Counties / Kansas / Elk County

Elk County, KS

FIPS 20049 · population 2,453 · outside every metro area

$104k
Zillow home value · 2026-06
The numbers

What this county costs and earns

Everything here joins on the county FIPS code, so each figure comes from the agency that publishes it with no name matching in between.

Zillow home value
$104k
▲ 7.2% year over year
Zillow ZHVI · direct
ACS median gross rent
$552
occupied-unit survey; not current asking rent
Census ACS · surveyed
Gross yield
n/a
gross yield cannot be computed without measured market rent
requires both measured price and measured rent
HUD 2-bed standard
$877
the Section 8 payment standard
HUD Fair Market Rent · direct
Independent price check

Do two methods point the same way?

Zillow estimates a current home value. FHFA tracks repeat mortgage transactions. Their growth rates should be read side by side, not averaged.

One annual series is unavailable
FHFA five-year cumulativen/anot annualized · through n/a
0%ZILLOW ZHVI2026-06+7.2%FHFA HPIperiod n/an/a
Annual changes use different methods and may use different periods. The comparison checks direction and magnitude; it does not create a blended estimate. Zillow county ZHVI pulled 2026-07-26; FHFA annual county HPI pulled 2026-07-28.
Owner-reported value$69k
Surveyed gross rent$552
Rent burden 30%+44.5%
Median year built1956
Housing composition

Who occupies the stock—and what it is

ACS 2024 5-year
33.0%vacant
1,491estimated housing units
Occupied tenure21.2% renter
owner 78.8%renter 21.2%
Structure mix83.3% single-family
Single-family 83.3%20+ units 0.1%Mobile home 10.8%Other 5.8%
ACS estimates describe the standing housing stock and occupied tenure. They do not measure current listings, transaction prices or asking rents.

Survey source: Census ACS 5-year — county housing value, tenure and stock · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30. These values describe different housing universes and are not combined into gross yield.

Annual average covered jobs628▲ 1.5% from the prior annual release
Covered establishments80annual average reporting locations
Average weekly wage$723▲ 5.5% from the prior annual release
Largest private supersectorLeisure and hospitality32.9% of disclosed private covered jobs
Local labor base

Jobs, pay and private-sector concentration

2025
0%COVERED JOBS+1.5%WEEKLY WAGE+5.5%Leisure and hospitality32.9%
Annual QCEW counts cover jobs located at reporting establishments. The industry share uses disclosed private covered employment; it is not a resident-employment measure or a forecast.

Workplace source: BLS QCEW — county employment and wages · annual county employment and wages 2025 vs 2024 · pulled 2026-07-31. QCEW counts covered jobs located in the county, not employed residents or the metro score’s CES/LAUS series.

County brief

What the local evidence says

01Decision frame

Elk County’s underwriting tension is a $104,266 Zillow county median home value at 2026-06 alongside no published market rent: investigators can examine a low nominal basis, but income-focused buyers should be cautious because gross yield cannot be computed. The value is 7.21% above its supplied prior-year Zillow observation, but no FHFA annual repeat-transaction HPI is published to corroborate or challenge that direction. Zillow is a value measure, while any absent FHFA reading cannot be treated as a price or blended with Zillow.

02Housing economics

Carrying-cost evaluation is incomplete. HUD’s two-bedroom FMR is $877 per month, but it is a payment standard rather than asking rent, so it must not substitute for market rent or yield. The effective property-tax rate is 2.03%, with median annual tax of $1,388. Modeled climate loss equals 0.30% of building value per year and inland flood is named as the dominant hazard; the model metric does not identify parcel flood exposure, insurance cost, or mitigation condition.

03Demand & competition

Workplace demand evidence is modest and concentrated: QCEW reports 628 annual average covered jobs at county workplaces in 2025, up 1.45%, and a $723 average weekly covered-worker wage, up 5.55%. Leisure and hospitality holds 32.90% of private covered employment; it is the largest disclosed private supersector, not the entire economy. Tax-return movers produced net in-migration of 12, while average incoming AGI exceeded outgoing AGI by $7,595. Those flows are limited household records, not a demand forecast. Non-occupant purchase mortgages represented 15.38% of 13 purchases, indicating participation but a very small observed purchase base.

04Risk & next checks

Evidence limits set the next checks: Realtor.com’s 2026-06 MLS listing price, active listings, days on market and price-reduced share are not published, preventing assessment of asking-price competition, visible supply, marketing time, and concessions. No market rent, vacancy, operating expenses, insurance quote, parcel flood data, property condition, or closed-sale evidence is published; these omissions prevent a net-income, flood-cost, and exit-price underwriting conclusion. Verify lease comparables, tax bills, flood insurance and disclosures, and recent closed transactions before treating the county figures as property-level evidence.

Cities & communities

Where people live within Elk County

Census-recognized incorporated places and CDPs that intersect this county. The list does not pretend to include every neighborhood or informal community.

Population scale

Largest Census places

ACS 2024 5-year
Howard city516Moline city354Longton city302Grenola city142Elk Falls city126
Bars use total place population, not a county-share estimate. An asterisk marks a place that crosses a county line.
Official directory

5 Census places

Population
  1. 01
    Howard cityIncorporated place
    516
  2. 02
    Moline cityIncorporated place
    354
  3. 03
    Longton cityIncorporated place
    302
  4. 04
    Grenola cityIncorporated place
    142
  5. 05
    Elk Falls cityIncorporated place
    126

Population is the total place-wide ACS estimate, not an allocated county share. A place crossing a county line is labelled explicitly. Source: Census ACS 5-year — cities and communities · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30.

Risk, demand and competition

The three things a price does not tell you

01
Risk & carrying costFEMA NRI + Census ACS
Dominant hazardinland flooding

0.297% of building value expected lost per year

Effective property tax2.03%

$1,388 median annual bill

02
DemandIRS SOI household flows
Net migration+12

60 in · 48 out

Arriving vs leaving income+$7,595

$56,783 arriving · $49,188 leaving

03
CompetitionHMDA financed purchases
Purchases by investors15.4%

2 of 13 mortgages

investorother financed
No rent index is published for this county.Zillow’s county rent series does not cover every county, and estimating one from a neighbouring county would be a guess wearing a number’s clothes. Everything above is measured here; no wider market is mapped for it either.
Bear case

What can break the county thesis

  1. Market rent, vacancy, and operating-cost data are absent, so property cash flow could differ materially from a value-based screen.
  2. Countywide flood-loss modeling may not match a parcel’s flood zone, insurability, or mitigation condition.
  3. The small purchase base and absent MLS and closed-sale evidence may not represent buyer competition or resale liquidity.
Underwriting questions

Before pricing a property

Can gross yield be calculated from this record?

No. Market rent is not published, and the HUD two-bedroom FMR is a payment standard rather than market rent.

What employment measure is supplied?

QCEW supplies annual average covered jobs at workplaces in the county and an average weekly wage; it is not resident employment or unemployment.

Is a repeat-transaction price check available?

No FHFA annual HPI observation is published, so the supplied Zillow direction has no FHFA cross-check in this record.