Urban experience, in that I've been told that Des Moines has made downtown living much more palatable lately, with entertainment and grocery options. I've lived in suburbs my whole life. While I'd love to move to Chicago in a couple of years, because I adore that city... I just don't have a lot of hope for the future of Illinois. If I can get an urban experience near ISU/Ames, I'm all for it.
Wife and I have lived in East Village for a year and a half now and we've loved it.
Sounds like it'd be a good fit for the lifestyle you're looking for. Ease of parking and traffic access (some congestion at peak hours or around events, especially while the downtown bridges are under construction), affordable prices for a great supply, and nightlife. We can realistically walk anywhere in downtown, the gym, to the sculpture park or library, the bars and restaurants, or the arena.
We avoided Court Ave because bar life wasn't something we wanted to live by/come home to everyday. We've heard people often move out of that area as soon as they can between of the constant noise and cleaning puke up off of their patios every Saturday morning. (Granted you get more noise downtown regardless but we're five floors up so it's never bothered us).
I talked her into it because I also wanted to avoid the trap of living in suburbia all our lives. We were also not really eager to own yet.
If you do prefer ownership though, there's a decent supply of condos and townhomes (some of these are priced rather aggressively though for the DSM area). It's all about location.