Lawson, Missouri.
Typical home $308,077 (+4.9% in a year). Kansas City, MO-KS metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$934 (+137%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $14,397 +5%
- $293,680$308,077 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $72,857 +31%
- $235,219$308,077 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.
- Lawson$1,617
- Missouri$1,393
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Lawson, MO rose 4.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Lawson, Ray County, Missouri
Lawson is a city of 2,541 people in Ray County. Half its households earn more than $65,941 a year and half less, against $74,573 across Ray County; 13% of its people live below the poverty line. 72% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 28% are rented. Unemployment in Ray County was 3.8% in August 2026, and the county had 0.7% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Lawson is a small city in Ray County, Missouri, with a younger population than much of the country. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and household incomes run below the county's. Winters are cold and snowy, summers turn properly warm, and rain and melted snow fall through the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, the building trades and shops close behind. Across Ray County, some of the largest workplaces are Henkel US Operations Corporation-Richmond, Richmond R-xvi Schools and Ray County Memorial Hospital. Relatively few adults hold a four-year degree, and a good number of people work from home.
Things to do. Watkins Woolen Mill State Park and State Historic Site, a protected area a short drive away, is the nearest place to get outdoors. Several creeks run close by, among them Shoal Creek and Clear Creek, also a short drive away. For a bigger outing, the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum is a longer drive away.
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- 1,008households
- 18%of adults have a degree
- 13%below the poverty line
- 25 mintypical commute
- 15%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Ray County had 4,035 jobs in 2025, 0.7% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 38° and lows near 17°; warmest in July, with highs near 88° and lows near 67°. About 19 inches of snow and 41 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Kearney 3E weather station, 7 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Ray County
- Henkel US Operations Corporation-RichmondAdhesives manufacturing280
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters263
- Richmond R-xvi SchoolsSchool district213FTE
- RAY County Memorial HospitalCritical access hospital181FTE
- Lawson R-xiv SchoolsSchool district110FTE
- Harps Food StoreRetail grocery104
- Ideal IndustriesSheltered workshops80
- Orrick R-XI SchoolsSchool district44FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 6 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 774 people in all across the county; Lawson has one of its own. School districts come 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
- Cold wavesVery high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Lawson’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 Ray County and the Kansas City, MO-KS metro.
Lawson home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Lawson$308,077
- Missouri$265,387
- 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 3 Lawson 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.
- Lawson20
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Lawson address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Lawson — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.