Mount Ayr vs Sun Valley Lake

A side-by-side comparison of Mount Ayr and Sun Valley Lake: population, income, housing, and more.

Mount Ayr and Sun Valley Lake are places in Iowa. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Mount Ayr has the higher population (1,739 vs 162 in Sun Valley Lake). Sun Valley Lake has the higher median household income ($127,188 vs $68,676 in Mount Ayr). Sun Valley Lake has the higher median home value ($485,300 vs $144,500 in Mount Ayr).

Population, income & housing

	Mount Ayr	Sun Valley Lake
Population	1,739	162
Median age	40.7 yrs	69.7 yrs
Median household income	$68,676	$127,188
Median home value	$144,500	$485,300
Median gross rent	$694	—
Housing units	821	552
Homeownership rate	69.5%	95.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	25.0%	67.1%
Unemployment rate	1.0%	0.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Mount Ayr	Sun Valley Lake
Population	2,056 → 1,739 (-15.4%)	220 → 162 (-26.4%)
Median household income	$49,181 → $68,676 (+39.6%)	$72,292 → $127,188 (+75.9%)
Median home value	$87,200 → $144,500 (+65.7%)	$353,500 → $485,300 (+37.3%)
Median gross rent	$636 → $694 (+9.1%)	—

Mount Ayr

Population

2,0561,739

Median household income

$49,181$68,676

Median home value

$87,200$144,500

Median gross rent

$636$694

Sun Valley Lake

Population

220162

Median household income

$72,292$127,188

Median home value

$353,500$485,300

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Mount Ayr	Sun Valley Lake
Under 5	7.5%	0.0%
5 to 17	18.4%	4.3%
18 to 24	8.2%	0.0%
25 to 34	8.5%	0.0%
35 to 44	12.8%	0.0%
45 to 54	8.2%	17.9%
55 to 64	12.2%	14.8%
65 to 74	12.2%	45.7%
75 and over	11.9%	17.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Mount Ayr	Sun Valley Lake
White (non-Hispanic)	96.3%	94.4%
Black or African American	0.5%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	0.7%	5.6%
Hispanic or Latino	2.5%	0.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Mount Ayr	Sun Valley Lake
No high school diploma	6.2%	2.6%
High school graduate	35.5%	2.6%
Some college or associate's	33.2%	27.7%
Bachelor's degree	16.9%	40.0%
Graduate or professional degree	8.1%	27.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Mount Ayr	Sun Valley Lake
Drove alone	78.3%	71.0%
Carpooled	8.7%	0.0%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	2.4%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	10.2%	29.0%
Other means	0.5%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Mount Ayr	Sun Valley Lake
1-unit, detached	82.6%	100.0%
1-unit, attached	1.3%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	5.1%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	4.8%	0.0%
20 or more units	1.8%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	4.4%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Mount Ayr	Sun Valley Lake
Poverty rate	7.5%	0.0%
Average household size	2.41	1.82
Mean commute (minutes)	22	35
Median year structure built	1962	1992