Buying a Home on the Kansas Side of Kansas City: Overland Park, Olathe, Kansas City, Kansas, Leavenworth and the Lake Counties South

In 1904 the Missouri River came up over the low ground in Kansas City, Kansas that everyone called the Patch. The families who lost their homes there rebuilt on the hill above it, where wild strawberry vines grew, and the neighborhood has been Strawberry Hill ever since (Wikipedia: Strawberry Hill). In 1918 St. John the Baptist Catholic Church bought the 1887 Victorian home on Fourth Street and ran it as an orphanage until 1988. Today that home is the Strawberry Hill Museum and Cultural Center (Strawberry Hill Museum; Austin American-Statesman, March 5, 2020). The neighborhood gave up 219 homes to the I-70 bridge in 1957, and it is still up there above the river today (Wikipedia: Strawberry Hill). Out at the west end of the same county, beside Kansas Speedway, the Kansas City Chiefs plan to open a domed stadium for the 2031 NFL season (KCTV5, July 22, 2026).

I'm Jeff Moran, NMLS #483943, a mortgage broker licensed in Kansas through C2 Financial Corporation, and I have been in the mortgage business since 1996. I work out of Bluffton, South Carolina, and I wrote this page for anyone thinking about buying a home on the Kansas side of the Kansas City area. On the Kansas side of Kansas City, a client is choosing among the Johnson County cities, Kansas City, Kansas in Wyandotte County, the towns around Fort Leavenworth, and the lakes and acreage of Miami and Linn counties. The facts below come from public sources, cited beside the ones that matter most. Most of them were gathered in late September 2026, so where a number matters to your decision, please confirm it on the publisher's own page. The Missouri side of the metro has its own page. Wyandotte County is where I'd start, because the Chiefs' new stadium is planned there.

Wyandotte County: Kansas City, Kansas, the Legends and the Chiefs

Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas run as one consolidated government, the Unified Government, which everyone here shortens to the UG (Unified Government). It still sets two separate property tax levies, one for the city and one for the county, and I come back to both in the homework section.

At I-70 and 110th Street, Village West is the 1,500-acre shopping and entertainment district that opened in 2002 (Wikipedia: Village West). The outlet center there was bought by Tanger and is now Tanger Kansas City at Legends (Tanger). Kansas Speedway, which hosts two NASCAR races a year, is on this corner. So do Children's Mercy Park, where Sporting Kansas City plays, and Legends Field, home of the Kansas City Monarchs since 2003 (Stadium Journey; Wikipedia: Sporting Park; Monarchs). If you are looking at a home on the west side of the county, this corner is where your shopping and your game nights are, and it is where the Chiefs are going.

In December 2025 the Chiefs announced they are moving across the Kansas-Missouri state line to a new stadium in Wyandotte County, at the northeast corner of 126th and State Avenue, next to the Speedway (KCUR, December 22, 2025). The first renderings in July 2026 showed an enclosed stadium of about 70,000 seats under a translucent roof, estimated at $3 billion. An entertainment district, a new headquarters and a training facility come with it, all targeted for the 2031 NFL season (KCTV5, July 22, 2026). The agreement asks for $1.8 billion in STAR bonds. A STAR bond is a sales tax and revenue bond: the sales tax the project generates is what pays the bond back, and Village West was built the same way. The Unified Government approved a STAR bond district for the stadium in February 2026, and that district covers more ground than the stadium site itself (KCTV5, February 4, 2026). County leaders have pressed for community benefits from the agreement, and legislators from both parties criticized it (The Beacon, February 13, 2026; KCUR, January 28, 2026). The stadium is not scheduled to open until the 2031 season, so what I'd plan around is the approved site and that opening date, and I'm not going to tell you a home near it will be worth more.

Downtown Kansas City, Kansas runs along Minnesota Avenue. Near 4th Street and Minnesota, Flaherty & Collins proposed a $74 million redevelopment with a 12-story apartment tower, and a second phase adds lower buildings, hidden parking and public green space west of North 4th Street. The first units were targeted for October 2026 and the first phase for April 2027 (KSHB 41). County commissioners approved an agreement to bring a full-service grocery back to the former Merc Co+op space, and the library is pressing plans for a new Main Library (Hoodline, July 2026). The city is also working to add to its stock of single-family homes (The Beacon, August 21, 2026). If you like the idea of living downtown, you can fish Big Eleven Lake, a 3.8-acre lake that is right there (Visit KCK).

