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Urbandale, Iowa

Christmas Light Installation In Urbandale, Iowa

Your city hangs more than 100,000 lights in its own park every winter. Urbandale families walk through that, then come home and look at their own roof. Here is what we do about it.

The City Sets The Bar

Urbandale Lights Up Before You Do

In most towns the season starts when a neighbor starts. In Urbandale it starts with the city.

100,000+

Holiday lights at Miracle on 86th Street, the city's own display at Charles Gabus Memorial Tree Park, 3600 86th Street. That is the count the city itself publishes.

City of Urbandale, Miracle on 86th Street
2022

The year Miracle on 86th Street opened. It brings a custom-built train, a gingerbread house and an ice rink, and it runs from late November into early January.

City of Urbandale
1 mile

The length of the Santa's Rock n Lights drive-through at Living History Farms, 11121 Hickman Road. A ticketed route with lights tuned to 88.1 FM.

Santa's Rock n Lights, Living History Farms

Two big displays inside one city

Miracle on 86th Street is run by the city. Santa's Rock n Lights sits on Hickman Road at Living History Farms. Urbandale has both, inside one city.

The tree lighting at Charles Gabus Memorial Tree Park fell on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving in 2024 and again in 2025. We are not going to promise you it lands there every year, because the city sets that date. What we will say is that by the end of that week, Urbandale has already seen what a good display looks like.

That changes the bar on your street. When your kids have just walked a park with six figures of lighting in it, a sagging strand across the garage does not land the same way. It is the reason we cut every run to the house instead of stretching a store-bought length until it fits.

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Where Urbandale Came From

Two Urbandales On One Map

There is an old Urbandale and a new one, and the split is not the size most people assume.

The 1907 streetcar town

Urbandale was platted on March 6, 1907, when the railway owners cut up 160 acres around the station. It incorporated on April 16, 1917. This was a streetcar suburb in the real sense of the phrase. The interurban line was built in 1905 and ran every 7.5 minutes at rush hour, from 5 a.m. until midnight. It carried people until June 19, 1950. Trolley Park, at 70th and Roseland, marks where the line ended.

The town it served was tiny. Urbandale counted 298 people in 1920 and 1,777 in 1950.

The city that grew on top of it

By 1970 Urbandale had 14,434 residents. Today it is about 46,595, with 18,490 housing units. The growth kept heading west, over the Polk County line and into Dallas County.

Urbandale's own Forward Urbandale Comprehensive Plan, adopted in December 2023, names the tension in the city's words: "reinvestment in Urbandale's maturing neighborhoods over time, while also guiding the development of new, amenity-rich neighborhoods."

Here is the part most people get backwards

The old core is real. It is also small. Census figures for 2020 to 2024 put the middle Urbandale home at a build year of 1992. Only 1,650 homes, or 8.9 percent, date from before 1960. The single biggest building decade was 2000 to 2009, at 4,045 units, and about 38 percent of the city went up in 2000 or later.

So the 1907 streetcar blocks around 70th Street and Douglas Avenue are a slice of Urbandale, not the shape of it. Most of this city is a 1990s and 2000s build. If somebody tells you Urbandale is a town of old ranch homes, they are describing about one house in eleven.

What we will not claim about your roof

We are not going to tell you Urbandale is a two-story town, or a ranch town. Nobody publishes a count of stories for any city in this metro. We looked. It does not exist, so we are not making one up to sound smart on a web page.

What the city does publish is this. The Forward Urbandale comprehensive plan says nearly three in four Urbandale housing units are detached single-family homes, and that a third of those have at least four bedrooms. The census count of the same thing is 69 percent, which is the number we use further down this page. Either way, most of what is here is a house with its own roof, and a four-bedroom house usually carries more roofline than a two-bedroom one. That is as far as the evidence goes, and that is as far as we will take it. The real answer for your house comes off the satellite image of your roof, not off a table.

American Community Survey 2020 to 2024, tables B25034 and B25035 Forward Urbandale Comprehensive Plan, adopted Dec 2023

Old side of Urbandale or new, the estimate works the same way.

