Published October 21, 2026 in Market Update

North and south Ankeny are not telling the same price story

By Steve Stych

Real estate, Ankeny

Most people think of Ankeny as one market. The Real Estate Data Aggregator says it is not, at least not right now. North of 1st Street and south of 1st Street moved in opposite directions on price over the three months ending August 31, 2026. If you are thinking about buying or selling, that line matters before anything else.

The price split, side by side

To put it in perspective, the Federal Housing Finance Agency reported U.S. prices rose 2.6% year over year through July 2026. South Ankeny beat that. North Ankeny went the other way. Both are in the same city.

North of 1st Street: prices eased, but homes moved faster

The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 260 homes sold in ZIP 50023 over those three months. That was up 7% from the same period in 2025. The median sale price came in at $350,000, down 5.4% from a year ago. So more homes sold, but at a lower price. The median days on market was 23 days, which was 12 days shorter than a year before. Sellers priced right were still getting deals done.

One number stands out here. The Real Estate Data Aggregator found that 39.7% of homes in ZIP 50023 went under contract within two weeks of listing. That share was up 9 points from a year ago. When a home is priced well, buyers in north Ankeny are still moving on it quickly.

South of 1st Street: prices climbed, but homes took longer

South of 1st Street tells a different story. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 275 homes sold in ZIP 50021, up 29.1% from the same three months in 2025. The median sale price was $340,000, up 7.9% from a year ago. That is the good news. The less comfortable number is days on market: 56 days, which was 12 days longer than a year before.

The share of homes going under contract within two weeks dropped to 24% in ZIP 50021, down 6.4 points from a year ago. More homes sold overall, and prices rose. But buyers are taking more time to decide. That means pricing and presentation matter more than they did a year ago on this side of 1st Street.

The wider picture: more listings, more sales, across all of Ankeny

When you put both ZIPs together, the Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 535 homes sold across Ankeny in the three months ending August 31, 2026. That was up 17.3% from the same period in 2025. New listings rose too, up 17.1% to 507. Pending sales across both ZIPs reached 447, up 8.2%. The market is active. It is just not moving the same way on both sides of 1st Street.

What the national numbers add

The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported that U.S. house prices rose 2.6% year over year through July 2026. Ankeny's south side outpaced that. Ankeny's north side did not. Realtor.com reported that mortgage rates moved above 7% for the first time since January 2025, and that 20.8% of listings nationally saw price cuts in September 2026, the highest share since October 2022. That national backdrop is worth knowing. It helps explain why buyers everywhere are slower to commit.

One more thing worth saying: these are ZIP code numbers. One block can read differently from the whole ZIP. Prairie Trail, for example, has its own pricing and its own HOA rules. Uptown Ankeny has older housing stock. A single ZIP code number does not tell the whole story for your specific address. If something here surprised you or if I missed something about your corner of Ankeny, I would genuinely like to hear it.

Talk soon, Steve