The names in the older neighborhoods carry their own history. Argentine is named for the silver smelter that once ran there (Wikipedia: Argentine). On Mount Marty in Rosedale, the Rosedale Arch is a small replica of the Arc de Triomphe, built to honor the men of Kansas City, Kansas who served in World War I (Visit KCK). The southern neighborhoods grew up around railroads, packinghouses and factories. Down the hill from Strawberry Hill at Kaw Point, the Kansas River runs into the Missouri, and the ten-acre park there is a stop on the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail (National Park Service).

The University of Kansas Health System's main campus is at 39th Street and Rainbow Boulevard in Kansas City, Kansas, on this side of the state line. It is building a $450 million facility there, expected to open in fall 2027 (Kansas City Magazine). If you want woods close to the city, Wyandotte County Lake Park on the north edge of the county wraps about 1,500 acres around a 400-acre lake, with hiking and bridle trails (Unified Government Parks). Out in Bonner Springs, the National Agricultural Center and Hall of Fame is the agricultural history museum chartered by Congress. Moon Marble Company, which dates to 1997, sells handmade marbles near K-32 and K-7 (Ag Hall of Fame; Moon Marble).

Johnson County, city by city

Johnson County, JoCo to everyone here, had 632,276 people in the Census Bureau's 2024 estimate, the most of any county in Kansas. It holds about two-thirds of the Kansas side's population, and it is where most of the building is happening.

Overland Park

Overland Park is the second-largest city in Kansas. On February 21, 2026, at 8 a.m., Kansas's first express toll lanes opened on U.S. 69 between 103rd Street and 151st Street, a project of more than $500 million called 69Express. It adds one tolled lane in each direction, keeps two free lanes each way, and the toll changes with traffic and the time of day (HNTB; Johnson County Post FAQ, February 20, 2026). More than 80,000 vehicles a day use that stretch. If your commute runs up 69, you can use the free lanes or pay for the express lane, and nothing requires you to do either.

Black & Veatch is redeveloping its 22-acre headquarters at 11401 Lamar Avenue, on the College Boulevard corridor, into a $1.1 billion mixed-use campus, and the revised plan was approved in April 2026 (Johnson County Post, April 27, 2026). On the former Metcalf South mall site, Thompson Thrift is building more than 300 apartments in two four-story buildings (Johnson County Post, January 6, 2026). For a home in central Overland Park, those are the two projects I'd want you to know are coming. Farther south, at 159th and Metcalf, the city advanced a mixed-use plan on a former fire station site first proposed at 930 apartments plus shops (Johnson County Post, April 8, 2025). A revised housing and retail plan on 167th Street moved ahead in September 2026 (Johnson County Post, September 17, 2026). Children's Mercy Kansas, on 110th Street, is in the middle of a renovation of more than $150 million, with an outpatient building finishing first and the full project ending around 2029 (Kansas City Magazine).

The Overland Park Farmers Market moved in 2026 to Clock Tower Landing, the rebuilt downtown square (Overland Park Farmers Market). If you have kids, Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead is the city-run farm with animals, birds of prey and a full-scale one-room schoolhouse (City of Overland Park). If you have a dog, Stoll Park on 119th Street has one of the county park district's three off-leash areas, along with a fishing lake (JCPRD).

Olathe

Olathe is the county seat, and Garmin's headquarters is here (FOX4). Honeywell runs an aviation manufacturing plant in the city as well (Rep. Sharice Davids, February 2024). In March 2026, Olathe voters approved $389 million in school bonds (Olathe Public Schools: Bond 2026). In September 2026 the district's staff recommended closing six schools at the end of the 2026-27 school year, citing enrollment that fell from more than 30,000 to just over 28,000. The board's vote was set for October 1, 2026 (Johnson County Post, September 4, 2026), so please check the district's boundaries and consolidations page before you count on a particular school for an address.

If you want a lake close to home, Lake Olathe Park wraps a 170-acre lake inside a city park, with a swim beach the city calls the Aqua Park and a boat ramp off Lakeshore Drive (City of Olathe). Heritage Park, about 1,239 acres, has a 40-acre lake and a 27-acre off-leash dog area (JCPRD). Kill Creek Park, between Olathe and De Soto, is where the hiking, mountain bike and horse trails are, more than 12 miles of them, plus a swim beach (JCPRD).

