Ellis, Kansas.
Typical home $165,344 (+2.9% in a year). Hays, KS metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$442 (+104%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $4,631 +3%
- $160,713$165,344 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $30,535 +23%
- $134,810$165,344 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.
- Ellis$868
- Kansas$1,291
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 17 years.
Typical home values in Ellis, KS rose 2.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Ellis, Trego County, Kansas
Ellis is a city of 1,958 people in Trego County. Half its households earn more than $73,000 a year and half less, against $81,528 across Trego County; 21% of its people live below the poverty line. Unemployment in Trego County was 3.9% in August 2026, and the county had 7.0% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Ellis is a small city in Trego County, Kansas, and it is a younger town than many on the plains. Household incomes run a little below the county's, and a good share of residents live below the poverty line. Winters are cold and summers are hot, with a modest amount of snow and a moderate amount of rain and melted snow over the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with shops, farming and restaurants and hotels also employing a good number. Across Trego County, the biggest workplaces include Trego County Lemke Memorial Hospital, Trego County Schools and Western Cooperative Electric Assoc. Commutes are short, and very few people work from home. The county has fewer jobs than it did a year earlier, and unemployment there is lower than it was then.
Things to do. The Bukovina Society Headquarters and Museum is in or beside town, a local museum that is an easy stop. A longer drive away are Fort Hays, a historic fort, and Cedar Bluff State Park, a protected area built around Cedar Bluff Reservoir. The Sternberg Museum of Natural History is also a longer drive away and is a natural history museum.
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- 894households
- 32%of adults have a degree
- 21%below the poverty line
- 20 mintypical commute
- 4%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Trego County had 1,027 jobs in 2025, 7.0% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 42° and lows near 17°; warmest in July, with highs near 93° and lows near 66°. About 16 inches of snow and 24 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Hays South weather station, 13 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Trego County
- Trego County Lemke Memorial HospitalCritical access hospital93FTE
- Trego County SchoolsSchool district75FTE
- Western Cooperative Electric AssocDistribution of electric power52
- Malay's MarketGrocery stores28
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 235 people in all across the county; Ellis has one of its own. 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
- Winter weatherVery high
- HailRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Ellis’ 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 Trego County and the Hays, KS metro.
Ellis home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Ellis$165,344
- Kansas$246,055
- 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 Ellis 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.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Ellis18
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Ellis5
Zip codes with a Ellis address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Ellis — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.