Des Moines vs Lexington
Metro-area medians — Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA Metro Area vs Lexington-Fayette, KY Metro Area — not the cities proper.
Des Moines comes out ahead, winning 7 of the 9 clearly-decided measures.
Des Moines and Lexington cost about the same to live in, but Des Moines households earn about 20% more. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches further in Des Moines.
For your salary & household
Enter your pay and household size to see what it's really worth here — the numbers update live and the link stays shareable.
On $75,000 for just you, Des Moines leaves you about $836/yr better off after tax and local prices.
Take-home estimates a single filer taking the standard deduction (2025 federal brackets, FICA, and state income tax) and isn't tax advice. “Real value” rebases take-home to average U.S. prices using the BEA cost-of-living index; the per-person figure uses the OECD square-root equivalence scale.
Choose Des Moines for
- + Livability (CityLedger)
- + Cost-adjusted income (pay's real value)
- + Median household income
- + Median rent
- + Median home value
- + Unemployment
- + Average commute
Des Moines vs Lexington — frequently asked
- Is Des Moines cheaper than Lexington?
- They are about even — the overall cost of living in the Des Moines and Lexington metros is within 3% of each other (BEA Regional Price Parities), so neither is meaningfully cheaper.
- Which has higher household income, Des Moines or Lexington?
- Des Moines has the higher median household income — $85,446 versus $71,444 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS), about 20% more.
- Does a paycheck go further in Des Moines or Lexington?
- A paycheck stretches further in Des Moines. Adjusted for local prices, the median income is worth $93,179 there versus $76,913 in Lexington.
- Which has cheaper rent, Des Moines or Lexington?
- Des Moines has cheaper rent — a median of $1,178/mo versus $1,245/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).