De Soto, Kansas.
Typical home $428,826 (+4.3% in a year), asking rent $1,486 . Kansas City, MO-KS metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,244 (+124%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $17,833 +4%
- $410,994$428,826 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $95,712 +29%
- $333,114$428,826 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.
- De Soto$2,251
- Kansas$1,291
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 14 years.
Typical home values in De Soto, KS rose 4.3% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in De Soto, Johnson County, Kansas
De Soto is a city of 6,118 people in Johnson County. Unemployment in Johnson County was 4.1% in August 2026, and the county had 0.3% more 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. De Soto is a small city in Johnson County, Kansas, with a population that has stayed on the modest side. Homes here are typically worth more than in many parts of the country, and a four-year degree is held by a fair number of adults. Poverty is low, and across Johnson County household incomes are high.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, restaurants and hotels, and the building trades also employing many. The biggest workplaces in De Soto include De Soto Schools, Huhtamaki, which makes paper plates, and Merck and Co, which makes vaccines. Unemployment across Johnson County is a little higher than a year ago, and the number of jobs there has barely grown. Commutes are fairly long, and a good number of people work from home.
Things to do. The Wakarusa River is a short drive away, a natural spot for time near the water. Farther afield, the Kansas River and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art are each a longer drive, one a river and the other a museum. Arrowhead Stadium, the best known of the nearby places, is also a longer drive for those who like a game day. Winters are cold and fairly snowy, summers are hot, and rain falls through much of the year.
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- 2,370households
- 38%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 28 mintypical commute
- 19%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Johnson County had 372,167 jobs in 2025, 0.3% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 38° and lows near 18°; warmest in July, with highs near 87° and lows near 67°. About 17 inches of snow and 41 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Bonner Springs weather station, 7 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in De Soto
- De Soto SchoolsSchool district923FTE
- HuhtamakiPaper plates made from purchased paper or paperboard493
- Merck and CoVaccines manufacturing297
- Harps Food StoreRetail grocery105
- Hillside Village of De Soto Rehabilitation and Nursing CenterSkilled nursing facilities77
- De SotoMail and parcel delivery20
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 5 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 992 people in all. School districts come 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
- Winter weatherVery high
- HailRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively 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 De Soto’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 Johnson County and the Kansas City, MO-KS metro.
De Soto home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- De Soto$428,826
- Kansas$246,055
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 De Soto 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.
- De Soto30.95%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- De Soto28
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- De Soto10
Zip codes with a De Soto address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls De Soto — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.