Clay Center, Kansas.
Typical home $165,952 (+8.1% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$489 (+128%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $12,381 +8%
- $153,571$165,952 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $37,816 +30%
- $128,136$165,952 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.
- Clay Center$871
- Kansas$1,291
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Clay Center, KS rose 8.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Clay Center, Clay County, Kansas
Clay Center is a city of 4,199 people in Clay County. Half its households earn more than $62,695 a year and half less, against $66,176 across Clay County; 13% of its people live below the poverty line. 66% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 34% are rented. Unemployment in Clay County was 4.4% in August 2026, and the county had 2.3% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Clay Center is a small city and the seat of Clay County, Kansas. Residents are a little older than the typical American, and most homes are lived in by their owners. Household incomes run somewhat below the county's, and a four-year degree is held by fewer adults than in many places. Winters are cold, with a modest amount of snow, and summers turn hot.
Work. Schools, hospitals and social care employ more local people than any other field, followed by manufacturing, the building trades and government. The largest workplaces in town include Clay County Schools, Clay County Medical Center and AGI, which makes farm conveyors. Jobs across the county have slipped over the past year, and unemployment has edged up a little.
Things to do. Water draws people out of town: Milford Lake is a reservoir, and Milford State Park is a protected area beside it, both a longer drive away. The Smoky Hill River and the Republican River are also a longer drive away. For a quieter afternoon, the Kansas Landscape Arboretum is a botanical garden, and the U.S. Cavalry Museum is a museum, each a longer drive away as well.
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- 1,809households
- 23%of adults have a degree
- 13%below the poverty line
- 20 mintypical commute
- 8%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Clay County had 2,859 jobs in 2025, 2.3% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 39° and lows near 18°; warmest in July, with highs near 91° and lows near 68°. About 11 inches of snow and 32 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Clay Ctr weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Clay Center
- Clay County SchoolsSchool district220FTE
- Clay County Medical CenterCritical access hospital148FTE
- AGIFarm-type conveyors manufacturing98
- Clay Center Presbyterian ManorAssisted-living facilities with on-site nursing facilities82
- AVE PLP423820 farm and garden machinery and equipment merchant wholesalers30
- Clay CenterMail and parcel delivery21
- Wilbur-Ellis CoFarm supplies merchant wholesalers20
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 6 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 559 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); 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
- Ice stormsVery high
- Winter weatherVery high
- Strong windVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Clay Center’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 Clay County.
Clay Center home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Clay Center$165,952
- Kansas$246,055
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Clay Center 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.
- Clay Center31.84%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Clay Center25
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Clay Center8
Zip codes with a Clay Center address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Clay Center — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.