Great Bend, Kansas.
Typical home $124,796 (+9.3% in a year), asking rent $756 . Great Bend, KS metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$363 (+125%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $10,628 +9%
- $114,168$124,796 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $34,565 +38%
- $90,230$124,796 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.
- Great Bend$655
- Kansas$1,291
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 11 years.
Typical home values in Great Bend, KS rose 9.3% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Great Bend, Barton County, Kansas
Great Bend is a city of 14,733 people in Barton County. Half its households earn more than $54,139 a year and half less, against $58,851 across Barton County; 17% of its people live below the poverty line. 56% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 44% are rented. Unemployment in Barton County was 4.4% in August 2026, and the county had 1.3% fewer 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Great Bend is a small city in central Kansas, and its residents are somewhat younger than in many towns of its size. Incomes here run below the county's, and a fair share of households live below the poverty line. Homes are modest in price and rents are modest too, and most homes are lived in by their owners. Winters are cold and summers are hot, with a little snow and a moderate amount of rain and melted snow over the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by the building trades, restaurants and hotels, and shops. Among the largest workplaces in Great Bend are Walmart, the hospital campus run by Ukhs, and Dillon Stores, a grocery chain. Jobs across Barton County have slipped a little over the past year, and unemployment there is slightly higher than it was a year ago. Commutes are short, and few people work from home.
Things to do. The Great Bend Zoo is in or beside town, and Fort Zarah, an old fort site, is a short drive away. For a longer outing, Quivira National Wildlife Refuge is a protected area, and Fort Larned National Historic Site is another protected area, both a longer drive away.
Report a mistake
- 6,043households
- 20%of adults have a degree
- 17%below the poverty line
- 14 mintypical commute
- 6%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Barton County had 11,375 jobs in 2025, 1.3% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 42° and lows near 18°; warmest in July, with highs near 91° and lows near 65°. About 12 inches of snow and 27 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Great Bend 3W weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Great Bend
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters335
- Ukhs Great Bend CampusGeneral hospital287FTE
- Dillon StoresSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores109
- Medicalodges Great BendSkilled nursing facilities64
- UPSCouriers and express delivery services56
- Midwest EnergyDistribution of electric power42
- Dillon StoresSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores37
- Sutherlands High PlainsHome centers, building materials37
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 11 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 801 people in all. Hospitals come 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
- Winter weatherVery high
- Strong windVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- HailRelatively 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 Great Bend’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 Barton County and the Great Bend, KS metro.
Great Bend home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Great Bend$124,796
- 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 4 Great Bend 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.
- Great Bend24.15%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Great Bend78
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Great Bend16
Zip codes with a Great Bend address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Great Bend — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.