Lenexa

If you are looking in Lenexa, you now have a hospital inside the city. AdventHealth Lenexa City Center opened to patients on July 15, 2025, with 44 beds of a 96-bed design and a 24-hour emergency room. It has surgery, cardiology and orthopedics, and it is described as the only hospital in Lenexa (Johnson County Post, July 8, 2025; AdventHealth). Solera, a $200 million mixed-use development on 75 acres near K-7 and Prairie Star Parkway, is one of the biggest projects in the city's pipeline. The Reserve at Copper Creek broke ground on December 12, 2025, with more than 289 apartments in its first phase (Johnson County Post, January 12, 2026). Black Hoof Park covers about 231 acres around the 35-acre Lake Lenexa, and if you have a non-gas boat up to 26 feet, you can launch it from the public ramp beside the Stone Wall Shelter (City of Lenexa). The Lenexa Farmers Market sets up at the Rec Center site on 87th Street Parkway on Saturday and Tuesday mornings (City of Lenexa).

Shawnee

Shawnee Mission Park is the big one here, about 1,756 acres around a 120-acre lake, with a swimming beach, a marina, trails and a 44-acre off-leash area, and Theatre in the Park performs inside it each summer (JCPRD). Shawnee Town 1929 is an open-air museum built as a 1920s truck-farming main street (City of Shawnee). New construction on the southwest side includes a planned subdivision of 188 homes along Silverheel Street near K-7, 97 single-family homes and 91 townhomes, most of them duplexes (Johnson County Post, January 20, 2026). The city adopted its 2027 budget on September 23, 2026 at a levy reported at 23.267 mills (Johnson County Post, September 23, 2026), and I explain what a mill is in the homework section.

Northeast Johnson County: Prairie Village, Mission, Merriam, Roeland Park and Fairway

Local coverage calls these inner-ring cities NEJC, for northeast Johnson County, and the building here is on sites that already have something on them. The former Paul Henson YMCA at 4200 West 79th Street in Prairie Village has been vacant since December 2024. In July 2026 the council voted unanimously to rezone it for 20 single-family homes on smaller lots than the old zoning allowed. Demolition and site work were expected in fall 2026, with the first homes in early spring (Johnson County Post, July 21, 2026). Prairie Village also changed its zoning to allow homes in commercial districts (KSHB 41). If you are looking here for a newer home, those two changes are where the new ones will come from.

In Fairway, three brick buildings of the Shawnee Methodist Mission still stand at the Shawnee Indian Mission State Historic Site on 53rd Street (City of Fairway). Merriam has Antioch Park on Antioch Road, the Merriam Community Center on Slater Street with year-round aquatics, and a farmers market at Merriam Marketplace through the summer and early fall (City of Merriam). These cities are also working together on how to comply with the state's new by-right housing law, which I explain in the construction section (Johnson County Post, August 21, 2026).

Leawood

Ironwoods Park is on Mission Road at 147th Street, and the state wildlife agency lists its pond among its public fishing waters (City of Leawood). For what is being built near a specific Leawood address, the city's own planning page is the place to look.

Gardner, Edgerton and De Soto

Gardner's Horizon Pointe is a 78-acre single-family neighborhood of nearly 250 homes at the southeast corner of 175th Street and Four Corners Road, on the far west end of the city. The land was annexed into the city in 2025, and the council approved the preliminary plan unanimously on June 16 of that year (Johnson County Post, July 10, 2025). The city is also rebuilding 175th Street, which the roads section covers. Celebration Park, about 83 acres at 159th Street and Kill Creek Road, has a 10-acre lake and a loop of walking trails (City of Gardner).

Edgerton is the home of Logistics Park Kansas City, the industrial park built around the BNSF intermodal yard, which is a rail yard where shipping containers move between trains and trucks. In 2026 it was where the county's data center fight played out. In May the planning commission voted 4-0 for a plan to convert a 400,000-square-foot warehouse at the park into a data center. On June 11 the commission rejected the final application, 3-2. On June 16 the city council declined a moratorium on data centers. On July 16 the council unanimously overrode the commission and approved the project, reported at $860 million (Johnson County Post, May 14, 2026; June 11; June 16; July 23). Near Edgerton or Gardner, that approved data center is the project I'd want you to know about. The Lanesfield Historic Site near Edgerton is a limestone one-room schoolhouse that taught students from 1869 to 1963 (JCPRD).

De Soto is where Panasonic Energy built what it describes as the largest EV battery plant in the United States, an investment of more than $4 billion. It held its grand opening in July 2025, has hired more than 1,000 workers toward a planned 4,000, and has begun mass production (Kansas Department of Commerce, July 2025; Panasonic). A second wing is under construction, with two of its four lines expected to be running in 2027 (Kansas Reflector). In early 2026 the plant began building batteries for Zoox, the Amazon-owned robotaxi company. It also plans to shift part of its production to data-center batteries, with the first of those cells expected between mid-2028 and early 2029 (KCUR, June 17, 2026). The De Soto school district passed a $99.85 million bond in March 2026, which the schools section covers.

