BARTON COUNTY — The problem sounds easy: Kansas has too few houses for sale, especially in small, rural communities struggling to attract young people and new businesses.
The simple answer is to build more houses.
But those in real estate say this shortage has been years in the making, and it may take years and creative thinking to emerge from it.
“We’ve been under-building for decades,” said Mark Tomb, vice president of governmental affairs for the Kansas Association of Realtors. “We’re just not building enough homes.”
If all goes as planned, efforts in Barton County may offer a blueprint. The county commission has tapped economic development funds and other resources to help housing developments in three communities.
“If we were to announce one housing development in one city, it would be a big deal,” Commissioner Shawn Hutchinson said. “In this case, we are announcing three different and unique housing developments in three different communities, potentially totaling over 40 new homes in Barton County.”
Hutchinson credited the projects to “exceptional collaboration with community partners.”
“Without growth, we are dying on the vine,” Hutchinson said, stressing the need for central Kansas to innovate. “No one is coming to save us. We have to save ourselves.”
Hoisington, Ellinwood and Claflin are the three communities undertaking projects.
“Housing is a major challenge for our region, impacting our county’s ability to grow and hindering business development, retention and growth,” said Jonathan Mitchell, city manager of Hoisington. “Local governments need to find ways to work with private individuals and organizations to help encourage and facilitate growth.”
Mitchell is “spot on,” said Bekah Selby-Leach, director of the Wichita State University Center for Economic Development and Business Research.
“The smaller markets are just being ignored by developers,” she said.
With a youth exodus and an aging population, she said, these areas don’t make sense for risky speculative construction.
The projects
On Oct. 14, Barton County commissioners approved allocating up to $125,000 in economic development dollars to help a new $600,000-plus development in Hoisington. The project will add 12 new homes to the community of 2,600.
The Hoisington funding will reimburse the city for installing essential infrastructure: curb, gutter and a new concrete street in the new northern subdivision.
Mitchell detailed the city’s significant investment. The city purchased the former Windgate Apartment property, demolished structures, addressed environmental concerns and prepared the grounds. The city has already spent more than $549,000 on the project, with sanitary sewer extensions bringing the total city investment to nearly $691,000.
Hoisington requested the county’s financial aid to expedite construction. The goal is to begin by year’s end or early 2026.
Meanwhile, east of Great Bend, the city of Ellinwood is in the final stretch of a development “about three years in the making,” said city administrator Chris Komarek. The two-square-block Northwest Addition on the community’s northern fringe will house up to 14 new homes in the city of 2,000.
“The county had a pretty significant role in the purchase of the materials,” he said.
The county contributed $200,000 for infrastructure supplies — like sewer and water pipes — for the new Ellinwood District Hospital and the new development. The city has invested about $300,000 so far.
Komarek’s city council approved the sale of the first two lots on Oct. 13, and buyers are interested in two more by year’s end.
“We’ve had quite a bit of interest over the past three years,” he said, noting it waned as the project dragged on and interest rates climbed.
“But, once we get the streets in up there, it will start to look more like a housing addition,” he said.
Water, sewer and communications infrastructure are already in place. Streets should be completed within the month, followed by gas lines.
“We should be done by the end of the year” with all prep work, Komarek said.
Then, home building will begin.
“By the spring, it will be exciting to see,” he said.
In the northeast corner of the county, the Hidden Hills Development sits just outside Claflin’s northern city limits. Developed by the Miller family, owners of Millers of Claflin furniture store, the project includes 16 lots between three and five acres each.
“We hear it every day in the store,” said Brad Miller of comments about the lack of housing in the town of 543 residents. “We got tired of hearing about it and decided to do something.”
He said 12 lots have already been sold. One home is under construction, and two more should break ground after the first of the year.
Even though the Millers bought the land, Miller said, it took community support. The site falls in the Independent Township, which helped surface the roads, and Barton County provided culverts.
“The township and the county have been wonderful to work with,” he said.
City water will serve the area, but homes will use individual septic systems. Natural gas and electric infrastructures are being installed now.
Since the development is in Claflin’s one-mile extraterritorial zoning jurisdiction, it required the city to sign off on the plat. The county commission also had to authorize the layout plan.
The initiative has been in the works for almost two years, Miller said. The Millers originally asked Claflin to annex the site, but city officials decided that taking over the property was too much of a financial burden.
Driven by growth at the nearby ONEOK gas plant and hospitals in neighboring Hoisington and Ellinwood, the area is seeing an influx of young families filling the schools, which has exacerbated the housing shortage.
“We’re happy with this. It’ll be good for the area, and it will be good for the city of Claflin,” Miller said.
A new normal
Maranda DeSanto, CEO of the Kansas Association of Realtors, said year-to-date, Kansas has seen 36,790 new listings.
The month’s supply of inventory — a measure of how long it would take to sell all properties at the current pace — was up 4% from a year ago but remains low at 2.6 months. A balanced market traditionally holds four to six months of supply.
But DeSanto said the concept of a balanced market is likely changing.
“We haven’t seen those numbers for about 10 years, so I think we have to agree there’s a new normal to the market,” she said.
The Kansas housing market saw higher prices and persistent low inventory in September. The median sales price for a home rose to $269,000 in September, a jump from $255,000 in September 2024 and $248,000 in September 2023.
DeSanto said the pricing trend is a direct result of the long-term shortage.
“With the basics of supply and demand, this is also a conversation about sales price,” DeSanto said. “While there are always homes for sale, tighter inventory will generally show up in the pricing.”
It’s not just a shortage of houses, Selby-Leach said. It’s also the price points. Fewer lower-priced homes, often starter homes, are being built, while more high-end homes go up. Even homes being built in urban and metro areas are priced out of reach for many buyers.
While mortgage rates seem high, Tomb said, they are hovering near the long-term norm.
Tomb also referred to the 2021 Kansas Statewide Housing Needs Assessment, the state’s first comprehensive housing study in nearly 30 years. It noted that to keep pace with need, 3,800 to 5,000 new homes must be built annually — which is not happening.
The assessment revealed several key challenges: a pervasive shortage of quality, affordable housing for middle-income families; specific housing needs for the state’s aging population; and depressed housing values in many rural areas, hindering investment.
A final key challenge was a severe labor shortage in the building trades, complicating new construction and rehabilitation.
The assessment launched several initiatives in the 2022 legislative session, including the Moderate Income Housing program and the Rural Housing Incentive District program.
This story was originally published by the Kansas Reflector.
