There are plenty of reasons we love Des Moines. The big city options with the small city feel, the friendly people, the Iowa State Fair or even the great location; 4 hours from Minneapolis and Kansas City, 2 hours from Omaha and 6 hours from Chicago and St. Louis.

But we aren’t the only ones who love Des Moines. Check out these recent “top lists” that Des Moines has made.

Kiplinger’s 10 Best Cities for the next Decade

Kiplinger looked at a few basic factors when determining their top 10 list including; cities that specialized in “out of box” thinking, cities with smart people and cities with great ideas.
Kiplinger also notes that what makes the places on their list so amazing is that these cities aren’t only great places to start a business, but a great place to live as well.
To see what they had to say about Des Moines, check out their full list.

Yahoo Real Estates Best City to Raise a Family

The yahoo article gives kudos to Des Moines’ friendly people, above average high school graduation rate, short commute and affordable lifestyle. To see what else they had to say, check out their list .

Portfolio.com’s Top 10 mid-size Cities

Bizjournal’s online magazine portfolio.com looked at 109 markets with populations of between 250,000 and 750,000 and decided on 10 cities that offered the best quality of life. They note the recent growth Des Moines and our relatively low poverty rate. Check out the rest of their article.

These aren’t the only lists Iowa cities have recently made; Ames, Iowa City and Des Moines all made CNNmoney.com ‘s Best Cities to live .And the Iowa State Fair is constantly ranked in national lists as a “summer must do”.

So next time you hear someone bragging about Iowa and you think they’re biased, remember these lists prove you don’t have to take just our word for it.

Forbes.com once again recognized Des Moines, Iowa as a great place to do business or have a career job. After being ranked #7 last year Des Moines crept up the charts to take the #1 spot! One might argue that Des Moines is just flat out a great place to live!

@dsmhomes

From the outside you might think that Iowa lacks one major cultural cornerstone: A professional sports team. From the inside you quickly realize that Iowa has a ton to offer to the sports fanatic.
NCAA FOOTBALL: It’s 6am and you have the grill going, face-paint on and you’re surrounded by thousands of football fans from across the state and country. Whether you are in Iowa City, Ames or Cedar Falls you can expect a great day of football. The Hawkeyes took a team to the BCS Orange Bowl in the 2009/10 season and upset the favored Yellow Jackets of Georgia Tech. During the same year, the Iowa State Cyclones won on the road at Nebraska for the first time in over 30 years!
NCAA BASKETBALL: One of the greatest games ever played in March Madness history involved an Iowa team and the #1 ranked team in country. The UNI Panthers posted a HUGE upset over the top seeded Kansas Jayhawks in a thriller that went down to the wire. Expect to see the highlight video of the 3-point shot by Ali Farokhmanesh played for years to come.
SEMI-PRO TEAMS: The lovable Chicago Cubs house their farm team, the AAA Iowa Cubs, at Principal Park in downtown Des Moines. The new skipper, Ryne Sandberg is sure to draw a crowd and visitors can expect to see some of their favorite MLB players on rehab assignments along with the top prospects at every game. In addition to the baseball scene Iowa plays home to the NBA farm team for the Chicago Bulls, the Iowa Energy, at Wells Fargo arena. And let’s not forget the Iowa Barnstormers where future Hall of Fame Quarterback, Kurt Warner, got his start.
So we may not have a pro team housed in the state, but like our last post pointed out there is no shortage of stars coming out of Iowa.
@dsmhomes