Verified town profile

Harlan, Iowa

Incorporated municipality · Population 4,859

Harlan is an incorporated municipality of 4,859 residents in Iowa. Its nearest regional center is Council Bluffs, IA, about 60 minutes away by car. The median home value is $152,500.

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Townsteading score: 76.7
Confidence: High data confidence
Data updated: Jul 26, 2026

Included in the verified public directory after passing every published screening rule. How verification works.

At a glance

Population: 4,859
Median home value: $152,500
Median household income: $57,488
Nearest regional city: Council Bluffs
Drive time: 60 minutes
Walkability score: 53.4
Homeownership rate: 72%
Townsteading score: 76.7

The case

Why Harlan is included

Harlan appears in the public directory because it passes every published screening rule: its population of 4,859 falls within the 1,000–5,000 resident screening band; its nearest regional center, Council Bluffs, is reachable in about 60 minutes by car, inside the 60-minute limit; its town-center walkability analysis completed successfully.

Beyond the screen: its median home value of $152,500 is about 2.7 times median household income; its nationally normalized walkability score is 53 out of 100; OpenStreetMap data records 16 tracked everyday destinations within a 15-minute walk of its center.

The place

Local map

Map key

Civic destination
Library
Park
Place of worship
Post office

About this map

The map is centered on Harlan (41.6495, -95.3268) and shows the municipal boundary from 2025 Census TIGER/Line data. Basemap data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Reachable destinations shown on the map

First Christian Church Place of worship · Approximate network distance: 200 m
Bethel Baptist Church Place of worship · Approximate network distance: 180 m
Church of Christ Place of worship · Approximate network distance: 100 m
First United Methodist Church Place of worship · Approximate network distance: 202 m
New Testament Baptist Church Place of worship · Approximate network distance: 1090 m
Community of Christ Place of worship · Approximate network distance: 0 m
Saint Pauls Episcopal Church Place of worship · Approximate network distance: 148 m
Harlan Post Office Post office · Approximate network distance: 285 m
Shelby County Courthouse Civic destination · Approximate network distance: 385 m
Harlan Community Library Library · Approximate network distance: 259 m
Harlan City Hall Civic destination · Approximate network distance: 106 m
Park Park · Approximate network distance: 828 m
JayCee Park Park · Approximate network distance: 928 m
North Park Park · Approximate network distance: 1096 m
JJ Jensen Park Park · Approximate network distance: 1091 m
Potters Park Park · Approximate network distance: 1107 m

Destinations are derived from OpenStreetMap and may be incomplete or outdated.

Daily-life access within a 15-minute walk of the center

1 library
1 post office
5 parks and playgrounds
2 civic buildings
7 places of worship

Destination counts come from OpenStreetMap and may understate what exists on the ground.

Housing

Housing and affordability

Median home value: $152,500
Median gross rent: $783
Median household income: $57,488
Home value ÷ income: 2.7
Poverty rate: 9.1%

Owner-occupied: 72.3%
Vacancy rate: 9.5%
Homes built before 1940: 37.9%
Homes built before 1960: 50.7%
Population density (per sq mi): 1,099

American Community Survey 5-year estimates, reference period 2020–2024. Where a value reads “Data unavailable,” the estimate was not reported or did not pass quality checks for this place.

Access

Regional access

Townsteading does not require isolation. Every verified town has a modeled driving route of no more than 60 minutes to a regional center — a city with the hospitals, suppliers, and services a small town leans on.

Nearest regional city: Council Bluffs, IA
Regional city population: 62,680
Modeled drive time: 60 minutes
Routed distance: 49.0 miles
Straight-line distance: 39.4 miles

Drive times are modeled with OSRM over the OpenStreetMap road network (July 2026). They are not live traffic estimates and will vary with conditions.

Community

Closest Orthodox parish

St. John The Baptist Church

Modeled drive time: Approximately 66 minutes by car
Routed distance: 55.4 driving miles
Address: 602 Park Avenue Omaha, NE 68105
Jurisdiction: Greek
Phone: 402-345-7103

Parish website

Parish information is based on the Orthodoxy in America directory, retrieved July 27, 2026. Drive time is modeled from the current OSRM route calculation and may change.

Form

Walkability and settlement form

Overall walkability: 53.4
Destination access: 44.7
Network connectivity: 72.2
Compactness: 46.4

The walkability score models what can be reached on foot from the town center over the street network in about 15 minutes: everyday destinations, the connectedness of the street grid, and the compactness of the town's form. Scores are normalized nationally across the candidate corpus, from 0 to 100.

These are modeled measures of urban form derived from OpenStreetMap. They do not confirm sidewalk coverage, crossings, lighting, or pedestrian safety, and OpenStreetMap data may be incomplete in small towns.

People

People and households

Median age: 44.6
Average household size: 2.4
Average family size: 3.1
Mean commute: 12 minutes

Age

Under 18: 21.9%
18–24: 9.7%
25–44: 18.9%
45–64: 25.6%
65 and over: 23.9%

Households

Family households: 61.0%
Nonfamily households: 39.0%
Households with children: 29.0%
Married-couple families: 86.3%
Single-parent families: 8.1%
One-person households: 37.9%

Education (25+)

Less than high school: 7.0%
High school diploma: 34.3%
Some college: 21.3%
Associate degree: 15.3%
Bachelor's degree: 13.5%
Graduate degree: 8.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher: 22.1%

“Bachelor's degree or higher” is a subtotal of the two degree rows above it.

Race and ethnicity

White: 90.5%
Black: 0.7%
American Indian / Alaska Native: 1.8%
Asian: 0.0%
Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander: 0.0%
Some other race: 3.6%
Two or more races: 3.5%

Ethnicity, reported separately

Hispanic or Latino (any race): 4.8%
White, not Hispanic or Latino: 90.5%

Hispanic or Latino may be of any race, so the ethnicity rows overlap with the race rows above and are reported separately.

American Community Survey estimates. Race and ethnicity are reported factually for research context and are never used as a compatibility or ranking factor.

Assessment

Strengths and limitations

Potential strengths

Median home value of $152,500 sits below the $200,000 affordability benchmark used in screening.
Housing costs about 2.7 times median household income — inside the 3× benchmark.
72% of occupied homes are owner-occupied.

Important limitations

Regional access requires a longer drive — about 60 minutes to Council Bluffs.
No grocery store is recorded within a 15-minute walk of the center in current OpenStreetMap data; coverage may be incomplete.
Walkability scores model street-network access to destinations; they do not confirm sidewalk coverage, crossings, or pedestrian safety.

Townsteading is a research tool, not a sales pitch. Nothing on this page is real-estate, financial, legal, safety, or relocation advice.

Provenance

Data and methodology

Townsteading score: 76.7 / 100
Confidence: High data confidence (96 / 100)
Profile data updated: July 26, 2026
Verification: Passes every published screening rule

Sources

U.S. Census Bureau Gazetteer Places. Vintage 2025 — identity, boundaries, coordinates.
U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates. Vintage 2025 — place population.
American Community Survey 5-year estimates. 2024 release, reference period 2020–2024 — housing, income, demographics.
OpenStreetMap. Street network and everyday destinations for walkability analysis.
OSRM routing. Modeled driving time to the nearest regional center; not live traffic.

Read the full methodology Report a correction

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