Spring Hill

Spring Hill straddles the Johnson-Miami county line. A Spring Hill address can be in either county, with a different county appraiser and a different county levy on its tax bill, so please confirm the county before you compare two Spring Hill homes. Its school district, USD 230, has $60 million in bond projects under way (Johnson County Post, March 17, 2026).

Leavenworth County and Fort Leavenworth

Fort Leavenworth was established in 1827 and is the oldest active U.S. Army post west of the Mississippi River. It is home to the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (Fort Leavenworth). The county's three largest employers are listed as the college, the Lansing Correctional Facility and the Dwight D. Eisenhower VA Medical Center (Tonganoxie: About Leavenworth County). Fort Leavenworth is here, and across the whole Kansas side of the metro lenders made 738 VA home-purchase loans in 2024, by the data they report under the federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. If you are coming here on orders, how VA loans work in Kansas covers entitlement, the funding fee and what a Kansas closing changes.

The cities are Leavenworth, Lansing, Basehor, Tonganoxie, Easton and Linwood. In Leavenworth, the Riverfront Community Center fills the old Union Depot on the Missouri River with an indoor pool and a gym, and Leavenworth Landing Park runs along the river beside it (City of Leavenworth). The city was home to the C.W. Parker carousel works, and the C.W. Parker Carousel Museum keeps restored machines, one of which still gives rides (C.W. Parker Carousel Museum). The Richard Allen Cultural Center and Museum keeps the history of Black soldiers and settlers in Leavenworth, including the Buffalo Soldiers stationed at the fort (Richard Allen Cultural Center). If you fish, the state runs the 151-acre Leavenworth State Fishing Lake northwest of Tonganoxie, with a pier and a boat ramp (Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks). KDOT is studying K-5 from I-435 in Wyandotte County to K-7 and U.S. 73 in Leavenworth County, and the roads section has the status.

Miami County: Paola, Louisburg, Osawatomie and Hillsdale Lake

Miami County is where the metro starts to come with acreage. The county seat is Paola, and the other cities are Louisburg, Osawatomie, Fontana and the Miami County part of Spring Hill (Miami County). If you ride, cycle or want a boat on the water, Hillsdale State Park is between Spring Hill and Paola on a lake of more than 4,500 acres. It has about 51 miles of shoreline and about 49 miles of marked trail in its Saddle Ridge area (Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks). Paola runs Lake Miola, about 200 acres north of town, for fishing, boating, skiing and swimming (City of Paola). In Osawatomie, John Brown Memorial Park is on the site of the Battle of Osawatomie. The John Brown Museum State Historic Site next to it is built around the Adair family cabin where Brown stayed during the Bleeding Kansas years (City of Osawatomie). Osawatomie is also Mile Zero of the Flint Hills Trail, a rail trail on the old Missouri Pacific corridor (City of Osawatomie).

A home out here can come with land, and a well or a septic system can be part of what you are buying. For a property outside a city, please ask the county planning office what the home is served by before you order the inspection.

Linn County: La Cygne and the far south edge

Linn County is the metro's far southern edge, with 9,841 people in the whole county in the 2024 Census estimate. The biggest thing in the county is the La Cygne Generating Station, a coal plant on La Cygne Lake that Evergy has run since 1973 and plans to shut down in 2039 (Wikipedia: La Cygne; Global Energy Monitor). The station's land runs to nearly 5,000 acres including 2,400 acres of lake, with public fishing (Evergy). Linn County Park is on the west side of the lake and is open all year on daily or yearly passes. Swimming and water skiing are not allowed on the lake, so the ramps there serve fishing and boating (Linn County). The plant also carries the local tax base: the Prairie View school district plans to cut its levy by 5 mills for 2026-27, largely because the plant's valuation rose (Linn County Journal). That valuation is what pays for the cut, so after the plant closes in 2039 the levy could go back up, and that is worth knowing if you are buying down here.

A home near Pleasanton puts you close to the Marais des Cygnes National Wildlife Refuge, about 7,500 acres of bottomland hardwood forest (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service). The Mine Creek Civil War Battlefield State Historic Site preserves the ground of one of the war's largest cavalry battles, fought in October 1864 (Kansas Historical Society). Trading Post, just above Pleasanton, is described as the oldest settlement in Kansas (Trading Post Museum).

