Does anyone live in Des Moines?
or west des moines? (is that the two options? des moines and west des moines?)
Is it an expensive place to live? shop? taxes?
Do you like it?
I live in the Des Moines area (suburb of West Des Moines ~20 minutes from downtown Des Moines).
Des Moines and West Des Moines are 2 different, large cities, in the same general area. You can live in Des Moines, or West Des Moines, or any of the number of suburbs, and both Des Moines and West Des Moines have suburbs of their own (DM's include Altoona, WDM, and Ankeny; WDM's suburbs include Waukee, Grimes, Johnston, Urbandale, Clive, and a few others). Personally, if I was moving here, I would pick a suburb of West Des Moines over DM or WDM themselves.
To the PP who mentioned Hy-Vee-- aw, thanks! I've worked for Hy-Vee nearly six years now (all through high school and now college; I work at one of the WDM stores), and my parents have worked for different Hy-Vees the last 20+ years. Yes, I'd say we're the best grocery store chain ever, but I'm a little biased. Our store is relatively inexpensive, and we have a fairly low cost of living as a state.
It's not a particularly expensive place to live, especially coming from a larger city on either coast. Our taxes aren't the lowest, and we do have a statewide bottle deposit charge, which tends to surprise people visiting here. Jordan Creek Mall gets a lot of love, and it is a great mall, and we have two more major malls in the WDM area alone. None of them are too expensive.
Our suburbs are great for family life, and for single life too, and our downtown area is nice. Without knowing you well, I can say you'll probably find something to do here. We have a nice amusement park--Adventureland, which is in Altoona, which is another suburb of Des Moines--that's open from May-ish depending on snow till September-ish depending on cold.
Our seasons get a lot of flack, and that's because they're entirely made up. This year our winter went from around October till early May. That was after one of the hottest summers on record. Last month at this time it was freezing (a month and a week ago it was snowing) and today it hit 92. Last year we got almost no snow all winter and then one of the hottest summers recorded here. Next year I'm sure the weather will be just as unpredictable. That's just the way it is in Iowa. We get used to it.
We have an awesome state fair in August (butter cows!) that even had a musical made out of it. It's a pretty big deal here, and it happens in Des Moines every year.
If you have kids in school, or teach, or just like the thought of good schools, the Des Moines area has plenty of them. If you have kids in school, I'd recommend living in one of the suburbs of West Des Moines (Urbandale, Johnston, Waukee are all bigger suburbs with good school systems). I graduated from a West Des Moines suburb-school district, and I loved my school. If you move to West Des Moines, you'll end up in their public school district (Valley is the high school), and that's a good school too, but big. The Des Moines schools aren't bad either. There are also a number of rural-esque schools in the same area (Dallas Center-Grimes, Adel, Van Meter), if you're looking for smaller class sizes and smaller schools.
Football, both high school and college, is a really, really big deal here. If you're moving here, do a little research and pick a college football team before you get here. And stick with them. Your options are Iowa State, or Iowa State (okay, Iowa's an option too). They play each other every year around September, and it's a really big deal to us. We put team decals and license plates on our cars, flags in our yard, pretty much anything you'd see for a pro team, only for our college teams. Iowa State is actually within driving distance of Des Moines (~45 minutes depending on how liberally you interpret speed limits), which makes them a good pick just for ease of going to games (University of Iowa is in Iowa City, which is about two hours from Des Moines). You'll also want to follow your high school team's football, regardless of whether or not you have a child in school, and probably follow their rival's team as well. It will come up eventually, living here
Besides the sports thing, and the weather, I'd forget any other stereotypes you know about Iowa. It's really not all about watching corn grow, and tipping cows, although those are both perfectly valid activities in the rural areas. We also have great libraries, arts and culture, theatre and music. One of the suburbs (Waukee) has a nationally-recognized high school music program. We don't all drive trucks, but there are plenty of trucks for driving if that's what you're into, and while there are plenty of farms, we don't all live on one. It's a really great place to live, with genuinely nice people who care deeply about each other.
As far as whether or not I like living in the Des Moines area: I've lived here pretty much all the years I can remember, and honestly I don't necessarily want to live anywhere else, unless the Magic Kingdom suddenly becomes vacant. I'm hoping for a student teaching school in the Des Moines area, and as long as I can get a good teaching job here this is where I want to stay. I would take a lower-paying job here over a higher-paying job somewhere else, within reason. I really love living here, and I think it's the best place to live.
If you have any questions on where particularly I think is the best place to live in Iowa (hint: it's the suburb I live in now), or anything more personal about my area, feel free to PM me! I love talking about my home!
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Hy-Vee! One of the things I miss most about moving here from Missouri. I need to go visit one next weekend when I'm home.
