Harper, Kansas.
Typical home $103,073 (+6.6% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$307 (+131%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $6,337 +7%
- $96,737$103,073 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $28,928 +39%
- $74,145$103,073 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.
- Harper$541
- 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 Harper, KS rose 6.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Harper, Harper County, Kansas
Harper is a city of 1,313 people in Harper County. 63% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 37% are rented. Unemployment in Harper County was 4.1% in August 2026, and the county had 1.7% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in manufacturing, then schools and health care.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Harper is a small city in south-central Kansas, with a population that has stayed modest and a median age somewhat younger than many rural places. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and typical home values are low compared with much of the country. Winters are cold, with a little snow, and summers are hot, with July the warmest month and a fair amount of rain and melted snow across the year.
Work. Residents work mainly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, and in shops, with some in farming. Across Harper County, the largest workplaces include Harper Industries, which makes harvesting machinery and equipment, Patterson Health Center, a critical access hospital, and Chaparral Schools, a school district. Few adults have a four-year degree, and very few work from home, and unemployment in the county is unchanged from a year earlier.
Things to do. The Souders Historical Museum is a museum a longer drive away, and a good stop for local history. For time outdoors, the Ninnescah River and the South Fork Ninnescah River are both rivers a longer drive away, suited to a day by the water.
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- 506households
- 10%of adults have a degree
- 19%below the poverty line
- 2%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Harper County had 2,464 jobs in 2025, 1.7% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 45° and lows near 22°; warmest in July, with highs near 93° and lows near 70°. About 11 inches of snow and 33 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Anthony weather station, 9 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Harper County
- Harper IndustriesHarvesting machinery and equipment, agriculture, manufacturing177
- Hospital District No. 6 of Harper County KansasHospitals, general pediatric170
- Patterson Health CenterCritical access hospital147FTE
- Chaparral SchoolsSchool district146FTE
- Elkhorn Valley PackingBeef, primal and sub-primal cuts, made from purchased carcasses115
- Attica SchoolsSchool district34FTE
- AVE PLP423820 farm and garden machinery and equipment merchant wholesalers23
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 4 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 485 people in all across the county; Harper 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
- HailVery high
- Cold wavesVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- Strong windVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Harper’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 Harper County.
Harper home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Harper$103,073
- 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.
- Harper9
Zip codes with a Harper address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Harper — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.