Data reveals surprising truths about Kansas housing

Are most Kansans homeowners or renters?

Slightly more than two-thirds of all households own their homes. But more and more people are renting. Among the 10 states often placed in the Great Plains region, Kansas’ homeownership rate would be fifth, trailing first-place Wyoming, where it’s nearly 73%, and leading last place North Dakota, where it’s just over 65%.

Homeownership rates, while not at a low point, are down from all-time highs and have yet to entirely recover from the Great Recession.

What significance might this trend have for Kansans?

How old are the homes that Kansans are living in?

Years of low building activity means the state depends heavily on older residential structures, especially in north-central Kansas, where the median home is more than 80 years old. The age of multifamily dwellings is much newer, “reflecting more activity in apartment construction over detached units,” according to the Kansas Statewide Housing Needs Assessment conducted in 2021. (To which this article owes a great debt.)

What challenges – and opportunities – do the age patterns in Kansas housing create?

How much do we pay in property taxes?

More than $6.226 billion was collected in ad valorem taxes on real and personal property (not just houses) in 2023, about $2,119 for every person in Kansas. That’s more than the $4.93 billion collected in 2018, but it’s only a slight increase if adjusted for inflation.

More than half of the value being taxed is residential property.

School districts receive the biggest percentage of the state’s property taxes, totaling nearly 40% across two categories, while counties (28%) and cities (17%) represent the next biggest taxing districts.

What do these figures help us understand about the property tax burden in Kansas?

Who is struggling more with high costs – renters or homeowners?

Although housing affordability is on the decline overall, renters are far more likely to be cost-burdened than homeowners. A cost-burdened household is one that spends more than 30% of its monthly income on housing costs, including utilities.

According to America’s Health Rankings, about 43% of Kansas renters reported being cost-burdened in 2022, compared with 19% of homeowners. Those figures are based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.

Over the past decade or so, the burden on renters has grown at a faster rate than homeowners, with regions within the state registering anywhere from a 43% to 69% increase in their share of cost-burdened renters.

What do these figures tell us about housing challenges in Kansas?

How bad is homelessness?

Homelessness is a growing concern in several parts of the state but it’s hard to pin down. The overall number of homeless individuals counted in 2023 was near where it was 10 years earlier in the statewide point-in-time count. (But the numbers are generally up since 2015.)

As Journal reporter Stefania Lugli has explained in her reporting, point-in-time count numbers are a useful data point for a community but they don’t typically capture the full extent of homelessness.

One shift worth noting, if it continues, is the increasing number of those experiencing unsheltered homelessness. When someone is unsheltered, it means they reside in a place that is not meant for human habitation, whether that’s a car, park, sidewalk, abandoned building or on the street.  Between 2007 and 2016, the numbers of unsheltered homeless being counted held fairly steady, averaging 268 a year. The count doubled in 2022 and rose again in 2023.

What interpretations might be made about what is happening with homelessness in Kansas? What challenging interpretations are you willing to consider?

How much housing does Kansas have available?

The 2020 census showed Kansas with 1.23 million housing units, and current estimates put that number just north of 1.3 million. The 2010 Census counted 1.175 million housing units.

The pace of housing growth in Kansas exceeds the rate of population growth, with the number of housing units growing by nearly 11%, compared with a population growth of 3%.

But it’s also true that Kansas builds far less housing than it did prior to the Great Recession.

For instance, according to permit data from Sedgwick County’s Metropolitan Area Building and Construction Department, Wichita saw more than 1,000 single-family homes built in 2004 and 2005. At the low point of the Great Recession, the completion of new units hit 213 in 2010.

It recovered in ensuing years, but the new peak of 725 homes fell well short of the pace before the crash of the nation’s housing market. You can see similar dynamics at play in a graph of Kansas building permits from the St. Louis Federal Reserve.

What do you make of the trends related to housing availability in Kansas? How do you see availability issues playing out in your community?

How affordable is housing in Kansas?

When compared with markets nationwide, particularly on the coasts, Kansas ranks very high in terms of housing affordability. Metro areas such as Wichita, Kansas City and Topeka rank at the affordable end of an index from the National Association of Realtors.

Rankings above 100 mean that a family earning the median income has more than enough income to qualify for a mortgage on a median-priced home, assuming a 20% downpayment. All three Kansas metros on the list ranked well above 100 in 2022 – The Kansas Citys of Missouri and Kansas at 142.9, Wichita at 171.3 and Topeka at 204.7.

But affordability is clearly on the decline. The index ranking dropped by more than 25% for each community and is down by at least 30% for each community since 2020.

At one point, in the mid-1970s, housing prices in Kansas essentially mirrored the nation, but they diverged in the 1980s, with the U.S. trending much higher, according to the All Transaction Housing Price Index compiled by the Federal Reserve of St. Louis.

These days, the gap is nearly as big as it’s ever been. But it’s likely of little solace to those residents who feel priced out of the market. The upward curve in pricing here is nearly as steep as it is nationally.

Renters likely feel the squeeze as well. The median gross rent in Kansas between 2018-22 hit $986 a month.

How should we determine whether housing is affordable enough in Kansas? What should the goal be?

A version of this article appears in the Summer 2024 issue of The Journal , a publication of the Kansas Leadership Center. To learn more about KLC, visit http://kansasleadershipcenter.org . Order your copy of the magazine at the KLC Store or subscribe to the print edition.

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