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Neighborhood · Ranked #67,219 of 84,120 nationally

Waterbury Eviction Risk: Lower , Des Moines

Tract 19153003002 · Polk County, IA · pop 3,888 · neighborhood within 0.2 mi

Census tract 19153003002 covers part of the Waterbury area of Des Moines, IA, and scores 3/10 on landlord eviction risk. Population here is 3,888. 22% of renter households cross the 30%-of-income line, well under the Polk County average of 42.0%.

Risk score
3
Lower
Confidence 100% · 1–10 scale
Household mix · 100 hh
Burdened renters 2% Stable renters 9% Owners 89%
Tract context
Occupied units1,668
Renter share11.1%
SVI overall0.05
Poverty rate2.0%
Median income$153,750

Percentile rank

Higher percentile = riskier than more peers.
Within neighborhood
50 th percentile
Rank, 50th percentileLowHigh
#1 of 1 tracts In Waterbury
Moderate
Within parent city
7 th percentile
Rank, 7th percentileLowHigh
#56 of 60 tracts In Des Moines
Very Low
Within county
30 th percentile
Rank, 30th percentileLowHigh
#79 of 112 tracts In Polk County
Low
Within state
34 th percentile
Rank, 34th percentileLowHigh
#590 of 896 tracts In Iowa
Low
Geographic context

Risk heat across Des Moines and the region

Centroid at 41.5881, -93.6909 · click any tract to drill in

Why Waterbury scores 3

9 axes · 1 = landlord-friendly
Local political climate
Inherited from Des Moines
4.5
Regional political climate
2024 county presidential margin
5.8
State political climate
Iowa legislature & governorship
2.3
Economic stress
2.0% poverty · this tract
1.0
Supply constraint
$940 rent vs county FMR
2.7
Rent control risk
Inherited from Des Moines
1.0
Eviction process difficulty
State law sets the calendar
2.5
Tenant organizing strength
Inherited from Des Moines
3.0
Housing court bias
Inherited from Des Moines
2.5

How Waterbury compares

Risk score vs. parent city, county, state.
Waterbury risk score vs. parent city / county / state3.0This tracttract 0030023.4Des Moinesparent city3.8Countyavg tract in county3.7Stateavg tract in state
CDC Social Vulnerability Index

SVI percentile: 5

CDC/ATSDR 2022. Higher = more vulnerable. National percentile across 84k tracts.

Historical context · 1930s redlining

HOLC grade: A: Best

This tract sits within an area graded by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation in the 1930s. Grade A meant wealthy, predominantly white neighborhoods favored for lending. These designations suppressed minority homeownership for generations and remain a documented predictor of present-day eviction filings and rent burden.

Source: Mapping Inequality (americanpanorama.org), 1935-1940 HOLC residential security maps, aggregated to 2020 census tracts by area share. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Eviction filings

Court-record eviction history

Court-validated eviction filings collected from county clerks and consolidated by the Eviction Lab at Princeton University. Filing rate is filings per 100 renter households.1

Historic baseline (2000–2018)

  • 148Total filings over 10 yrs
  • 5.45%Avg annual filing rate
  • 8.2%Peak (2006)
  • 14Filings in 2015 (latest validated)
Filings by year 2006 to 2015
Year-by-year eviction filings in tract 19153003002
Filings dropped 36% over the past 10 months.
CDC PLACES 2023 · health & economic stress

Eviction-adjacent indicators

Crude prevalence of conditions linked to housing loss. Source: CDC PLACES (cwsq-ngmh), 2023 model-based small-area estimates.

Analysis

What drives eviction risk in Waterbury

The clearest offset is rent-regulation exposure at 1/10. Well under the midpoint, economic stress reads 1/10. Sitting well above the midpoint, court filing pressure reads 8.2/10.

Housing insecurity runs 4.8% against 14.2% nationally. Court records carry 148 eviction filings across 10 observed years. It sits 0.8 points below the Polk County average of 3.8.

At $940 a month, rents run 14% under what the rest of Des Moines commands. Inability to pay a utility bill runs 3.4% against 9.2% nationally. Utility arrears usually lead rent arrears by a month or two.

Filings peaked in 2006 at 8.2% of renter households. In the 1930s the federal Home Owners' Loan Corporation graded this ground A ("Best"). Redlining cut off mortgage credit to whole blocks for decades, and the areas graded D still carry measurably lower ownership and higher rent burden today. In a typical year about 5.5% of renter households face a filing.

That is riskier than roughly 20% of the 84,120 US census tracts in this model. At 11% renter-occupied this is predominantly owner territory, and comps have to be drawn from further out. Social vulnerability reads 1.4/10 on the CDC index, a measure of exposure to housing and economic shocks.

Tract-level figures come from the ACS 5-year release and are rebuilt whenever that, the court-record feed, or the statutory ledger behind the score changes.

Frequently asked

About tract 19153003002

Q1

What is the eviction-risk score for census tract 19153003002?

Census tract 19153003002 in the Waterbury neighborhood scores 3/10 (Lower tier). The Eviction Risk Score blends state law, county filing rates, parent-city politics, and tract-specific rent-to-income ratios + poverty signals.
Q2

What is the average rent in tract 19153003002?

Median gross rent is $940/month (ACS 5-year 2023, table B25064). 22% of renter households are cost-burdened.
Q3

What is the poverty rate in tract 19153003002?

2.0% of residents in tract 19153003002 live below the federal poverty line (ACS B17001, 2023). Population: 3,888.
Q4

How socially vulnerable is tract 19153003002?

CDC Social Vulnerability Index ranks this tract in the 5th percentile nationally. Sub-themes: socioeconomic 1th, household 14th, minority 24th, housing 27th.
Q5

Is tract 19153003002 considered part of Waterbury?

Yes. Per Census Bureau 2020 Block Assignment Files, the plurality of blocks in tract 19153003002 fall within Waterbury (neighborhood centroid within 0.2 miles, OSM data).
Q6

How many evictions are filed each year in tract 19153003002?

Princeton Eviction Lab recorded 148 eviction filings across 10 validated years in tract 19153003002 (2000-2018). The average annual filing rate is 5.45% of renter households, peaking at 8.2% in 2006. Source: Eviction Lab tract-validated 2024 release.
Q7

What share of households in tract 19153003002 struggle to pay rent?

About 4.8% of adults in this tract reported housing insecurity (could not pay rent or mortgage in the past 12 months), per the CDC PLACES 2023 model-based small-area estimate. 3.4% also reported utility shutoff threats, a frequent precursor to eviction filings.
Q8

How does tract 19153003002 compare to Des Moines overall?

Tract 19153003002 scores 3/10, lower than the parent city of Des Moines at 3.4/10. City-scale signals (state law, local rent controls, court bias) are inherited from Des Moines eviction risk; what makes this tract different are its tract-specific economic stress and supply-constraint sub-scores.
Q9

Was tract 19153003002 historically redlined?

Yes. This tract sits inside an area graded by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation in the 1930s, with a dominant grade of A. 0% of the tract's area was rated D ("Hazardous"), the redlined tier. HOLC redlining systematically denied mortgage credit to Black, immigrant, and working-class neighborhoods and remains a documented predictor of present-day eviction filings, rent burden, and homeownership gaps. Source: Mapping Inequality (americanpanorama.org), Robert K. Nelson et al.
Sibling tracts

Highest-risk tracts in Des Moines

Top eight tracts in Des Moines ranked by composite eviction-risk score.

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