New construction on the Kansas side

Single-family permits across the Kansas City metro rose 28% in the first half of 2026 compared with 2025, by the Kansas City Home Builders Association's count. Johnson County issued 225 of them in July 2026 and 1,392 for the year through July, about 41% of every single-family permit in the eight-county region (KCHBA; KCHBA, July). The named projects are in the city sections above. Horizon Pointe in Gardner, the Silverheel Street subdivision in Shawnee and the YMCA site homes in Prairie Village are the single-family ones. Solera and Copper Creek in Lenexa, the Metcalf and 167th Street plans in Overland Park, and the 4th and Minnesota tower in Kansas City, Kansas are the larger mixed-use and apartment projects.

A new state law changes how some of it gets approved. Senate Bill 418, Chapter 76 of the 2026 Session Laws of Kansas, is the by-right housing law, and local coverage calls it the "Buy Right" bill. By-right means a project that meets the written rules gets approved without a separate vote. As the legislature's own summary and local reporting describe it, the law creates by-right approval for qualifying homes under 2,500 square feet and allows lots as small as 3,000 square feet. It sets deadlines for approvals. It also counts townhomes and duplexes as single-family homes, so they can go next to single-family homes without a rezoning. It does not override infrastructure or stormwater standards (Kansas Secretary of State: Chapter 76; Kansas Legislature supplemental note; Johnson County Post, July 16, 2026). Overland Park supported it and is folding parts of it into its development code. Prairie Village, Mission, Merriam, Roeland Park and Westwood Hills opposed it and are working jointly on compliance (Johnson County Post, August 21, 2026). If you are buying an existing home, this is the law that decides what can be built on the lot next door. If you are buying new, it is the law that lets a builder put a home under 2,500 square feet on a lot as small as 3,000 square feet without a separate vote.

Data centers are the other 2026 story. Edgerton's is above, residents across southern Johnson County have organized against them, and the reporting ties the wave to Kansas tax incentives (KSHB 41). If a builder quotes you an impact fee, please ask which city ordinance it comes from. An impact fee is a one-time charge on new construction that helps pay for the roads and services growth needs, and none of the Kansas-side cities' schedules are on this page.

Roads: 69Express, K-10 and the K-5 study

69Express is covered under Overland Park: one tolled lane each way on U.S. 69 from 103rd Street to 151st Street, open since February 21, 2026, with the two free lanes kept.

K-10. KDOT is studying a 16.5-mile stretch of K-10 from the Douglas-Johnson county line to I-435 for widening to six lanes, with pavement and bridge replacement and interchange work (KDOT: K-10 Corridor). Please treat it as a study until KDOT's project page gives a construction date. Lighting work was approved at the K-10 interchanges at Kill Creek Road and at Cedar Creek Road and K-7, and at K-7 and 119th Street (KDOT).

K-5. KDOT's K-5 Modernization Study is in its discovery phase. It covers K-5 from I-435 in Wyandotte County to K-7 and U.S. 73 in Leavenworth County, plus the I-435, K-5 and Wolcott Drive interchange, and KDOT says improvements may be needed (KDOT: K-5 Modernization). For a commute from Leavenworth County into Kansas City, Kansas, this is the file to follow.

175th Street in Gardner. The city is rebuilding 175th Street between the I-35 northbound ramps and east of Clare Road as a four-lane divided road with new signals and turn lanes, with work on Clare Road between 178th Street and 175th (City of Gardner). The I-35, U.S. 56 and 175th Street interchange is on KDOT's 2026 calendar (KDOT). Johnson County also plans to widen Moonlight Road to four lanes between 135th and 175th streets as part of its southwest area transportation plan (Johnson County Post, June 25, 2025).

I-435 at Little Mill Creek. Bridge deck repair is ongoing in both directions (KDOT KC Metro Updates).

The Mid-America Regional Council's Transportation Improvement Program for 2026 through 2030 is the list of funded projects on both sides of the state line (MARC TIP). If a road matters to your choice of home, that is the document to read.

Schools: buildings, bonds and boundaries

School district lines on the Kansas side do not follow city limits. An Overland Park address can be in Shawnee Mission, Blue Valley or Olathe schools, and a Kansas City, Kansas address is in USD 500, which is a different district from Kansas City Public Schools across the state line in Missouri. Please check the district's current attendance map for any address you are considering, because several of the lines are moving.

