Butler, Missouri.
Typical home $171,888 (+3.4% in a year). Kansas City, MO-KS metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$508 (+129%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $5,677 +3%
- $166,211$171,888 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $29,476 +21%
- $142,412$171,888 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Butler$902
- Missouri$1,393
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 18 years.
Typical home values in Butler, MO rose 3.4% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Butler, Bates County, Missouri
Butler is a city of 4,220 people in Bates County. Half its households earn more than $42,151 a year and half less, against $60,733 across Bates County; 25% of its people live below the poverty line. 59% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 41% are rented. Unemployment in Bates County was 3.7% in August 2026, and the county had 2.0% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then construction.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Butler is a small city and the seat of Bates County, Missouri. It is a younger place than many towns its size, with a median age a little below that of the country as a whole. Homes here are a little more often lived in by their owners than rented, though incomes run well below the county's as a whole and a good share of residents live below the poverty line. Few adults hold a four-year degree, and a typical home costs less than in much of the country.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in the building trades, in shops, and in restaurants, hotels and entertainment. The largest workplaces in Butler include Bates County Memorial Hospital, Walmart and Butler R-V Schools. Unemployment across Bates County has eased a little over the past year, and the county has added jobs. The typical commute is a fairly long one, and few people work from home.
Things to do. The countryside around Butler is mostly rivers and creeks. Walnut Creek and Mound Branch, both small streams, are a short drive away, while the Marais des Cygnes River and Fort Carondelet are a longer drive. Winters are cold, with some snow, and summers are hot, with a fair amount of rain across the year.
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- 1,794households
- 13%of adults have a degree
- 25%below the poverty line
- 30 mintypical commute
- 5%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Bates County had 3,747 jobs in 2025, 2.0% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 40° and lows near 20°; warmest in July, with highs near 90° and lows near 69°. About 10 inches of snow and 44 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Butler 4W weather station, 4 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Butler
- Bates County Memorial HospitalGeneral hospital221FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters192
- Butler R-V SchoolsSchool district127FTE
- Medicalodges ButlerSkilled nursing facilities84
- Osage Valley ElectricDistribution of electric power49
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 325 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- Strong windVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- HailRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Butler’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Bates County and the Kansas City, MO-KS metro.
Butler home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Butler$171,888
- Missouri$265,387
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Butler listings — the market is roughly in balance.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Butler18.36%
- United States26.36%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Butler20
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Butler8
Zip codes with a Butler address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Butler — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zillow publishes no zip-level series with this city on the address.