Buying in Polk County, Iowa

Polk County at a glance

Polk County is one of 99 counties and county-equivalents in Iowa. Its county seat is Des Moines. County government publishes its offices and parcel tools online. Official county website. With a 2024 Census Bureau population estimate of 516,185, it is the most populous county in Iowa. In the FBI's 2024 reported-crime file, agencies here reported 12,702 offenses — 24.61 per 1,000 residents; the breakdown is below.

Records to check before you buy in Polk County

• Property record card — the Polk County assessor / appraisal office. Pull the parcel's assessed-value history, exemption status, and last sale. This is the file your future tax bill is calculated from, and it shows whether the current owner is enjoying exemptions you will not inherit. County government sits in Des Moines; the official county website is the reliable route to the parcel search and the office directory.
• Deeds & liens — the Polk County recorder / land-records office. Read the deed chain, open liens, easements, and plat maps — the file a listing never mentions.
• Official flood determination. Check the exact parcel on FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer — not the listing site's licensed model. Zone boundaries cut through streets; the house next door can be in a different zone. Polk County is the primary county for 33 ZIP codes in the Census Bureau's ZIP-to-county crosswalk — and zone lines ignore every one of them.
• The county's reported-crime record. In the FBI's 2024 file, agencies in Polk County reported 12,702 offenses — 24.61 per 1,000 residents; the largest single category was larceny-theft (7,959). The crime section below sets that beside the Iowa county median.
• Registry check. Run the address through Iowa Sex Offender Registry (Iowa Department of Public Safety) and note the counts within a mile — then check again the week you close.
• Permits & code history — the Polk building department. Open permits, expired permits, and code cases tell you whether the renovation in the photos was ever inspected. County permitting is run out of Des Moines.
• School assignment — the district office, not the listing. Only the district's own boundary lookup confirms which school an address is actually zoned for.

County list, land area and population: U.S. Census Bureau (population: 2024 PEP estimate). County seat and official website: Wikidata (CC0), checked 2026-11-04. Flood determinations: FEMA. Registry: Iowa.

Reported crime in Polk County — FBI 2024

Agencies in Polk County reported 12,702 offenses to the FBI in 2024 — 1,965 violent and 10,737 property offenses. That works out to a reported-crime rate of 24.61 per 1,000 residents (violent 380.7, property 2080.1 per 100,000).

Inside Iowa, the median county in the same file recorded a violent-crime rate of 113 per 100,000 and a property-crime rate of 470 per 100,000 (medians computed from the FBI 2024 county file across 99 counties).

The largest reported categories were larceny-theft (7,959), aggravated assault (1,573) and motor vehicle theft (1,499).

Coverage: 14 of 14 law-enforcement agencies assigned to this county reported at least one month of 2024 offense data to the FBI; 12 reported all 12 months. Counts are reported offenses only (FBI Return A / Arson master files), assigned whole to each agency's primary county; they are not adjusted for non-reporting agencies.

These are offenses reported to law enforcement — not convictions, and not a verdict on any street or address. A CurbFacts report pairs this county record with the ZIP-level picture for the specific address you are buying.

Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, UCR Return A + Arson master files, data year 2024 (pulled 2026-11-04).

The Iowa rules that apply in Polk County

Traps researched for Iowa buyers: The homestead claim deadline has a long fuse; The homestead credit you read about is being replaced.

Read the full Iowa guide — disclosure standard, tax math, registry and flood

More Iowa counties

All Iowa counties · Iowa buyer guide