All homes and bedroom counts
RENTAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE
Kansas City, MO
Kansas City merits investigation by buyers prioritizing affordability and a moderate starting yield, but investors dependent on rapid rent or job growth should avoid it.
Median price$332k
Median rent$1,545
Gross yield5.6%
Job growth▲ 0.5%
Composite Market ScoreRank #95 of 571 scored US market areas
Direct rental answer
How much is rent in Kansas City, MO?
Zillow's metro-wide Observed Rent Index is $1,545 per month for 2026-06-30. That is up 3.49% from a year earlier.
Studio, 1BR and 2BR listings
Occupied rental units paying rent
Two-bedroom standard
These figures are not averaged together. Zillow and Realtor describe asking-rent markets, ACS measures rent paid by surveyed households, and HUD publishes administrative bedroom standards.
Exact county schedules
HUD rent benchmarks inside Kansas City
Every row keeps its own county FIPS schedule. No county is selected as a metro proxy and no synthetic metro FMR is calculated.
| County | Studio | 1 BR | 2 BR | 3 BR | 4 BR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jackson County, MOFIPS 29095 | $1,095 | $1,197 | $1,358 | $1,769 | $2,103 |
| Johnson County, KSFIPS 20091 | $1,095 | $1,197 | $1,358 | $1,769 | $2,103 |
| Clay County, MOFIPS 29047 | $1,095 | $1,197 | $1,358 | $1,769 | $2,103 |
| Wyandotte County, KSFIPS 20209 | $1,095 | $1,197 | $1,358 | $1,769 | $2,103 |
| Cass County, MOFIPS 29037 | $1,095 | $1,197 | $1,358 | $1,769 | $2,103 |
| Platte County, MOFIPS 29165 | $1,095 | $1,197 | $1,358 | $1,769 | $2,103 |
| Leavenworth County, KSFIPS 20103 | $1,095 | $1,197 | $1,358 | $1,769 | $2,103 |
| Miami County, KSFIPS 20121 | $1,095 | $1,197 | $1,358 | $1,769 | $2,103 |
| Lafayette County, MOFIPS 29107 | $1,095 | $1,197 | $1,358 | $1,769 | $2,103 |
| Ray County, MOFIPS 29177 | $1,095 | $1,197 | $1,358 | $1,769 | $2,103 |
| Clinton County, MOFIPS 29049 | $1,095 | $1,197 | $1,358 | $1,769 | $2,103 |
| Bates County, MOFIPS 29013 | $702 | $706 | $927 | $1,232 | $1,555 |
| Linn County, KSFIPS 20107 | $1,095 | $1,197 | $1,358 | $1,769 | $2,103 |
| Caldwell County, MOFIPS 29025 | $1,095 | $1,197 | $1,358 | $1,769 | $2,103 |
The read
Why this market scores where it does
Kansas City merits investigation by buyers prioritizing affordability and a moderate starting yield, but investors dependent on rapid rent or job growth should avoid it. The median home value is $331,714, gross yield is 5.59%, and price-to-income is 3.97.
Opportunity comes from tenant affordability and a tight resale market: rent absorbs 22.22% of median income, months of supply is 1.8, and homes spend 18 days on market. Net migration is positive at 2,315 households, but incoming-mover AGI is lower than outgoing-mover AGI.
Risk sits in muted momentum and buyer selectivity. Jobs grew 0.48% and rent rose 3.49%, while 32.13% of listings recorded price drops. Permit activity and inland-flood exposure require property-level checks; buyers should not treat limited for-sale inventory as evidence that every rental submarket has equal pricing power.
Frequently Asked Investor Questions
What are the current acquisition and rent metrics?
The median home value is $331,714, median asking rent is $1,545 per month, two-bedroom fair market rent is $1,358, and gross yield is 5.59%.
Is household migration positive, and what is the income mix?
The record shows 33,976 households moving in and 31,661 moving out, for net migration of 2,315; incoming movers average $68,173 in AGI versus $75,494 for outgoing movers, a negative $7,321 gap.
