What a Johnston home sells for. What you keep.
The median Johnston sale in the last twelve months was $386,000, down 1% on the year before; half of everything sold between $287,000 and $493,125. June was the busiest month. Start from the county’s number for your street, then subtract what selling costs — one line at a time.
The market you’d be selling into.
Source: Polk County Assessor, recorded residential sales, twelve months to 2026-07-23 — arm’s-length sales between $100,000 and $2,000,000 of homes between 800 and 6,000 square feet. Reloaded weekly from the assessor’s public bulk exports. School districts in the sample: Johnston (324).
Live via FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, and the Polk County Assessor’s recorded sales · refreshed every six hours
- Sale price
- $386,000
- Commission5% — negotiable, both sides
- −$19,300
- Buyer concessions1% — closing help the buyer asks for
- −$3,860
- Title, abstract, attorney, recordingabout 1%
- −$3,860
- Iowa revenue stamps$1.60 per $1,000, seller pays
- −$617
- Repairs before listing
- −$4,500
- Staging and photography
- −$900
- Carrying cost while listed2 months at $1,950
- −$3,900
- Mortgage payoff
- −$224,000
$125,063 walks out the door with you. Selling costs $36,937, 9.6% of the price — high, mostly from repairs and carry. Every month on the market is $1,950; pricing right the first week is worth more than any staging.
If the metro's last year repeated — prices up 2.3% — waiting twelve months and paying twelve more months of carry would net roughly $14,522 less. That is what the last year did, carried forward.
Three things worth fixing. Three things that only feel like they are.
- Roof, furnace, water in the basement
The inspection finds these; the buyer prices them at double. Fix or disclose with a quote in hand.
- Paint, light, the front door
The cheapest thousand dollars in the process. Neutral walls photograph; a dark hallway doesn't.
- The price, in week one
Metro homes priced right sell in weeks. Priced high, they sit, and every month costs you the carry line above.
- A kitchen remodel
You'll spend $40,000 to move the price $25,000. The buyer wanted a different kitchen anyway.
- Finishing the basement
Same arithmetic. Clean, dry and bright beats half-finished.
- Waiting for the market
Last year's trend is a trend. Twelve months of carry is a certainty.
A ledger is only as honest as its footnotes.
- Price
- Yours to set. With an address, the county's assessed value and last sale anchor it.
- Commission
- Set at the metro's common ask; it has been negotiable since 2024 and the slider says so.
- Revenue stamps
- Iowa's real estate transfer tax, $1.60 per $1,000 above the first $500, paid by the seller. Computed exactly.
- Concessions
- Closing help buyers in the metro have been asking for this year, as a share of price.
- Trend
- FHFA's house-price index for Des Moines–West Des Moines, year over year, quarterly — shown as a trend, never a forecast.
- Parcel
- Assessed value, year built, lot size and last recorded sale from the Polk County Assessor.
One agent. Your ledger first.
One who works your part of the metro and sees your numbers before the first conversation, so it starts with the price.