Iowa City & Cedar Rapids market report: August 2026.
The numbers for both metros, commercial and residential, and what they actually mean if you are buying, leasing, selling, or trying to decide whether to wait. Published monthly.
Plenty of people post the market stats. Almost nobody tells you what they mean. Below is the August data for the Iowa City and Cedar Rapids metros, followed by my read on it. I sell commercial and residential in both markets, and I build, so I look at these numbers as inventory and cost, not as a headline.
Commercial: active listings.
Cedar Rapids Metro
Cedar Rapids, Hiawatha, Marion, Robins
▼ 11% year
▼ 26% year
▼ 4% year
▲ 7% year
▼ 67% year
Source: Cedar Rapids MLS via Trendgraphix. Reports pulled 09.10.2026.
Iowa City Metro
Iowa City, Coralville, North Liberty, Solon, Tiffin
▼ 8% year
▲ 333% year
▲ 33% year
▲ 13% year
▲ 4% year
Source: Iowa City MLS via Trendgraphix. Reports pulled 09.10.2026.
What it means
The Iowa City industrial window is already closing. Last month I wrote that 15 warehouse listings on the Johnson County side was a handful of buildings landing at once rather than a trend, and that nothing said it would hold. It is down to 13, off 13% in a single month. The year over year figure still reads 333%, which sounds enormous and means very little off a base that small. Cedar Rapids went the other way again, 146 listings and down 26% on the year. Shop and flex space got harder to find in both metros this month, not easier.
Small multifamily finally showed up in Iowa City. Twenty-six listings, up 53% in one month and up 4% on the year. That is the first real inventory in that category in a long time, and it is the most useful number on the commercial sheet. Cedar Rapids is still effectively empty at seven. If you have been waiting to buy a duplex or a small building on the Johnson County side, this is the month to actually go look rather than keep watching.
Long money got more expensive and short money did not. The 10 year treasury moved from 4.65% to 4.83% while prime held at 6.75%. If you were quoted a five or ten year fixed note on a building in July, that quote is stale and not in your favour. A line of credit or a shorter note priced off prime did not move.
The two rates on the commercial sheet.
Most people skip past these two numbers. They are on the sheet because they are what decides whether a small commercial deal pencils. Local banks generally price commercial loans off one of them, either a spread over prime for a shorter note or line, or a spread over the treasury for longer fixed money. Your actual rate comes from your lender, your down payment, and your business, not from this page. But when prime moves, the payment on the building you are considering moves with it, and so does the number the property has to produce to cover itself.
Residential: August at a glance.
Cedar Rapids Metro
Cedar Rapids, Hiawatha, Marion, Robins
▲ 23% year
▼ 4% year
▲ 5% year
▼ 17% year
▼ 38% year
Homes sold by price range: 8 under $100,000, 65 from $100,000 to $199,999, 101 from $200,000 to $299,999, 56 from $300,000 to $399,999, and 45 at $400,000 and above. Compared to last August, sales over $400,000 are up 32% and the $200,000 to $299,999 band is up 15%, while under $100,000 is down 20% and $100,000 to $199,999 is down 35%.
Source: Cedar Rapids Metro Area via Trendgraphix. Reports pulled 09.10.2026.
Iowa City Metro
Iowa City, Coralville, North Liberty, Solon, Tiffin
▼ 3% year
▼ 12% year
▼ 21% year
▼ 29% year
▼ 27% year
Homes sold by price range: 3 under $100,000, 22 from $100,000 to $199,999, 48 from $200,000 to $299,999, 44 from $300,000 to $399,999, and 62 at $400,000 and above. Every one of those five brackets is down from July, by between 34% and 44%. The $400,000 and up bracket is still the largest single group in the metro.
Source: Iowa City Metro Area via Trendgraphix. Reports pulled 09.10.2026.
What it means
Cedar Rapids average price is up 23%, and that is not what it looks like. This is the number everyone will repeat, so here is the rest of the sheet. Sales under $200,000 fell 35% year over year. Sales over $400,000 rose 32%. When the bottom of the market stops transacting and the top speeds up, the average climbs without any individual house being worth more. Some of that 23% is genuine appreciation. A large part of it is arithmetic. If you price your house as though it gained 23% this year, you will sit on the market and then cut.
Iowa City stopped in August. 179 homes sold, down 40% in a month, and down in every single price band: 40%, 44%, 34%, 44%, 40%. When every bracket falls by roughly the same amount, that is not a segment story, it is the whole market pausing at once. Pending listings are down 26% as well, which means September closings will be light before they recover. Some of this is the ordinary end-of-summer slowdown in a university town. Not all of it.
Inventory is still what governs both markets. Active listings are down 38% year over year in Cedar Rapids and 27% in Iowa City. That is the number underneath everything else on this page. Fewer houses to buy, which props up price, and fewer buyers moving in August, which slows sales. Both sides of the table are constrained right now.
These are two different markets, 25 miles apart. Cedar Rapids is selling in 24 days, down 17% on the year. Iowa City is taking 37 days, up 6% on the month. If you are selling in Johnson County, price for a 37 day market and a buyer who is doing arithmetic, not for the Cedar Rapids headline. If you are selling in Linn County, the speed is real, and it is still not a reason to test a number.
The full Skogman flyers.
Skogman publishes these every month. Here are the complete sheets for August 2026 if you would rather see the whole thing.
Numbers are one thing. Your situation is another.
If you are trying to decide whether this is the month to buy, sell, lease, or hold, call me and we will run it against your actual numbers. No commitment, and no pitch about how it is always a great time.
Previous months.
Get these reports in Google.
Add this site as a preferred source and new market reports show up first when you search Iowa City and Cedar Rapids real estate news.