Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

One of the first questions I hear from relocation clients who have never been to Overland Park, Kansas City or Johnson County Kansas is that they’re expecting to find flat land with lots of farm fields and mules. OK, I added in the mules part, but most relocation clients really have no idea what to expect when they first visit the metro area. Overland Park is a big reason why Kansas City is known around the country as a legit big town metropolitan area. Areas like Overland Park, Olathe, Leawood, Lenexa, Leawood and Shawnee on the Kansas side really have it all. On the Missouri side there’s Lee’s Summit and North Kansas City, among others.

Seriously, the suburbs of Kansas City have more parks, shopping and dining amenities nearby than most remotely expect. I know this because that’s what relocation clients repeatedly tell me. The area amenities are also usually near highway access too, making them even more appealing. The master planning among the majority of newer areas of the metro has typically been done quite well. But relocation buyers also need be aware there can be big differences within any particular metro city. For instance, let’s take two of the many zip codes covering Overland Park Kansas… 66212 in northern Overland Park and 66221 in southern Overland Park. Then we can input those two zip codes in the Moving.com zip code tool and we find…

66212 (north)
Population 32,000+
Medium household income – $61,000
Average home price – Under $200’s
Percentage of Owner occupied homes – 57%

66221 (south)
Population – 15,000+
Medium household income – $167,000
Average home price – Over $400’s
Percentage of Owner occupied homes – 96%

What a great tool for comparing zip codes! Check it yourself by putting in your home zip code and another zip code from an area you might like to live. I know you probably don’t have the surrounding zip codes memorized, so here’s the best tool I’ve found for searching zip codes by map. On this site, you can enter your home zip code and it will also show you the map of the surrounding zip codes.  Once you’ve narrowed your home search to a few specific zip codes, you’ll want to check out this other site that takes your preferred zip code and puts it into an easy to read and printable format.  Here’s an example of this cheat sheet on the ZipSkinny cheet sheet web site.

Posted by Jason A. Brown