Iowa City & Cedar Rapids market report: July 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. Updated monthly.
Plenty of people post the market stats. Almost nobody tells you what they mean. Below is the July 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
▼ 22% year
▼ 9% year
▲ 3% year
▼ 83% year
Source: Cedar Rapids MLS via Trendgraphix. Reports pulled 08.10.2026.
Iowa City Metro
Iowa City, Coralville, North Liberty, Solon, Tiffin
▼ 15% year
▲ 275% year
▲ 80% year
▼ 20% year
▼ 43% year
Source: Iowa City MLS via Trendgraphix. Reports pulled 08.10.2026.
What it means
The industrial story flipped between the two counties. Johnson County went from 4 industrial and warehouse listings a year ago to 15. That is the single biggest move on the sheet. Read it carefully though, because 275% off a base of 4 is not a trend, it is a handful of buildings hitting the market at the same time. If you have been waiting on shop or flex space in the Iowa City area, this is the most selection there has been in a long while, and there is nothing that says it holds. Linn County went the other direction, down 22% year over year. Warehouse users looking north have fewer options than they did.
Small multifamily is basically not for sale. Four listings in the entire Cedar Rapids metro, down 83%. Seventeen in Iowa City, down 43%. When owners are sitting on debt they like better than anything a lender will write them today, they do not sell. That is the whole explanation. It also means anything that does come to market gets attention fast, so if you are hunting a duplex or a small building, you need to be ready to move rather than watching listings.
Land in Johnson County is thinning out. Down 20% year over year while Linn County is up 3%. Worth knowing if you are planning a build rather than a purchase.
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: July at a glance.
Cedar Rapids Metro
Cedar Rapids, Hiawatha, Marion, Robins
▲ 1% year
▲ 2% year
▲ 22% year
▼ 7% year
▼ 35% year
Homes sold by price range: 9 under $100,000, 83 from $100,000 to $199,999, 96 from $200,000 to $299,999, 56 from $300,000 to $399,999, and 50 at $400,000 and above. Compared to last July, the two brackets above $300,000 are up 22% and 11%. Everything below $300,000 is flat or down.
Source: Cedar Rapids Metro Area via Trendgraphix. Reports pulled 08.10.2026.
Iowa City Metro
Iowa City, Coralville, North Liberty, Solon, Tiffin
No change year
▲ 28% year
▼ 15% year
▼ 29% year
▼ 29% year
Homes sold by price range: 5 under $100,000, 38 from $100,000 to $199,999, 71 from $200,000 to $299,999, 74 from $300,000 to $399,999, and 102 at $400,000 and above. The $400,000 and up bracket is up 36% from last July and is now the largest single group in the metro.
Source: Iowa City Metro Area via Trendgraphix. Reports pulled 08.10.2026.
What it means
Average price is flat in both metros. That is the headline nobody prints. Cedar Rapids is up 1% year over year and Iowa City is dead even. What changed is not price, it is inventory and speed. Active listings are down 35% in Cedar Rapids and 29% in Iowa City. Days on market are down in both. Fewer houses, moving quicker, at about the same money.
For a buyer, that combination is the hard one. You are not getting run over on price, but you have a third fewer houses to pick from than a buyer had last year, and the good ones do not sit. Being ready matters more than being patient right now. Full approval, not a prequalification letter, and a decision made before you walk in about what you will do if the house is right.
For a seller, low inventory is not a license to overprice. Cedar Rapids days on market went up 17% from June. Buyers are still running the payment before they run the offer. Priced right, you will sell fast. Priced on last year's optimism, you will sit and then cut, and the cut costs more than the right price would have.
Both markets are moving up-market. Sales above $300,000 are up in Cedar Rapids and sales above $400,000 are up 36% in Iowa City. Meanwhile the under $200,000 brackets are flat or shrinking. Part of that is simply that there is very little left to buy down there. If you own an entry level house in either metro, you own the scarcest thing on the board.
The full Skogman flyers.
Skogman publishes these every month. Here are the complete sheets for July 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.
This page is updated every month when the new numbers come out. Related reading: what leasing or buying commercial space in Iowa City actually costs, the same thing for Cedar Rapids, commercial build out costs in Johnson County, and how I get homes sold.