Ames, IA Housing Market 2026: What Homes Actually Sell For

If you invest in or around Ames, the number that matters is what homes actually close for, not what sellers are asking. Here is what Ames sale prices look like right now, built from the closings Resideline tracked over the last six months, as of September 2026.

The snapshot

• •Closings tracked, last 6 months: 337
• •Median sold price, last 6 months: $329,000
• •Median sold $/sqft, last 6 months: $213
• •Middle half of sales closed between: $255,000 and $429,900

What the numbers say

Resideline tracked 337 closed sales in Ames over the last six months, with a median closing price of $329,000. That median is the midpoint of what buyers actually paid, not what sellers hoped to get, which is why it moves differently from the asking prices you see on listing sites. The middle half of those sales closed between $255,000 and $429,900. That spread matters more than the headline median: where a specific property sits inside it decides whether the citywide number helps you or misleads you. These are the closings Resideline tracks and may differ from complete county or municipal records. 81% of the Ames closings we track here are single-family houses, so these figures primarily reflect that segment, and the citywide $/sqft figure primarily reflects that segment as well. Across the 337 closings with usable living area, the middle half sold between $171 and $267 per square foot.

Figures last updated September 6, 2026 from closings Resideline tracked.

Median home price in Ames, IA (September 2026)

The median home price in Ames is $329,000, measured across the 337 closed sales Resideline tracked over the last six months. The middle half of those sales closed between $255,000 and $429,900.

Where Ames sale prices land

Medians hide the shape of a market. The distribution above covers the closed sales Resideline tracked in Ames over the last six months that carry a usable sale date, trimmed to the 5th through 95th percentile, with the middle half of sales closing between $255,000 and $429,900. Among the 24 Iowa markets with a published band, Ames's middle-half spread ($255,000 to $429,900) ranks 7th from the narrowest. Where your target property sits inside that spread matters more than the citywide median.

How long a sale takes here

• •Listed to under contract: a median of 11 days, across 156 Ames closings Resideline tracked in the last six months
• •Contract to closing: a median of 38 days, across 123 Ames closings Resideline tracked in the last six months

The Ames angle

Ames sits in the middle of our distribution on spread, which means the median means something. Across 337 closings Resideline tracked over the last six months the median closed sale price was $329,000, with the middle half of sales closing between $255,000 and $429,900. The band runs further above the median than below it, so an above average subject is exactly the case where the citywide figure misleads you most.

From market read to offer price

A market read is the backdrop. The decision still comes down to one property and one number: what it is actually worth and what you should pay. Every Resideline report opens with this same market snapshot for the subject's exact ZIP code, then gives you the property's value, the sold comps behind it, and a market rent estimate. Pricing a specific deal? The free ARV calculator and rental property calculator run the numbers in about a minute.

And we show our work. Every estimate is frozen while the home is for sale and graded against the real closing price after it sells. See the live accuracy dashboard for the receipts, or read how the Area Market Snapshot works.

Run any Ames address through Resideline and you will see the local market and the property's value together, in one report.

Cite this

Using these numbers? Please cite the source and the sample size:

Source: Resideline Market Watch
Market: Ames, IA
Geography: incorporated municipality, Census place 1901855
Data updated: September 2026
Analysis period: last six months
Tracked closings: 337
Median sold price: $329,000
Median sold $/sqft: $213 (337 qualifying)
Property mix: 81% houses
https://resideline.com/blog/ames-ia-housing-market

Writing about this market? Paste this into your post:

<a href="https://resideline.com/blog/ames-ia-housing-market">
  <img src="https://resideline.com/images/embed/ames-ia.png" alt="Ames, IA home sale price distribution, last six months" width="1000" style="max-width:100%;height:auto">
</a>
<p>Source: <a href="https://resideline.com/blog/ames-ia-housing-market">Resideline Market Watch</a></p>

The local market statistics in this report are calculated from closed sales tracked by Resideline. Transaction coverage may differ from complete county or municipal records.

Every local market figure on this page is computed from closed sales Resideline tracked in Ames over the last six months, and is refreshed when the data is.