Larchwood vs Lester

A side-by-side comparison of Larchwood and Lester: population, income, housing, and more.

Larchwood and Lester are places in Iowa. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Larchwood has the higher population (1,076 vs 308 in Lester). Lester has the higher median household income ($91,875 vs $69,327 in Larchwood). Larchwood has the higher median home value ($189,700 vs $185,200 in Lester).

Population, income & housing

	Larchwood	Lester
Population	1,076	308
Median age	34.3 yrs	38.9 yrs
Median household income	$69,327	$91,875
Median home value	$189,700	$185,200
Median gross rent	$854	—
Housing units	424	125
Homeownership rate	79.9%	97.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher	25.4%	20.2%
Unemployment rate	1.6%	0.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Larchwood	Lester
Population	1,027 → 1,076 (+4.8%)	278 → 308 (+10.8%)
Median household income	$50,481 → $69,327 (+37.3%)	$68,750 → $91,875 (+33.6%)
Median home value	$148,800 → $189,700 (+27.5%)	$141,700 → $185,200 (+30.7%)
Median gross rent	$723 → $854 (+18.1%)	—

Larchwood

Population

1,0271,076

Median household income

$50,481$69,327

Median home value

$148,800$189,700

Median gross rent

$723$854

Lester

Population

278308

Median household income

$68,750$91,875

Median home value

$141,700$185,200

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Larchwood	Lester
Under 5	3.6%	6.8%
5 to 17	23.1%	16.9%
18 to 24	13.9%	5.5%
25 to 34	11.7%	8.8%
35 to 44	13.5%	20.5%
45 to 54	13.5%	4.2%
55 to 64	5.6%	14.3%
65 to 74	7.5%	12.0%
75 and over	7.5%	11.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Larchwood	Lester
White (non-Hispanic)	92.1%	87.0%
Black or African American	0.5%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.8%	1.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.1%	0.0%
Two or more races	1.8%	1.3%
Hispanic or Latino	4.7%	10.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Larchwood	Lester
No high school diploma	6.3%	5.0%
High school graduate	34.8%	47.2%
Some college or associate's	33.5%	27.5%
Bachelor's degree	17.2%	16.1%
Graduate or professional degree	8.2%	4.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Larchwood	Lester
Drove alone	78.8%	70.5%
Carpooled	13.7%	18.2%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	1.3%	6.3%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	5.6%	3.4%
Other means	0.6%	1.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Larchwood	Lester
1-unit, detached	84.9%	92.0%
1-unit, attached	1.2%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	6.8%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	4.7%	8.0%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	2.4%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Larchwood	Lester
Poverty rate	6.6%	2.3%
Average household size	2.74	2.96
Mean commute (minutes)	27	18
Median year structure built	1970	1975