What hazard does the record identify, and are insurance costs published?
Inland flood is the dominant hazard, and the annual climate loss ratio is 0.1122% of building value; insurance costs are not published.
Investor Quick Takeaways
Gross Yield: 5.6%
Computed from the current Zillow rent and home-value medians.
Rent Momentum: ▲ 3.49%
Zillow ZORI rent growth trend over trailing 12 months.
Investor Activity: 9.9%
Originated investment purchase share (CFPB HMDA).
Climate Exposure: FEMA NRI
Annualized loss ratio evaluated for flood & hurricane risk.
Put the evidence to work
Test the market, then test the deal
Keep Kansas City as the starting point or move into a more specific property and rent check.
Run cash flowStarts with this market's measured price and rentSave to shortlistCompare this metro with up to four other placesCheck rent by ZIPMove from metro context to a local rent benchmarkFind a comparison marketRead a curated two-market decision analysisShare this analysisEmail the canonical link without adding page scriptsReport a data issueSend the figure, source and release period to review
Market pulse
The current market in eight signals
Fast-moving Redfin conditions sit beside the slower fundamentals so a buyer can separate today's negotiating climate from the long-run investment case.
Months of supply1.8 mo.▼ from 1.9 mo. a year ago
Median days on market18 days▲ from 16 days a year ago
Listings with price drops32.1%▲ from 28.4% a year ago
Sale-to-list ration/a2026-05-01
Home value growth▲ 3.7%Zillow ZHVI · trailing 12 months
Rent growth▲ 3.49%Zillow ZORI · trailing 12 months
Gross rental yield5.6%Rent × 12 ÷ price
Payroll job growth▲ 0.5%CES · 12m to 2026-06
Release-to-release evidence
What actually changed
This comparison exists because at least one underlying source period advanced. Rebuilding the same data never creates a new observation.
Published score held steady64→64
0 ptsThe published component scores did not move in this release.
Weights were unchanged at metro-2026-07-v2-omb2023, so the movement comes from refreshed evidence and percentile ranks.
The named source periods advanced, but the measured values on this page held steady.
The one chart
Rents versus prices, indexed to 2019
Both series start at 100. The gap between the lines is the investment case, and which line is closing it tells you what kind of market this is.
Reindexed Price vs. Rent Growth
2019 = 100 · annual · 2019–2026
Since 2019, prices are up 57% and rents 47%. Prices running ahead of rents is what compresses yield. ✓ recomputed from series
Composite breakdown
What each component measures
Weights are published, not hidden, and the arithmetic is shown. Five components, each measured as a national percentile across all tracked metros.
Published arithmeticComponent × weight = points
64| Signal | Score | Weight | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Job growth | 66 | 30% | 19.80 |
| Rent trend | 53 | 25% | 13.25 |
| Affordability | 68 | 15% | 10.20 |
| Supply pressure | 64 | 15% | 9.60 |
| Climate risk | 75 | 15% | 11.25 |
| Published score | 64 | ||
Kansas City, MO scoreRank #95
64Job growth66/100
CES employment grew 0.48% -> the labor-market signal is positive but modest.
Rent trend53/100
Asking rent grew 3.49% and gross yield is 5.59% -> rent performance is positive, but it is the weakest component in this record.
Affordability68/100
Rent-to-income is 22.22% and price-to-income is 3.97 -> affordability is a relative strength within the record.
Supply pressure64/100
For-sale supply is 1.8 months, 32.13% of listings had price drops, and permits total 11,638 -> scarcity coexists with price resistance and a visible construction pipeline.
Climate risk75/100
Inland flood is the dominant hazard and the annual building-value loss ratio is 0.1122% -> climate exposure still requires property-level review.
The numbers
What this market costs and what it earns
Every derived ratio below recomputes from the same source record used by the article and score.
