This Kansas City suburb is named best place in the country to raise a family
Overland Park has been named this year’s best place to raise a family by WalletHub, which reported that the Kansas City suburb earned the top ranking for its high median income and affordability.
The Johnson County city earned the title five years in a row as of 2019. But WalletHub, a personal finance website, did not publish the report last year.
Overland Park was the top “Best Place to Raise a Family” out of 182 cities in the United States, which were ranked based on the cost of housing, local schools, health care systems and recreational opportunities. Helping the city take the lead was its median family income of $119,957 — it’s 3.5 times higher than that in Newark, New Jersey, the city with the lowest income on the list, at $34,753.
WalletHub compared the 150 largest U.S. cities, as well as the two most populous cities in each state. It evaluates each city based on 48 metrics within five categories: family fun, health and safety, education, affordability and socio-economics.
Data was pulled from the U.S. census and other sources. And scores in each category were averaged to select the overall winner.
In Missouri, Kansas City placed 84th on the list, up from 102nd in 2019. Springfield ranked 136th, and St. Louis ranked 153rd.
In Kansas, the only other city ranked was Wichita, at 155th.
Overland Park ranked fourth for the most affordable housing, trailing behind Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Akron, Ohio, and Pittsburgh. It ranked third for having the lowest percentage of families living in poverty.
The suburb landed in the No. 1 spot for overall affordability, bolstered by its high median income. That category is ranked based on cost of living, housing affordability and what the website calls “wallet wellness.”
Overland Park also has the lowest share of families receiving food stamps, at 2.4%.
Residents, though, have been calling for more affordable housing in Overland Park for years, arguing that the suburb’s large homes and luxury apartment complexes are out of reach for many families. Johnson County’s booming housing market has left buyers with a shrinking number of choices.
New homes in Johnson County are selling for $558,000 on average, according to this year’s county appraiser report. Last year, new and existing homes sold for an average of $428,000 in Overland Park.
In the 66221 ZIP code in south Overland Park, the average sale price last year topped $630,000.
City officials have been exploring options for expanding the housing stock in hopes of offering more affordable options.
In the WalletHub survey, Overland Park placed seventh in the education category, and 26th in health and safety. The only area where the city lagged behind was in family fun, where it fell to 100th.
The other cities near the overall top were Fremont and Irvine, both in California, as well as Plano, Texas.
This story was originally published June 2, 2021 at 3:00 PM.
