Iowa Bank Stress by County

Iowa reads moderate but building for bank stress — an average county score of 58/100, 35th-highest of 52 states and territories. Think of it as the supply side of credit. As it deteriorates, refinancing options close and owners run out of alternatives to selling.

Across Iowa 99 counties, lender scoring comes from FDIC call reports weighted by branch presence.

With Iowa moderate but building, the useful move is to rank counties by lender strain and work down from the top.

High stress (65+) covers 21 of Iowa counties, peaking at 99/100.

Credit data alone is not actionable, so Iowa lender scores are joined to foreclosure filings, tax liens and ownership turnover in the same counties.

The most stressed Iowa market is Worth County (73/100), then Tama County. A complete Iowa ranking follows, worst-stressed first.

For acquisition work the chain is simple: Iowa lenders tighten, borrowers cannot refinance, and properties reach the market under pressure. Bank stress is therefore a leading, upstream signal of where distressed inventory surfaces next.

Each new FDIC filing cycle re-scores Iowa, so the state position tracks live balance sheets rather than an old snapshot.

Every county in the country gets the same FDIC-derived score, wired to real foreclosure and ownership records. So in Iowa you can move on distressed supply before the market catches up — every figure traces to a public federal source.