Buffalo Center vs Forest City

A side-by-side comparison of Buffalo Center and Forest City: population, income, housing, and more.

Buffalo Center and Forest City are places in Iowa. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Forest City has the higher population (4,280 vs 1,000 in Buffalo Center). Forest City has the higher median household income ($62,917 vs $49,474 in Buffalo Center). Forest City has the higher median home value ($136,400 vs $93,800 in Buffalo Center).

Population, income & housing

	Buffalo Center	Forest City
Population	1,000	4,280
Median age	58.2 yrs	32.0 yrs
Median household income	$49,474	$62,917
Median home value	$93,800	$136,400
Median gross rent	$646	$719
Housing units	584	1,780
Homeownership rate	72.2%	72.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	26.1%	26.0%
Unemployment rate	9.2%	2.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Buffalo Center	Forest City
Population	901 → 1,000 (+11.0%)	3,928 → 4,280 (+9.0%)
Median household income	$44,655 → $49,474 (+10.8%)	$49,022 → $62,917 (+28.3%)
Median home value	$64,200 → $93,800 (+46.1%)	$95,300 → $136,400 (+43.1%)
Median gross rent	$629 → $646 (+2.7%)	$579 → $719 (+24.2%)

Buffalo Center

Population

9011,000

Median household income

$44,655$49,474

Median home value

$64,200$93,800

Median gross rent

$629$646

Forest City

Population

3,9284,280

Median household income

$49,022$62,917

Median home value

$95,300$136,400

Median gross rent

$579$719

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Buffalo Center	Forest City
Under 5	2.5%	5.1%
5 to 17	11.9%	19.4%
18 to 24	7.3%	17.3%
25 to 34	4.9%	10.7%
35 to 44	6.7%	16.5%
45 to 54	12.7%	7.4%
55 to 64	21.7%	8.5%
65 to 74	17.8%	10.0%
75 and over	14.5%	5.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Buffalo Center	Forest City
White (non-Hispanic)	94.3%	86.4%
Black or African American	0.0%	1.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	1.1%	7.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.4%
Two or more races	1.4%	0.9%
Hispanic or Latino	3.2%	3.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Buffalo Center	Forest City
No high school diploma	2.8%	6.7%
High school graduate	41.6%	25.3%
Some college or associate's	29.5%	42.0%
Bachelor's degree	22.3%	15.7%
Graduate or professional degree	3.7%	10.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Buffalo Center	Forest City
Drove alone	65.6%	78.7%
Carpooled	6.6%	9.6%
Public transit	0.0%	0.1%
Walked	25.6%	3.7%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	2.1%	6.0%
Other means	0.0%	2.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Buffalo Center	Forest City
1-unit, detached	83.0%	74.0%
1-unit, attached	0.3%	1.5%
2 to 4 units	12.2%	8.7%
5 to 19 units	4.5%	6.3%
20 or more units	0.0%	4.3%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	5.3%

Poverty & households

	Buffalo Center	Forest City
Poverty rate	8.3%	9.4%
Average household size	1.92	2.41
Mean commute (minutes)	19	13
Median year structure built	1957	1968