ZHVI Median Price
$332k
YoY ▲ 3.7%
ZORI Median Rent
$1,545
YoY ▲ 3.49%
Gross Rental Yield
5.6%
Rent × 12 ÷ price
$1,545 × 12 ÷ $331,714
Job Growth (YoY)
▲ 0.5%
CES payrolls
Job signal 66/100
Median Household Income
$83k
Census ACS 5-year
Rent Burden
22.2%
Annual rent ÷ household income
Price-to-Income
4.0x
Median value ÷ household income
HUD 2BR Fair Market Rent
$1,358
Market rent 113.8% of FMR
Historical affordability context
Compare aligned 2019 and 2024 asking-rent and nominal household-income endpoints across the direct-overlap metro set.
Independent rent evidence
One market, several legitimate rent benchmarks
These releases observe different homes and different moments. RentMarker keeps them separate: ZORI remains the scoring baseline, while the other sources test how sensitive the market story is to bedroom mix and measurement method.
Monthly benchmark5 of 5 reported values
Zero-based scale$1,545Primary RentMarker baseline
2026-06-30
All homes and bedroom counts
A smoothed metro rent index for observed rentals; it is the primary rent used by RentMarker scores and career ratios.
View source release ↗$1,421−$124 vs ZORI
2026-05
Studio, 1BR and 2BR listings
The median advertised rent in Realtor.com's 50-largest-metro rental report; source NAs remain unavailable.
View source release ↗$1,197−$348 vs ZORI
FY2026 FMR
One-bedroom standard
An administrative gross-rent benchmark used by HUD programs; it is neither a listing median nor a prediction of one lease.
View source release ↗$1,358−$187 vs ZORI
FY2026 FMR
Two-bedroom standard
An administrative gross-rent benchmark used by HUD programs; it is neither a listing median nor a prediction of one lease.
View source release ↗$1,249−$296 vs ZORI
ACS 2024 5-year
Occupied rental units paying rent
A five-year survey estimate of contract rent plus applicable tenant-paid utilities; it is not a current asking-rent index.
View source release ↗Take the next step
Keep Kansas City as context, then replace market-wide evidence with the candidate property's facts.
Direct local rental evidence
Recent leases and rental-market liquidity in Kansas City, MO
These Apartment List observations match the exact metro CBSA code 28140. They are kept separate from Zillow asking rent, Census occupied-home rent and property-level comparables.
Direct recent-lease rent history
Monthly overall-rent index; missing observations are not filled from another geography.
Recent-lease rent$1,3762026-07 · +1.7% year over year
Rental vacancy6.7%2026-07 · +0.1 percentage points year over year
Time on market30 days2026-07 · -0.6 days year over year
Measured rent retention
How much of gross yield survives the first two measured deductions?
This bridge subtracts direct rental vacancy and effective property tax only. It is not net yield, NOI, cap rate or property cash flow.
measured retention property tax vacancy
- Gross yield
- 5.6%
- Vacancy
- 6.7%
- Effective tax
- 1.1%
- Retained yield
- 4.1%
Regional price level
What feels expensive inside Kansas City
BEA compares each category with the United States, which equals 100. This is a 2024 price-level comparison—not annual inflation.
BEA Regional Price Parities · 2024US = 100
Occupation wage lens
How asking rent sits against major local occupations
Annualized Zillow asking rent is divided by each BLS annual median wage. This is a screening ratio for one wage, not a household budget or affordability verdict.
Six largest published major groupsannual rent ÷ median wage
Office and Administrative Support Occupations$46,980 median wage
39.5%
Transportation and Material Moving Occupations$44,570 median wage
41.6%
Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations$32,000 median wage
57.9%
Sales and Related Occupations$37,340 median wage
49.7%
Business and Financial Operations Occupations$80,180 median wage
23.1%
Management Occupations$117,420 median wage
15.8%
Supply pipeline
What is being built, and for whom
Permits are the 12-to-24 month early warning. The total matters less than the mix: apartments compete with a rental the day they open.
National supply context
Compare this authorization pipeline with asking-rent growth, jobs and for-sale liquidity across the evidence-complete metro set.
