Census-designated place Sun Valley Lake is a census-designated place in Iowa, in Ringgold County. A census-designated place is an unincorporated community that the Census Bureau defines for statistics; it has no city government of its own.
The median owner-occupied home in Sun Valley Lake had a real-estate tax bill of $6,098 (± $882) a year, compared with $2,795 in Iowa and $2,969 nationwide. The median home value was $485,300 (± $110,336), compared with $195,900 in Iowa and $303,400 nationwide.
| Measure | Sun Valley Lake | Iowa | United States |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 162 ± 49 | 3,195,937 | 332,387,540 |
| Median annual property tax bill (homeowners) | $6,098 ± $882 | $2,795 ± $14 | $2,969 ± $3 |
| Median home value | $485,300 ± $110,336 | $195,900 ± $929 | $303,400 ± $362 |
| Median household income | $127,188 ± $18,798 | $73,147 ± $438 | $78,538 ± $176 |
| Property tax as a share of home value (calculated) | 1.26% ± 0.34 pointsrough guide only: the margin of error is 27% of the estimate | 1.43% ± 0.01 points | 0.98% ± under 0.01 points |
| Homes lived in by their owners | 95.5% ± 4.6 points | 71.5% ± 0.3 points | 65.0% ± 0.3 points |
| Owner households headed by someone 65 or older | 63.5% ± 18.7 pointsrough guide only: the margin of error is 29% of the estimate | 31.1% ± 0.2 points | 32.6% ± 0.2 points |
| Owners spending 30% or more of income on housing costs | Too imprecise to report (estimate 7.1%, margin of error ± 32.4 points) | 16.8% ± 0.3 points | 22.2% ± 0.1 points |
How to read these numbers
- These are estimates from a survey, not a count. The American Community Survey asks a sample of households. The ± figure is the Census Bureau’s margin of error: the true value is very likely within that range of the estimate. Small places have large margins.
- “Too imprecise to report” means the margin of error is at least half of the estimate, so printing the number would suggest accuracy that does not exist. A “rough guide only” note means the margin is a quarter to a half of the estimate.
- Property tax bill and home value are medians for owner-occupied homes. Half of the homes are above the figure and half below. A median bill is not the rate set by a city or town; the bill combines taxes levied by every local government that serves the home, such as the school district and county.
- “Calculated” rows are worked out by Untax the Roof from the Census figures above them. They compare two medians, so they describe the place, not a particular household.
- Missing is not zero. Where the Census Bureau publishes no figure, this page says so.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2019–2023: tables B25103 (real estate taxes), B25077 (home value), B19013 (household income), B01003 (population), B25003 (owners and renters), B25007 (age of householder), B25091 (housing costs as a share of income); see the Census ACS data page.
If property taxes go unpaid in Iowa
How it works. County annual tax sale transfers delinquent-tax lien through certificate of purchase; unredeemed certificate may mature into treasurer deed
Excess sale money. Ordinary tax sale is a certificate/lien transaction rather than a property auction, so there is no simple auction-overbid surplus analogous to a sheriff deed sale in the cited chapters. No separate former-owner equity-payment rule was verified in Chapters 446-448; retain as an unresolved legal-research item rather than infer one
These rules are set by Iowa, not by Sun Valley Lake, so this section is the same for every place in the state. Last verified 2026-09-25. See the full Iowa entry with statute links.