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Neighborhood · Ranked #54,273 of 84,120 nationally

Commerce Eviction Risk: Lower , West Des Moines

Tract 19153011028 · Polk County, IA · pop 5,163 · neighborhood within 1.5 mi

With a score of 3.7/10, tract 19153011028 in the Commerce area of West Des Moines, IA reads lower for landlord eviction risk. The dominant input is tenant-organizing strength at 8.5/10.

Risk score
3.7
Lower
Confidence 100% · 1–10 scale
Household mix · 100 hh
Burdened renters 16% Stable renters 24% Owners 60%
Tract context
Occupied units2,287
Renter share39.9%
SVI overall0.63
Poverty rate6.3%
Median income$81,385

Percentile rank

Higher percentile = riskier than more peers.
Within neighborhood
100 th percentile
Rank, 100th percentileLowHigh
#1 of 3 tracts In Commerce
Very High
Within parent city
33 th percentile
Rank, 33rd percentileLowHigh
#11 of 16 tracts In West Des Moines
Low
Within county
53 th percentile
Rank, 53rd percentileLowHigh
#53 of 112 tracts In Polk County
Moderate
Within state
59 th percentile
Rank, 59th percentileLowHigh
#365 of 896 tracts In Iowa
Elevated
Geographic context

Risk heat across West Des Moines and the region

Centroid at 41.5318, -93.7384 · click any tract to drill in

Why Commerce scores 3.7

9 axes · 1 = landlord-friendly
Local political climate
Inherited from West Des Moines
6.2
Regional political climate
2024 county presidential margin
5.8
State political climate
Iowa legislature & governorship
2.3
Economic stress
6.3% poverty · this tract
1.6
Supply constraint
$1,031 rent vs county FMR
3.5
Rent control risk
Inherited from West Des Moines
4.3
Eviction process difficulty
State law sets the calendar
2.0
Tenant organizing strength
Inherited from West Des Moines
8.5
Housing court bias
Inherited from West Des Moines
4.2

How Commerce compares

Risk score vs. parent city, county, state.
Commerce risk score vs. parent city / county / state3.7This tracttract 0110284.0West Des Moinesparent city3.8Countyavg tract in county3.7Stateavg tract in state
CDC Social Vulnerability Index

SVI percentile: 63

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

Historical context · 1930s redlining

HOLC grade: C: Definitely Declining

This tract sits within an area graded by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation in the 1930s. Grade C meant mixed-race / working-class neighborhoods rated as risky. 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)

  • 382Total filings over 10 yrs
  • 5.00%Avg annual filing rate
  • 10.0%Peak (2011)
  • 27Filings in 2015 (latest validated)
Filings by year 2006 to 2015
Year-by-year eviction filings in tract 19153011028
Filings dropped 43% over the past 10 months.
Comparable tracts

Census tracts with similar eviction risk

Within Commerce. Closest by Eviction Risk Score.

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 Commerce

Running cool, economic stress reads 1.6/10. 19% are severely burdened past the 50% mark. That cohort absorbs no shock: one repair bill or one cut shift converts straight into arrears. On the high side, court filing pressure reads 8.2/10.

At $1,031 a month, rents run 17% under what the rest of West Des Moines commands. Food insecurity runs 9.0% against 17.8% nationally.

The filing record is not thin: 382 evictions over 10 years of observation. SNAP participation runs 6.9% against 15.2% nationally. Filings peaked in 2011 at 10.0% of renter households.

This ground was mapped C ("Definitely Declining") on the 1930s HOLC security maps for Des Moines. That grading determined who could get a mortgage, and its imprint on tenure and rent burden is still visible in the ACS data above. In a typical year about 5.0% of renter households face a filing.

That is riskier than roughly 35% of the 84,120 US census tracts in this model. On the CDC Social Vulnerability Index the tract reads 6.7/10, which tracks how hard a shock lands on the households already here. Against average income of $81,385, annual rent is just 15%.

All figures here are ACS 5-year estimates for this tract, refreshed as the underlying releases land.

Frequently asked

About tract 19153011028

Q1

What is the eviction-risk score for census tract 19153011028?

Census tract 19153011028 in the Commerce neighborhood scores 3.7/10 (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 19153011028?

Median gross rent is $1,031/month (ACS 5-year 2023, table B25064). 40% of renter households are cost-burdened.
Q3

What is the poverty rate in tract 19153011028?

6.3% of residents in tract 19153011028 live below the federal poverty line (ACS B17001, 2023). Population: 5,163.
Q4

How socially vulnerable is tract 19153011028?

CDC Social Vulnerability Index ranks this tract in the 63th percentile nationally. Sub-themes: socioeconomic 57th, household 73th, minority 32th, housing 64th.
Q5

Is tract 19153011028 considered part of Commerce?

Yes. Per Census Bureau 2020 Block Assignment Files, the plurality of blocks in tract 19153011028 fall within Commerce (neighborhood centroid within 1.5 miles, OSM data).
Q6

How many evictions are filed each year in tract 19153011028?

Princeton Eviction Lab recorded 382 eviction filings across 10 validated years in tract 19153011028 (2000-2018). The average annual filing rate is 5.00% of renter households, peaking at 10.0% in 2011. Source: Eviction Lab tract-validated 2024 release.
Q7

What share of households in tract 19153011028 struggle to pay rent?

About 7.9% 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. 5.1% also reported utility shutoff threats, a frequent precursor to eviction filings.
Q8

How does tract 19153011028 compare to West Des Moines overall?

Tract 19153011028 scores 3.7/10, lower than the parent city of West Des Moines at 4/10. City-scale signals (state law, local rent controls, court bias) are inherited from West Des Moines eviction risk; what makes this tract different are its tract-specific economic stress and supply-constraint sub-scores.
Q9

Was tract 19153011028 historically redlined?

Yes. This tract sits inside an area graded by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation in the 1930s, with a dominant grade of C. 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 West Des Moines

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

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