Polk County, IA: Foreclosures, Tax Liens & Distressed Properties

Polk County, Iowa sits inside DLRadar's nationwide distress index, built entirely from public records. 42 ZIP codes are tracked county-wide, averaging 31/100 distress. ZIP-level distress ranges from 33/100 at the top down to 17/100. Lender pressure in Polk County registers 53/100 — a moderate bank-stress headwind.

The peak-phase county posted home values that rose 2.1% over twelve months (phase confidence 15/100). This late in the run, broad sweeps stop paying leaving the wins in individual deals.

At +2.1% YoY and 15/100 confidence, selectivity rules and a county-wide sweep stays on the shelf. A mid-cycle 53/100 lender reading implies a blend the ZIP scores sort out.

The most-distressed ZIP codes in Polk County are 50007 (33/100), 50009 (33/100), 50021 (33/100), 50023 (33/100), 50032 (33/100), 50035 (33/100), each with its own full DLRadar report. Also scored across the county: 50073, 50131, 50226, 50265, 50309, 50310, 50311, 50312, 50313, 50314.

Demographically, the ZIPs DLRadar tracks across Polk County show a median age of 37.8, household income averaging about $90,034, above the national median, home values averaging roughly $285,618, below the US, a 9.3% poverty rate, an owner-occupied share of 76%, a 6.7% vacancy rate. Taken together, they frame the volume of pressured sellers and the exit liquidity behind them.

Net of it all, 31/100 over 42 ZIPs means Polk County rewards parcel-by-parcel work for a disciplined buyer. A DLRadar subscription opens every Polk County parcel: owner, address and APN, its own score, the lender behind it and an exit read.

Because Polk County, Iowa is scored on the identical public-record model used nationwide, even a quiet county is measured on one scale — letting you weigh Polk County against neighboring markets or the rest of Iowa on equal footing.

Polk County, Iowa is best worked from the top of the score down; blanket outreach across Polk County dilutes effort that the ZIP-level numbers would have focused. The Polk County scoring is reproducible from public sources alone, and DLRadar declines to estimate where the underlying record is incomplete.

At the ZIP level, the sharpest readings in Polk County are 50007 (33/100), 50009 (33/100), 50021 (33/100), 50023 (33/100), 50032 (33/100), 50035 (33/100). DLRadar also scores 50073, 50131, 50226, 50265, 50309, 50310, 50311, 50312 and more across the county. Each code carries its own composite built from that ZIP's foreclosure, mortgage, tax-lien and lender signals, so two neighboring ZIPs can diverge sharply even inside one county.

The Polk County score is not a single measure but a composite: foreclosure activity, mortgage and tax-lien stress, and local lender headwind each feed it, which is why understanding the components matters as much as the headline number.