Building permits by structure type
units per year · latest year annualised
10,986 units authorised in 2026, 49% of them in 5+ unit buildings. A meaningful share is apartments, which discount first when they lease up. ✓ recomputed from series
Who is arriving, and who is buying
Demand, and the competition for it
Tax filings say how many households moved and what they earn; mortgage disclosures say how many local purchases went to someone who will not live there. Moves between counties inside this metro are netted out of both flow figures.
Net Household Move
+2,315
33,976 in vs 31,661 out (IRS SOI)
▲ 6.8% of arriving households
Mover Income Gap
−$7,321
Arriving $68,173 vs leaving $75,494
Average AGI per tax return (IRS SOI)
Investor Purchase Share
9.9%
2,865 of 28,935 originated purchase loans
CFPB HMDA 2024
Dominant Hazard
inland flooding
0.112% building value annual loss ratio
FEMA NRI · risk type: water
Compare yield and FEMA exposure →Households arrive mainly from: Douglas County · Sedgwick County · Johnson County · Shawnee County · Greene County
✓ 33,976 in − 31,661 out = 2,315 netDirect market links
Where tax-return households moved from and to
These are the largest flows where both counties map to a RentMarker market area. They are a documented subset of the all-US IRS totals above.
Leading inbound markets
- Lawrence, KS1,359 arriving
- Wichita, KS953 arriving
- St. Louis, MO839 arriving
Leading outbound markets
- Lawrence, KS1,166 leaving
- Dallas, TX1,036 leaving
- St. Louis, MO696 leaving
The other side
What would make this a bad buy
Generated from the same figures with the instruction to argue against the score, and published unedited. A page that only agrees with itself is an advertisement.
Three ways the case breaks
- CES employment growth is 0.48%, leaving the market with limited job momentum.
- Price drops affected 32.13% of listings despite 1.8 months of supply, showing that scarcity does not eliminate pricing resistance.
- Inland flood is the dominant hazard, and the annual climate loss ratio is 0.1122% of building value.
Inside this metro area
Move from the market-area average to local evidence
Use the available county and city pages to add local price, rent, housing, migration and hazard context to the market-area view.
County records
County · MOJackson County$253k home · 6.8% yieldCounty · KSJohnson County$469k home · 4.7% yieldCounty · MOClay County$324k home · 5.8% yieldCounty · KSWyandotte County$213k home · 7.4% yieldCounty · MOCass County$345k home · 5.9% yieldCounty · MOPlatte County$396k home · 5.0% yieldCounty · KSLeavenworth County$355k home · 4.5% yieldCounty · KSMiami County$384k home · 6.0% yield
Statistical peers
Market areas that behave like Kansas City
Nearest neighbours on price level, income, yield and job growth — not on geography. Every market page gets a different peer set, which is the point.
| Market area | Score | Price | Rent | Yield | Job Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kansas City, MO (Target) | 64 | $332k | $1,545 | 5.6% | ▲ 0.5% |
| Columbus, OH | 57 | $335k | $1,528 | 5.5% | ▲ 0.6% |
| Cincinnati, OH | 56 | $313k | $1,583 | 6.1% | ▲ 0.2% |
| Richmond, VA | 59 | $400k | $1,772 | 5.3% | ▲ 0.2% |
| Omaha, NE | 58 | $312k | $1,444 | 5.5% | ▲ 0.5% |
Provenance
Where every figure came from
“Checked nightly” means every source is re-pulled and re-verified each night. It does not mean every source moves nightly — the release column tells you how fresh each number can possibly be.