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Urbandale Homes

What We See On Urbandale Rooflines

18,490 homes, middle one built in 1992

Urbandale has 18,490 housing units. The median build year is 1992 and the biggest decade was 2000 to 2009. That is a stock young enough that gutters, fascia and soffit are mostly in the shape a clip was designed for.

69 percent detached single-family

12,762 of Urbandale's units are detached single-family houses. Put that against the ownership rate and Urbandale works out to roughly 10,000 detached owner-occupied homes. Of every city we serve, only Ankeny has more. It is the reason we run this route heavily.

78 percent own, median value $335,500

78 percent of Urbandale households own their home, and the median owner-occupied value is $335,500. Owners are the people who care what the front of the house looks like in December, and they are the ones who get the set back out of storage the next October.

No historic district, and no decoration rule

People near 70th Street sometimes ask whether the old part of town has design rules that cover the outside of a house. It does not. Urbandale has no National Register historic district at all. It has two individual listings, the Flynn Farm and the Olmsted family farmhouse. Neither of those puts a review board between you and your own eaves.

We also went through the city code looking for a holiday lighting rule. Urbandale has no ordinance on holiday decorations, seasonal lighting, or how long a display may stay up. No city in this metro has one. That surprises people, and it is worth knowing before you talk yourself out of the front peak.

Send the address. Tate reads the Urbandale roofline off satellite imagery.

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Being Straight With You

When You Should Just Do It Yourself In Urbandale

Three honest notes for this city

If you are in the old core, you may not need us. The blocks around 70th and Douglas are the older, close-set part of town. If you can reach the whole front run from a step ladder and you enjoy the afternoon, do it yourself. We would rather say that than sell you a job you did not want.

A bigger house is a different afternoon. A third of Urbandale's detached homes have at least four bedrooms, and a four-bedroom house usually carries more roofline than a two-bedroom one. When the front peak is out of reach from the ground, the ladder stops being the fun part and the job starts being worth handing over.

We cannot tell you what your association allows. Urbandale has plenty of neighborhood associations, and not one of them publishes its covenant online in a form we could read. So we will not guess. Ask your board, or pull the recorded declaration for your subdivision yourself. Iowa records those for all 99 counties, free, at iowalandrecords.org.

Real Rooflines

Work Around Urbandale

Real houses we lit. No stock photos.

Warm white C9 bulbs running the full gutter line and front peak of a suburban home at dusk
Close view of commercial grade C9 bulbs clipped in even spacing along a gutter edge
A house lit along the eaves and gables at night
What You Get

One Price, From October To Storage

  • Commercial-grade C9 bulbs, cut to fit your roofline
  • Pro-grade clips that attach without nails or screws wherever the roofline allows
  • Maintenance all season, with a bulb out or a loose clip fixed within 48 hours
  • Takedown in January, booked with you
  • Storage of your set until the following October, labeled for your address

The hardware is yours once the job is paid for. We hold it for you between seasons so it is not living in your rafters, and we bring your own set back out the next October.

Tate is the one on the roof. That is the whole pitch. You are hiring the owner of a small local outfit, not a call center that sends whoever is free.

Go deeper: what drives the price • what we install • how the clips attach • when to book • get an estimate

Next door: Clive • Waukee • Windsor Heights

Get Your Free Urbandale Roofline Estimate

Send the address. Tate pulls satellite imagery of your Urbandale roofline, measures the runs, counts the peaks, and texts a real ballpark back. Usually the same day. Nobody comes to your house for this part.

Get your Urbandale estimate

Two fields. Tate reads your roofline off satellite imagery and texts a ballpark back, usually the same day. No appointment needed for that part.

Required: texting is how Tate sends your estimate and confirms your install date.

The estimate is free and there is no obligation. Installs start mid-October and the calendar fills before Thanksgiving, so earlier is better.

Would rather just ask? Call or text Tate at 515-585-9079.

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