• Olathe (USD 233) passed a $389 million bond in March 2026, and in September its staff recommended closing six schools, with the board's vote set for October 1, 2026 (Johnson County Post, September 4, 2026). Please check the district's page for the outcome.
• De Soto (USD 232) voters approved a bond of up to $99.85 million on March 3, 2026. The first phase is an early childhood center and Mill Creek Middle School, with construction from fall 2026 to summer 2027 and occupancy expected in fall 2027 (USD 232: Bond 2026). This is the district Panasonic's plant is in.
• Blue Valley (USD 229) opened Wolf Springs Middle School near 179th Street and Quivira Road for the 2026-27 school year. Students in the Aspen Grove and Wolf Springs Elementary attendance areas who were zoned to Aubry Bend Middle now attend Wolf Springs (Johnson County Post, February 3, 2025).
• Shawnee Mission (USD 512) paused a boundary work group in September 2026 that had tabled a plan to close an elementary school in 2031, and cancelled public input sessions on elementary boundaries for 2027-28 (KCTV5, September 15, 2026). The district publishes its boundary maps (SMSD).
• Gardner-Edgerton (USD 231) is redrawing its boundaries, and a new school is under construction just south of Pioneer Ridge Middle School, expected to open for 2027-28 (Johnson County Post, May 4, 2026).
• Spring Hill (USD 230) has $60 million in bond projects under way.
• Kansas City Kansas (USD 500) launched four construction projects from the $180 million bond voters approved in November 2024. They are new buildings for Argentine Middle and Central Middle, a new elementary replacing Silver City and Noble Prentis, and a $12 million addition to Sumner Academy of Arts and Science. The Sumner work began in spring 2026 for completion in spring 2027 (KCTV5, August 12, 2026; The Beacon, July 2, 2026).

Kansas also has a statewide open enrollment rule. Since the 2024-25 school year, districts must let nonresident students enroll where open seats exist, with applications from January 1 through June 15 and a lottery when requests exceed seats (Kansas Legislative Research Department; K.S.A. 72-3123). Each district sets its own capacity building by building, so please ask the district about the school you have in mind.

Hospitals on the Kansas side

AdventHealth Lenexa City Center, open since July 15, 2025, is covered under Lenexa, and AdventHealth Shawnee Mission is the system's established Johnson County hospital (AdventHealth Shawnee Mission). The University of Kansas Health System's main campus and its $450 million building, due in fall 2027, are at 39th and Rainbow in Kansas City, Kansas. Children's Mercy Kansas on 110th Street in Overland Park is being renovated through about 2029. Children's Mercy's Adele Hall campus and its planned downtown tower are in Missouri, so they belong to the Missouri page (The Beacon, April 14, 2026). The Dwight D. Eisenhower VA Medical Center is in Leavenworth.

The large employers

Panasonic in De Soto and the Chiefs in Wyandotte County are the two current, very large employment stories on this side, and both are above. The University of Kansas Health System's expansion is the third. Black & Veatch's headquarters is in Overland Park, Garmin's is in Olathe, and Honeywell runs its aviation plant there. Logistics Park Kansas City in Edgerton is anchored by the BNSF rail yard, with the DAMAC Digital data center approved in July 2026. Fort Leavenworth, the Lansing Correctional Facility and the VA medical center anchor Leavenworth County, and Evergy's La Cygne plant anchors Linn County through 2039. If your move comes with a job at one of these, I'll want to understand that upfront, because it affects the income documentation we need and the timing of your financing.

Homework before you compare two homes

Everything in this section goes into the monthly payment a lender qualifies you on, so I'd want each of these looked up before we compare two homes.

The county and the city. The five counties are Johnson, Wyandotte, Leavenworth, Miami and Linn. Spring Hill is in two of them. Kansas City, Kansas and Wyandotte County are one government with two levies. A home's county and city are on the county's property records, and that is the first thing I'd confirm before comparing two tax figures.

The assessment ratio and the mill levy. Kansas assesses a home at 11.5% of its appraised value (Kansas Department of Commerce). The tax is figured in mills on that assessed amount, and a mill is one dollar of tax for every $1,000 of assessed value. A levy is the stack of mills the state, the county, the city, the school district and any special districts add up to for one address, so no single city's number is the tax rate.

The revenue-neutral rate. Kansas budget coverage keeps saying a city "exceeded the revenue-neutral rate." The revenue-neutral rate is the mill levy that would collect the same property tax as last year on the same properties. A taxing unit that wants to collect more than that has to hold a hearing and vote first, and that vote is how your bill can rise while its levy stays flat (Johnson County Post, September 23, 2026).

