Are You Moving From or To Kansas?
Kansas is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named after the Kansas River, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native Americans who lived along its banks.
Kansas is a Midwestern state that epitomizes the U.S. heartland with its Great Plains setting of rolling wheat fields. The Museum of World Treasures in Wichita, the state’s largest city, covers world history from dinosaurs to Elvis, while the open-air Old Cowtown Museum traces the city’s pioneer past. In nearby Hutchinson, the Cosmosphere displays the Russian Vostok and Apollo 13 spacecraft.
Kansas City Metro has many attractions for people moving to the Midwest. Sports with the KC Chiefs, KC Royals, and Sporting KC. The art scene is great with the Nelson-Atkins Museum. Great food, neighborhoods, and schools.
Kansas, which has an area of just over 82,000 square miles is the 15th-largest state by area and is the 34th most populous of the 50 states. Kansas has a population of just over 3 million people.
If you’re moving to Kansas, there are a lot of things you’re going to need to know. Luckily, you’ve come to the right place.
Moving to Kansas
Pros and Cons of Living in Kansas
Here are a few pros and cons to consider as you make your move to The Sunflower State:
Pros.
- The cost of living in Kansas is much lower than you’d expect it to be.
Once you get outside of the urban areas of Kansas, the cost of living is remarkably low. - You can afford to buy a house in Kansas.
One of the prime examples of this benefit is a little town called Coffeyville, which you can find at the junction of Highways 166 and 169 just north of the state line. - Kansas City itself is quite safe for the most part. The south is generally more suburban. Midtown/Plaza/Brookside/Waldo is all generally safe.
Cons.
- The climate in Kansas can be challenging to manage.
You’ll find three different climates waiting for you in Kansas, so you’ll want to choose where you live very carefully. - Tornadoes are an annual event in Kansas.
Kansas sits in tornado alley, so it is prudent to have a home with a useful storm shelter to use. - Traveling in Kansas can be problematic, but not because there is traffic.
Once you get to the western part of Kansas, the number of significant towns diminishes quickly. If you’re outside of the Interstate corridors, then there are only a handful of communities to visit. Kansas might have the third-largest highway system behind Texas and California, but it is necessary to have it because there is no other means of travel available. The only major commercial airport is a Class C found in Wichita.
Tax Rates
The Kansas (KS) state sales tax rate is currently 6.5%. Depending on local municipalities, the total tax rate can be as high as 10.6%. Other, local-level tax rates in the state of Kansas are quite complex compared to local-level tax rates in other states.
income tax rates in Kansas are 3.10%, 5.25%, and 5.70%. There are no local income taxes on wages in the state, though if you have income from other sources, like interest or dividends, you might incur taxes at the local level.
Housing Market
The typical home value of homes in Kansas is $167,248. This value is seasonally adjusted and only includes the middle price tier of homes. Kansas home values have gone up 5.6% over the past year and Zillow predicts they will rise 7.5% in the next year.
The median listing price per square foot was $118. High demand and low inventory are driving up both home prices and the speed of home sales in the Kansas City Housing Market.
What Should I Know In 2020?
Economy Outlook
Kansas is historically an agricultural state. Manufacturing and services have surpassed agriculture as income producers, but farming is still important to the state’s economy, and Kansas follows only Texas and Montana in total agricultural acreage. Today, Kansas is a leader in wheat, grain sorghum, and beef production.
The unemployment rate rose from 2.9 percent in March 2020 to 11.9 percent in April 2020. … Kansas‘ recovery is forecast to continue in 2021 with an expected average increase of 0.5 percent. If the national economy improves in the upper range of expectations, Kansas‘ growth would be projected to increase to 1.3 percent.
For 2020, average employment is projected to 4.3 percent lower than its 2019 level, a contraction of 47,000 workers. In 2021, the Kansas City economy is projected to recover almost a third of that contraction, adding more than 14,500 workers and growing 1.4 percent.
Hallmark Cards, AT&T, Honeywell, and The Ford Motor Co. make up the major employers in this area. Tech, marketing, and skilled trades are also hot job markets in the city right now.
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Traffic & Transportation
Kansas City has the traffic problems of a city a fraction of its size. If you’re coming from just about any other large city, you’ll be surprised, if not amazed, how little problems there are with traffic. It has the most freeway miles per capita of any city. Traffic jams are virtually non-existent.
Even though Kansas City is primarily a car-driven city, it has a fantastic transportation infrastructure with a plethora of options to get you where you need to go. Public transportation operates under RideKC, which offers buses, shared bike rides, and a free streetcar. The streetcar runs the length of two miles downtown, shuttling passengers to and from some of the most popular neighborhoods and attractions. This is your complete guide to getting around Kansas City.
How to Ride the Local Bus System
The local bus system, RideKC is clean, reliable, and offers dozens of routes across the metropolitan area.
Fares: Most routes start at $1.50 and can increase depending on which route you ride and/or if it is an express route. All fares can be purchased on the bus at the time of your ride with coins (excluding pennies), $1, $5, and $20 bills.
Since the most popular form of transportation in Kansas City is by car, renting one is highly recommended for a stay, unless you plan on staying downtown where the streetcar is easily accessible or have ample time to travel via the bus routes by RideKC.
Cost of living
The low cost of living is one of the top reasons many people move to Kansas City. In fact, Kansas City prides itself on having one of the lowest costs of living in the country. There are tons of options for where to live and even different types of living spaces at various prices. However, they are all relatively cheap for being in such a vivacious city.
The Kansas cost of living is nearly 8.74% less than the rest of the US, which puts Kansas as the sixth state in the US for the lowest cost of living. Median Household Income: $57,422. Average Household Income: $77,509. Per Capita Income: $30,757. 4.9% of Households in Kansas are High-Income Households that make over $200,000 a year.
With a cost of living 2.5 percent below the national average, from groceries to gas, utilities, and housing, Kansas City is one of the most affordable cities in the Midwest. Cost of living indices is based on a U.S. average of 100.
Leawood
The median household income is $139,000 which would explain, perhaps, the high median property value. At $398,000 this area is rather exclusive some would say. The median rent is $1,234 and with 93% of residents living in owned homes tenants are pushed for choice.
Moving to Kansas
Things to Know When Moving To Kansas
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