Kelso, Missouri.
Typical home $198,757 (+1.2% in a year). Sikeston, MO metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$415 (+66%) since Feb 2022.
- 1 year
- Up $2,393 +1%
- $196,365$198,757 since Sep 2025
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.
- Kelso$1,043
- Missouri$1,393
- United States$1,922
Typical home values in Kelso, MO rose 1.2% over the past year — in step with the nation.
Living in Kelso, Scott County, Missouri
Kelso is a village of 554 people in Scott County. Unemployment in Scott County was 4.0% in August 2026, and the county had about as many jobs in 2025 as the year before. The most people in Scott County 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Kelso is a small village in Scott County, Missouri, where neighbors are likely to know one another. Homes here cost less than the typical home across the country, and a four-year degree is held by a smaller share of adults than in much of the nation. Winters are cold and summers are hot, with a good deal of rain and melted snow through the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops, and transport and warehouse jobs also common. Across Scott County, the largest workplaces include Missouri Delta Medical Center, Magnum Ice Cream Company and the Sikeston R Schools. Very few people work from home, so most commute to a job elsewhere in the area.
Things to do. A short drive away, Cape La Croix Creek is a river good for a walk along the water, and Fort D is a fort for anyone interested in local history. Farther off, a longer drive brings you to Trail of Tears State Park, a protected area with quiet places to spend a day outdoors. Horseshoe Lake, also a longer drive away, offers open water for those who like to fish or simply sit by a lake.
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- 246households
- 25%of adults have a degree
- 3%work from home
What people in Scott County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Scott County had 16,184 jobs in 2025, about as many as the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 43° and lows near 26°; warmest in July, with highs near 89° and lows near 69°. About 48 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Scott County
- Magnum Ice Cream CompanyIce cream manufacturing750
- Missouri Delta Medical CenterGeneral hospital708FTE
- Orgill Sikeston Distribution CenterHardware merchant wholesalers553
- Sikeston R-6 SchoolsSchool district500FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters371
- Havco Wood ProductsFlooring, wood, manufacturing247
- Do it BestGeneral warehousing and storage168
- FedExCourier and express delivery services161
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 47 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 4,412 people in all across the county; Kelso has none 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
- TornadoesVery high
- Strong windRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Kelso’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 Scott County and the Sikeston, MO metro.
Kelso home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Kelso$198,757
- Missouri$265,387
- 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.
Zip codes with a Kelso address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Kelso — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zillow publishes no zip-level series with this city on the address.