The city levies in the news. The city levies reported in local coverage give you the shape of it. Overland Park's 2026 levy was 14.5 mills, the lowest city levy in Johnson County, and the council raised it slightly for 2027 in September 2026 (Johnson County Post, September 12, 2025; Johnson County Post, September 18, 2026). Olathe was reported at 23.3 mills and Lenexa at 26.9 (Johnson County Post, July 2, 2025), and Shawnee adopted 23.267 for 2027. Kansas City, Kansas set 36.219 mills for 2026 and Wyandotte County set 35.704 on top of it, up 1.5 mills and 2 mills from the 2025 revenue-neutral rates (KSHB 41; KCTV5, August 27, 2025). Each of those is a news report, and the adopted budgets on file with the Kansas Department of Administration are the record (Kansas Department of Administration). If you give me an address, the county, the city and the school district are the three lines I'd add up first.

The 2026 valuation in Johnson County. The county appraiser reported single-family home values up 5.92% for 2026, after 6.08% in 2025, and mailed more than 222,000 notices of appraised value on February 25 (Johnson County; Johnson County Post, March 6, 2026). About 68% of homes rose 7% or less or fell. An appeal has to be filed within 30 days of the date printed on the notice (Johnson County Appraiser). Taxes are billed in November, with the first half due December 20 and the second half due May 10. If you miss the appeal window, Kansas also lets you pay the bill under protest, which means you pay it on time and file a form with the county saying you disagree with the value. If your mortgage company pays the taxes from escrow, that protest has to be filed by January 31. Those calendar rules are the statewide ones, so please confirm the dates on the Johnson County appraiser's own page.

Recording fees, with no transfer tax. Kansas repealed its mortgage registration tax on January 1, 2019 and has no real estate transfer tax. A per-page recording fee remains, and for a mortgage of $75,000 or less on a single-family principal residence the whole fee is capped at $125 when a cap affidavit is filed with the mortgage (Kansas Legislative Research Department; K.S.A. 28-115). I walk through that affidavit in recording a mortgage in Kansas. A home on the Kansas side of State Line Road and a home on the Missouri side close under two different sets of rules, and the Kansas page covers this state's.

Hail and the wind deductible. Kansas recorded 495 hail events in 2024, second in the nation. A separate percentage wind-and-hail deductible, usually 1% to 5% of the insured value, is the norm on a Kansas homeowners policy, apart from the regular deductible (KWCH, April 30, 2026). On a quote, please ask for both deductibles in dollars, and please get the quote on the specific home early so the premium is in your payment before you make an offer.

Flood. Turkey Creek runs through Johnson and Wyandotte counties into the Kansas River near downtown Kansas City, Kansas, and it has a long flood history (Wikipedia: Turkey Creek). Kansas's effective floodplain data is dated April 28, 2026 (Kansas Floodplain Viewer), while Johnson County's FEMA flood map was adopted on August 3, 2009 (Johnson County: Floodplain Information). A 2009 county map and a 2026 state layer can differ, so please look up any address on both. For a property in FEMA's high-risk flood area, the Special Flood Hazard Area, the lender will require flood insurance, and that premium becomes part of your monthly payment.

Radon. Kansas law requires a seller to disclose any known elevated radon level, and the purchase contract itself has to advise you about radon risk (K.S.A. 58-3078a). The Kansas Department of Health and Environment recommends a radon test before you buy or move in (KDHE), so it belongs on the inspection list.

Homeowners associations. Kansas associations run under the Kansas Uniform Common Interest Owners Bill of Rights Act, Chapter 58, Article 46 of the Kansas statutes. The declaration, usually called the CC&Rs, is the set of covenants, conditions and restrictions the association puts on every home in it. It is recorded with the register of deeds and it runs with the land, which means it binds every future owner of the home, including you. Under K.S.A. 58-4616 the association keeps its records for five years and lets members review its finances (Kansas Legislative Research Department, February 26, 2026). The dues and any transfer fee are in the association's own resale documents, so please ask for those early. I do not quote them here, because they change and they belong in the documents.

First-time buyer programs, with one exclusion. The Kansas Housing Resources Corporation's First Time Homebuyer Program, a forgivable down payment loan, lists Wichita, Topeka, Lawrence, Kansas City and Johnson County as outside its coverage area (KHRC). Whether "Kansas City" there means the city or all of Wyandotte County, and whether Leavenworth, Miami and Linn counties are inside the area, is a question for KHRC, so please ask them before you plan on it.

Local words you will hear

JoCo is Johnson County. KCK is Kansas City, Kansas, and KCMO is Kansas City, Missouri. Local coverage uses the two abbreviations to keep the two cities apart. The UG is the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas. State Line Road runs along the Kansas-Missouri state line for 12.5 miles, with the southbound lanes in Kansas and the northbound lanes in Missouri for much of its length (Wikipedia: State Line Road). Village West and the Legends are the district at I-70 and 110th Street in western Wyandotte County, and the retail center there is now Tanger Kansas City at Legends. Strawberry Hill is the KCK neighborhood above the river, and the Patch was the low ground its first families moved up from. 69Express is the tolled lane on U.S. 69. STAR bonds are sales tax and revenue bonds. NEJC is northeast Johnson County. LPKC is Logistics Park Kansas City in Edgerton. The RNR is the revenue-neutral rate.

