9-sale month by tens of thousands of dollars. The county number, built on 60 sales, is the more stable read, and the right comparison for any specific house is still the handful of genuinely similar recent sales near it.
What that data says in plain language: prices in Boone County were flat year over year, and a median of 41 days on market means this is a market where a correctly priced, move-in-ready home transacts in a reasonable window while an overpriced or dated one sits. Condition and pricing drive the outcome here far more than the calendar does.
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House hacking is one of my specialties, and Boone is a legitimate place to run the strategy - with a different playbook than Ankeny or Ames.
If you are investment-minded and early in your career, this is a strategy worth running the numbers on. Full house hacking playbook here →
Boone is served by the Boone Community School District, which enrolled 1,978 PK-12 students in 2024-25. The district is organized in narrow grade bands, so students move buildings more often than in a district with conventional K-5 elementaries. Here is the structure, with 2024-25 enrollment:
Source: NCES Common Core of Data, 2024-25 school year.
Ledges Elementary opened in fall 2023, consolidating the former Lincoln and Page elementary buildings into one PK-1 site. That consolidation is the reason the grade bands look the way they do, and it is recent enough that older online sources still describe the previous arrangement.
For test scores, growth, and accountability metrics, the Iowa Department of Education's School Performance Profiles is the current, objective source, and I recommend going there directly rather than to a third-party score aggregator. Always verify current attendance details with the district for any specific address before you write an offer.
Whether you are a first-time buyer working the US 30 corridor, an acreage buyer who wants land without leaving Central Iowa, or an investor sizing up a house hack, the right move is to get your bearings before you shop. I work this corner of Central Iowa and I am happy to walk you through it, no pressure. Let's set up a free 15-minute conversation:
Comparing your options? Ames is about 17 miles east, home to Iowa State University and a much deeper housing market. Madrid is the other Boone County town I cover in depth; it sits near the High Trestle Trail and is where the Iowa Arboretum is located. I also write up Nevada and Huxley if you are weighing several Central Iowa towns at once.
Nothing on this page is lending, tax, or legal advice. Take financing questions to a licensed lender, tax questions to a CPA, and contract questions to an Iowa real estate attorney.
Jackson Krile is a REALTOR® on the Flanders Team at RE/MAX Real Estate Center. Licensed in Iowa #S66867000. DMAAR + CIBR member. Serving Boone, Ames, Madrid, Nevada, and surrounding Central Iowa communities.
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