Cities to watch in 2024: People move to Topeka, Kansas, for cheaper homes and more jobs

• Topeka, Kansas, is an emerging hotspot for movers seeking cheaper homes and a robust job market.
• A typical home in Topeka costs $149,000, nearly half as much as in nearby Kansas City.
• A relocation incentive program and manufacturing and warehouse jobs are enticing movers.

Adam Outlaw moved from Boston to Topeka, Kansas, in 2021 and planned to stay there a while.

Outlaw left the busy northeast metropolis after being swayed by Choose Topeka, a program that incentivizes people to move to the 125,000-person town by offering up to $15,000 to homebuyers or up to $10,000 to renters in the first year.

While the moving cash was a perk, the millennial was really drawn by the work opportunities and low cost of living.

Outlaw, a renter, said the $10,000 went a lot farther in Topeka as he was able to shed the four roommates he had in Boston and gain "considerably" more square footage — all while saving 75% on rent.

"Being able to move around freely and park in a driveway is something I do not take for granted anymore," he said.

Outlaw is one of many movers who have taken to the Kansas capital's shine. Topeka, about an hour drive west of Kansas City, was dubbed the top emerging housing market in fall 2023 by Realtor.com, owing in part to its low cost of housing and the number of homes available on the market.

It's traits like these, as well as Topeka's many manufacturing jobs and warehouse at household-name companies, that are winning Gen Zers, investors, and budget-conscious movers to the small city.

Homes are cheaper here

While nearby cities like Kansas City and Overland Park have grabbed headlines and movers with their affordability and diversity, Topeka has flown under the radar. But that's a boon to it now, Realtor.com said, as the median home prices in those nearby cities continue to grow and price people out.

The median home price in Kansas City, only an hour from Topeka, is $271,500. According to real-estate company Redfin, the median sales price for a home in Topeka was $90,800 in March 2019. As of November, it's $149,000 — a 64% increase, but still far less than the national median home price of $408,732.

Greg Pert, a real-estate agent with Keller Williams based in Topeka, said the upward trend is noticeable.

"I'd say there was a flat line of 20 years where there was just very, very little increase in value," Pert said. "It's almost as though it finally caught up."

Between March 2019 and November, the median number of days a house spent on the market decreased from 61 to 11. Pert said that while the market is hotter than it once was, it has chilled a bit from its peak frenzy.

"There were times this year where there was less than a week's worth of inventory," Pert told BI. "Six months to two and a half years ago, it was just rampant — there was no inventory. Things were getting five to 10 bids on a single property."

Because Topeka is so up-and-coming, it's also a target for out-of-towners looking to invest in real estate. According to Pert, movers are coming from all over the country, and investors are also taking advantage.

"I've got clients from California to Pennsylvania and in between that love this market because it's such a high amount of rents and it's relatively cheap to buy compared to most of their own local markets," he said. "And so it's a really good rate of return to have a rental portfolio here in Topeka."

Lots of jobs and a growing scene

It's easy to get on a highway and drive to another place for work or leisure from Topeka, but the city has its own perks: namely lots of jobs for household-name companies.

"We have the Mars candy-bar factory, we have a Frito-Lay chip-making factory, we have Goodyear Tires manufacturing tires over there," Sara Hogelin, a real-estate agent with Liberty Real Estate, told BI. "We just have a lot of industry."

The state's largest Walmart distribution center is there, as is Hill's Pet Nutrition. Realtor.com also noted that, as the state capital, Topeka boasts government and healthcare jobs, too.

It all adds up to a low unemployment rate, at 2.9%, according to Realtor.com. The national unemployment rate hovers around 3.7%.

As the city flourishes, so too do its perks. "There is a decent art scene in Topeka and the variety of restaurants is growing," wrote a Reddit commenter. "Also, there are more coffee shops than I would expect from a small city."

Hogelin said that while Topeka doesn't have "big wow factors," it's trying to level up.

"They're trying to redo the downtown area, they revamped the capitol. They're trying to bring life back to areas that had gotten pretty depressed," she said. "It's an affordable place for living, and there are some really good school districts as well."