KCMO, KCK residents’ credit scores rank low; Leawood’s lead the area

If the two Kansas Citys were a couple buying a car or a house, they might have trouble getting a loan — or at least one with a good interest rate.

A new ranking of 2,570 cities by their residents’ average credit score put Kansas City, Mo., at No. 1,912 on the list, with a score of 650.52 — right on the borderline of fair and poor. Kansas City, Kan., fared worse, at No. 2,468 and 621.65, the worst of any municipality in the metro area, or anywhere in Kansas or Missouri.

The score for Kansas City, Mo., was in the lowest 26 percent of cities surveyed. The score for Kansas City, Kan., was in the bottom 4 percent. Credit scores rate how well people use and manage debt and are done on a scale of 301 to 850. Scores of 750 and up are regarded as excellent; 700 to 749 good; 650 to 699 fair; 600 to 649 poor; and below 600 bad.

To get the rankings, the financial website WalletHub compared the average credit scores of residents in the cities as of September 2015, based on data from TransUnion, one of the big three credit scoring agencies.

On the sunny side of the street was Leawood, ranked No. 16 with a score of 742.74, in the top 1 percent of cities’ scores. The area’s top Missouri side city was Lee’s Summit, No. 485 nationally with a score of 703.53, in the top 20 percent.

As you’d expect, affluent enclaves topped the list, with No. 1 going to the Villages, a luxury retirement community in Florida. Mission Hills wasn’t large enough to make the list, or it no doubt would’ve been up there, too.

Here are the top and bottom five cities in the rankings, all area cities ranked, and a sampling of other Missouri and Kansas cities.

This story was originally published January 12, 2016 at 7:28 AM.