2025 Compare Cities Cost of Living:
Ottumwa, IA vs Council Bluffs, IA

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Highlights
Is it cheaper to live in Council Bluffs or is it cheaper to live in Ottumwa?
- Council Bluffs is 16.5% more expensive than Ottumwa.

Which city has more affordable housing, Council Bluffs or Ottumwa?
- Council Bluffs housing costs are 117.7% more expensive than Ottumwa housing costs.

Is Health Care more affordable in Ottumwa or is Health Care more affordable in Council Bluffs.
- Health related expenses are 10.6% less in Council Bluffs.
 Ottumwa, IACouncil Bluffs, IAUnited States
 Overall  Unlock82.8100
 Food & Groceries91.7  Unlock100
 Health  Unlock106.6100
 Housing24.8  Unlock100
 Median Home Cost  Unlock$190,300$338,100
 Utilities101  Unlock100
 Transportation  Unlock82.4100
 Miscellaneous85.3  Unlock100
100 = National Average (Below 100 means cheaper than the US average. Above 100 means more expensive.)
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Reviews for Ottumwa    5 Reviews

Over 12 years ago

Ottumwa has a seemingly high rate of theft-related crimes as well as drug use which I'm sure correlates to the incidences of assault. For a community of 20-30,000, the  More

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Over 16 years ago

ottumwa, Iowa has no diverse culture. It is not very open especially when it comes to branching out to new ideas of others culture...The idea of culture here is the pro  More

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Over 17 years ago

Pros: 1. Extremely low cost of living and housing 2. Affordable place to live Cons: 1. High crime rate 2. Very poor school system 3. Economically depressed 4.  More

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Reviews for Council Bluffs    4 Reviews

It's an okay city. Nothing special really. All the fun things to do and good restaurants are across the river in Omaha. I will say CB has some pretty good recreational  More

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Over 9 years ago

Quietly over the years this community has taken untold amounts of riverfront casino tax dollars and converted them into hundreds and hundreds of community improvement  More

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Over 15 years ago

here in council bluffs iowa, we have low crime rate. There have been an increase in shopping areas in the last 2 years and lots of new resturants and three casinos. It  More

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