| Dataset Source | Method | Release Period | Pulled Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Census ACS 5-year — household income and gross rent | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-08-05 |
| Census ACS 5-year — historical household income | direct | ACS 2019 and 2024 5-year | 2026-08-05 |
| Census ACS 5-year — population | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-26 |
| Apartment List Rent Estimates — recent-lease rent index | direct | Apartment List 2026-07 | 2026-08-08 |
| Apartment List Time on Market — listing liquidity | direct | Apartment List 2026-07 | 2026-08-08 |
| Apartment List Vacancy Index — rental vacancy | direct | Apartment List 2026-07 | 2026-08-08 |
| BEA County Personal Income — income and population | direct | 2024 County Personal Income (released 2026-02-05); history 1969-2024 | 2026-08-03 |
| BEA Regional Price Parities — metropolitan price levels | direct | 2024 Regional Price Parities (released 2026-02-19); history 2008-2024 | 2026-08-03 |
| BLS CES — payroll employment | direct | CES SM current | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS LAUS — resident employment | direct | LAUS current | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS OEWS — occupation employment and wages | direct | May 2025 OEWS estimates (released 2026-05-15) | 2026-08-03 |
| BLS QCEW — county employment and wages | direct | annual county employment and wages 2021-2025; latest 2025 vs 2024 | 2026-08-02 |
| OMB/BLS delineation — metro geography | direct | OMB July 2023 delineation | 2026-07-30 |
| Census Building Permits Survey — permitted units | direct | BPS through 2026 | 2026-07-26 |
| Census ACS 5-year — city population, households and housing | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-29 |
| Census ACS 5-year — county housing value, tenure and stock | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-30 |
| Census ACS 5-year — cities and communities | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-30 |
| Census ACS five-year — ZCTA housing and income | direct | ACS 2024 5-year ZCTA | 2026-08-08 |
| FEMA National Risk Index — hazard loss ratios | modelled | NRI counties (FEMA ArcGIS) | 2026-07-26 |
| FHFA House Price Index — annual county appreciation | direct | annual county HPI history 1975-2025; latest 2025 | 2026-08-02 |
| HMDA / CFPB — purchases by occupancy type | direct | HMDA 2024 purchase originations | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD CHAS — renter burden by HAMFI income band | direct | HUD CHAS 2018-2022 ACS 5-year (released 2025-12-23) | 2026-08-03 |
| HUD Fair Market Rents — Section 8 standard | direct | FY2026 FMR | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD USPS crosswalk and Small Area FMRs — ZIP rent fallback | direct | ZIP-CBSA 2025Q4 + SAFMR FY2026 | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD-USPS ZIP-to-county residential-address crosswalk | direct | HUD-USPS 2026Q1 | 2026-08-09 |
| IRS SOI — county migration and mover income | direct | SOI migration 2022-2023 | 2026-07-26 |
| Freddie Mac PMMS — mortgage rates | direct | week of 2026-07-30 | 2026-08-06 |
| Census ACS 5-year — effective property tax | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-08-06 |
| Realtor.com Economic Research — county listing inventory | direct | county inventory 2026-06 | 2026-07-28 |
| Realtor.com Rental Report — top-50 asking rents | direct | top-50 rental asking rents 2026-05 | 2026-08-05 |
| Redfin Data Center — inventory, days on market, and price cuts | direct | metro tracker through 2026-05-01 | 2026-07-26 |
| Redfin Data Center — ZIP resale activity and supply | direct | ZIP rolling 3 months through 2026-06-30; updated 2026-07-03 | 2026-08-12 |
| USDA ERS — Rural-Urban Continuum Codes | direct | USDA ERS 2023 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes | 2026-08-02 |
| Zillow ZHVI and ZORI — county values and rents | direct | county ZHVI/ZORI 2026-06 | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZHVI — metro home values | direct | Metro_zhvi_uc_sfrcondo_tier_0.33_0.67_sm_sa_month.csv | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZHVI — city home values | direct | zillow_zhvi_city.csv | 2026-07-29 |
| Zillow ZORI — metro market rents | direct | Metro_zori_uc_sfrcondomfr_sm_sa_month.csv | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZORI — city market rents | direct | zillow_zori_city.csv | 2026-07-29 |
| Zillow ZORI - metro market rents, not seasonally adjusted | direct | Metro_zori_uc_sfrcondomfr_sm_month.csv | 2026-08-15 |
| Zillow ZORI — ZIP market rents | direct | ZORI ZIP 2026-06 | 2026-08-08 |