3 Rural Iowa has a housing crisis. Here's how a handful of communities are solving it

The need for housing in southwest Iowa is so acute that each new obituary reads like a real estate listing.  "The joke is that good homes sell at the funeral home," said Manning City Clerk Dawn Meyer.This story of Iowans desperately looking for suitable housing is hardly unique to Manning. At the inaugural Iowa Rural Development Summit in 2016, organizers heard the same complaint over and over: There just is not enough housing outside of Iowa's booming metropolitan areas.The problem is widespread, affecting small communities in every corner of the state. And it runs deep.  Demand is so great that many Iowa communities have already taken matters into their own hands, offering creative financing or incentives for new homes and renovations. And one Des Moines-area builder is considering an entire division devoted to building new homes in rural Iowa.