The Kansas side and your mortgage payment

Heartland MLS is the listing service for both sides of the metro, and the Kansas City Regional Association of REALTORS reports its figures for both states together. For July 2026 the median sales price across the metro was $349,900, up 3.9% from a year earlier (KCRAR / Heartland MLS). That is a two-state figure. A brokerage's report of the same Heartland MLS data put the Johnson County median at $505,500 for July 2026 (eMetropolitan). For Wyandotte, Leavenworth, Miami and Linn counties, the two-state figure is the one on this page.

All five Kansas counties in the metro carry the same 2026 conforming and FHA loan limits, and they are in the box below this article. The FHA limit here is the national floor, the lowest HUD sets anywhere, and the Johnson County median as reported is just under the one-unit FHA figure. The conforming limit is the largest loan Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will buy here, and a loan above it is a jumbo loan. In 2024, lenders made 10,897 home-purchase loans on the Kansas side of the metro, by the data they report under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, and 1,112 of them were FHA and 738 were VA.

The county and city levies, the homeowners policy with its wind deductible, flood insurance where the map requires it, and any association dues are all inside the payment a lender qualifies you on. That is why I'd rather have the homework above in hand before we settle on a price range. Pre-approval in Kansas covers what the letter is based on and which settlement charges you can compare early. If you own a business, self-employed mortgages in Kansas covers how your income gets documented. If you are weighing this side of the metro against the other, the Missouri side of Kansas City is the companion to this page, and the Wichita area is the other Kansas metro I've written up.

You can run your numbers for a purchase on the Kansas side whenever you're ready: rates for your scenario and Kansas closing costs, with no credit pull and no account. Choose the option that works best for you, and the application opens from there. If you'd rather talk through your situation with me first, I'm happy to do that too.

Nothing here is a loan approval, a denial or a commitment to lend, and it is not tax advice. The value applied to a specific parcel and its levy are set by that county and city, so please confirm them with the county appraiser and the city clerk.

Common questions

Are the Chiefs moving to Kansas, and where?

Yes. In December 2025 the Chiefs announced a move to a new domed stadium in Wyandotte County, Kansas, at the northeast corner of 126th and State Avenue beside Kansas Speedway, with an entertainment district, a headquarters and a training facility. The target is the 2031 NFL season, and the agreement is financed in part with STAR bonds, which are repaid from the sales tax the project generates.

Is Spring Hill in Johnson County or Miami County?

It can be in either one. Spring Hill straddles the Johnson-Miami county line, so a Spring Hill address can be in either county, with a different county appraiser and a different county levy on its tax bill. Please confirm the county with the appraiser before you compare two Spring Hill homes.

What is the Unified Government?

It is the consolidated government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, which locals call the UG. One government runs both, and it sets two separate property tax levies, one for the city and one for the county, so a home inside the city carries both on its bill.

Does Kansas have a transfer tax or a mortgage registration tax?

No. Kansas repealed its mortgage registration tax on January 1, 2019, and it has no real estate transfer tax. A mortgage is recorded for a per-page fee set by statute, and a small loan on a principal residence has a fee cap that applies when a cap affidavit is filed with the mortgage. That is one of the ways a closing on the Kansas side of State Line Road differs from one on the Missouri side.

What are the 69Express toll lanes, and do I have to use them?

69Express is one tolled express lane in each direction on U.S. 69 in Overland Park between 103rd Street and 151st Street, open since February 21, 2026. They were the first express toll lanes in Kansas. The two general-purpose lanes in each direction stay free, so you can drive the corridor without ever paying a toll.

Which school district is an Overland Park home in?

It depends on the address. Overland Park is served by more than one district, including Shawnee Mission, Blue Valley and Olathe, and the district lines do not follow the city limits. Blue Valley changed boundaries when Wolf Springs Middle School opened for 2026-27, and Olathe's board took up school closures on October 1, 2026, so please check the current attendance map for the specific address.

Is the University of Kansas hospital in Kansas or Missouri?

Kansas. The University of Kansas Health System's main campus is at 39th Street and Rainbow Boulevard in Kansas City, Kansas, in Wyandotte County, and it is building a new facility there that is expected to open in fall 2027.