Prices, inventory, and demand — distilled every month into one clear verdict: buyer’s market or seller’s. The investor’s read, before you make an offer.
Only on the right house. Neither side has the upper hand in Ames right now.
Neither side has the upper hand in Ames. Buyers and sellers are evenly matched. The market will not hand you a discount. You have to find it in one specific listing.
About as many homes are under contract as are sitting unsold. Neither side is desperate. Your room to negotiate depends on the listing, not the market. Few sellers are dropping their price. Asking prices are holding firm. Your discount will come from one stale listing, not from the whole market.
A typical Ames home takes 41 days to find a buyer. Half of them take even longer. That is 9% faster than a year ago. Those sellers are paying to own a house they want to sell. Search for homes listed 60+ days ago. There are 114 homes for sale in Ames. That is 2.1 times the tightest month on record, but below the peak of 248. Supply is shrinking against last year.
Asking prices are 6.5% below their Mar 2025 peak. You are not buying at the top. Prices stopped falling about a year ago. They are flat now. Waiting will not get you a cheaper house. It might still get you a more motivated seller. Ames prices rose in only 67 of the last 108 months. This market goes up and down. Timing matters here. Growth will not rescue a bad price.
This market is turning. Which way is not settled yet. Check the monthly numbers above before you commit.
Most Ames households rent. 55 out of every 100 households are renters. The renter share is shrinking. Five years ago it was 57 in 100. Renter households average 2.0 people. Singles and couples rent here. Two bedrooms beat four.
Households grew 3% in five years. The housing stock grew 5%. Supply is outrunning demand. 7.5% of homes sit empty. That is normal for a healthy market.
The median Ames household earns $63,125 a year. Incomes here have grown 4.5% a year since 2019. Incomes are rising faster than home prices. Affordability is improving. A typical home costs 6.6 times the median income. Most locals cannot buy. That keeps rental demand deep. It also caps the rent they can pay. A tenant on the median income can pay about $1,578 a month. That is the standard 30% affordability line. Rents above it thin your tenant pool fast.
That is the market, not your address. Run an address through the app to see its rent estimate and cash flow.
Only on the right house. Neither side has the upper hand in Ames right now. 96 out of every 100 homes for sale have a buyer, 17% of sellers have cut their price, and a typical home takes 41 days to sell.
Asking prices are 6.5% below their Mar 2025 peak. You are not buying at the top. Prices stopped falling about a year ago. They are flat now. Waiting will not get you a cheaper house. It might still get you a more motivated seller.
Assume +2.6% a year. Ames has grown about 2.9% a year for five years and for ten. That is a durable trend, not a boom artifact. It is a fair long-run input. Prices fell 7.5% over the last year. That is a timing signal, not a trend.
A typical Ames home takes 41 days to find a buyer. Half of them take even longer. That is 9% faster than a year ago. Those sellers are paying to own a house they want to sell. Search for homes listed 60+ days ago.
Most Ames households rent. 55 out of every 100 households are renters. The renter share is shrinking. Five years ago it was 57 in 100. 7.5% of homes sit empty. That is normal for a healthy market.
A tenant on the median income can pay about $1,578 a month. That is the standard 30% affordability line. Rents above it thin your tenant pool fast. The median Ames household earns $63,125 a year.
Ames has five ZIP codes. Each links to its live market dashboard.
Closest matches on asking price, price per square foot, days to sell, buyer demand, and price cuts.
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