Effingham, Kansas.
Typical home $226,802 (+8.8% in a year). Atchison, KS metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$744 (+167%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $18,262 +9%
- $208,541$226,802 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $64,710 +40%
- $162,092$226,802 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.
- Effingham$1,190
- Kansas$1,291
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 10 years.
Typical home values in Effingham, KS rose 8.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Effingham, Atchison County, Kansas
Effingham is a city of 495 people in Atchison County. Unemployment in Atchison County was 4.5% in August 2026, and the county had 2.0% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Atchison County work in schools and health care, then shops.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Effingham is a very small Kansas city, the kind of place where residents are likely to know one another. Fewer adults here hold a four-year degree than in most of the country, and household incomes across Atchison County sit a little below what is typical nationally. Winters are cold and summers turn hot, with some snow each year and a fair amount of rain through the seasons.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with shops, manufacturing, and restaurants, hotels and entertainment also employing many. Across Atchison County, some of the biggest workplaces are Benedictine College, Atchison Public Schools and Atchison Hospital Association. Few people work from home, and the typical trip to work takes a moderate amount of time.
Things to do. For time outdoors, Lewis and Clark State Park is a protected area a longer drive away, and Bean Lake and Perry Lake are lakes in the same range for fishing or a day by the water. The Atchison County Historical Museum, also a longer drive away, offers a look at the area's past.
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- 8%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 24 mintypical commute
- 2%work from home
What people in Atchison County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Atchison County had 5,677 jobs in 2025, 2.0% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 37° and lows near 16°; warmest in July, with highs near 88° and lows near 68°. About 11 inches of snow and 38 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Horton weather station, 12 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Atchison County
- Benedictine CollegeUniversity or college410
- Atchison Public SchoolsSchool district287FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters271
- Atchison Hospital AssociationCritical access hospital253FTE
- MGP IngredientsDistilleries160
- Atchison Co Comm SchoolsSchool district90FTE
- Atchison Corn MillingMeal, corn, for human consumption made in flour mills87
- Atchison Senior Village Rehabilitation and Nursing CenterSkilled nursing facilities70
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 14 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,425 people in all across the county; Effingham has one of its own. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24), school districts 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
- TornadoesVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Effingham’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively high. 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 Atchison County and the Atchison, KS metro.
Effingham home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Effingham$226,802
- Kansas$246,055
- United States$366,157
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
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Effingham5
Zip codes with a Effingham address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Effingham — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.