Hardwood Floor Refinishing in Iowa City, Iowa
Iowa City is the largest of the five Johnson County towns this site covers, with 74,825 people in the Census Bureau's April 2020 estimates base and 76,710 in its 2024 estimate. It is a separate city from University Heights, a small Johnson County city of its own, and the figures here are for Iowa City only.
Housing at a glance
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Population, April 2020 estimates base | 74,825 |
| Population, 2024 estimate | 76,710 |
| Housing units (give or take) | 33,863 (give or take 601) |
| Median year built (give or take) | 1985 (give or take 2 years) |
| Built in 1939 or earlier | 11.8% |
| Built in 2000 or later | 30.6% |
| Single-family homes standing alone | 39.8% |
| In buildings of five or more units | 41.6% |
| Mobile homes | 2.1% |
| Owner-occupied homes | 47.2% |
| Renter-occupied homes | 52.8% |
| Householders who moved in during 2020 or later | 41.1% |
| Median gross rent | $1,094 a month |
| Median value of owner-occupied homes | $285,900 |
| Residents 3 and over enrolled in college or graduate school | 34.2% |
| About these figures | Population is the Census Bureau's April 2020 estimates base and 2024 estimate; the rest are Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. They are sample-based estimates with margins, and they describe housing and households, not floors |
Homes by year built
| Year built | Homes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 or later | 705 | 2.1% |
| 2010 to 2019 | 5,561 | 16.4% |
| 2000 to 2009 | 4,103 | 12.1% |
| 1990 to 1999 | 4,480 | 13.2% |
| 1980 to 1989 | 3,858 | 11.4% |
| 1970 to 1979 | 4,781 | 14.1% |
| 1960 to 1969 | 3,319 | 9.8% |
| 1950 to 1959 | 2,402 | 7.1% |
| 1940 to 1949 | 655 | 1.9% |
| 1939 or earlier | 3,999 | 11.8% |
Historic districts the city lists
The City of Iowa City lists eight historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places that are also protected by local historic preservation zoning: Brown Street, College Green, East College Street, Jefferson Street, Longfellow, Northside, Summit Street and Woodlawn. It adds that the Melrose district is on the National Register without being a local district, and it names five conservation districts: Clark Street, College Hill, Dearborn Street, Goosetown/Horace Mann and Governor-Lucas Street (City of Iowa City, Historic Preservation, as of 2026).
What stands out
Iowa City is the only one of the eleven towns where renters are the majority, 52.8 percent of occupied homes, and it has the highest share of homes in buildings of five or more units, about 42 percent. The American Community Survey records the year each householder moved in: about 41 percent of all householders moved into their current home in 2020 or later, the second-highest share of the eleven after Tiffin's, and among renters alone the figure is about 59 percent. About 34 percent of residents aged 3 and over were enrolled in college or graduate school, the highest share of the eleven. Those figures describe how often households change. They do not record what work is done to a floor between tenants, and this page does not claim to say.