Meriden, Kansas.
Typical home $309,903 (+9.3% in a year). Topeka, KS metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$997 (+158%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $26,248 +9%
- $283,655$309,903 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $83,422 +37%
- $226,481$309,903 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.
- Meriden$1,627
- 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 Meriden, KS rose 9.3% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Meriden, Jefferson County, Kansas
Meriden is a city of 744 people in Jefferson County. Half its households earn more than $76,667 a year and half less, against $81,278 across Jefferson County; 6% of its people live below the poverty line. Unemployment in Jefferson County was 4.2% in August 2026, and the county had 1.0% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Jefferson County 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Meriden is a small Kansas city, home to fewer people than most towns of its kind, and household incomes here run a little below the county's. Fewer residents live below the poverty line than you might expect for a place this size, and homes are valued well above what incomes alone would suggest. Winters are cold, with highs near freezing and lows well below it in January, and summers are hot, with July the warmest month of the year. The year brings a fair amount of snow and rain.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with many also in the building trades, shops and manufacturing. Across Jefferson County, some of the largest workplaces are Mammoth Sports Construction, Jefferson West Schools and Jefferson Co Memorial Hosp. Jobs in the county were slightly fewer last year than the year before, and unemployment is a little higher than it was a year ago. Few people work from home, and the typical commute is a moderate one.
Things to do. For time outdoors, Perry Lake and Perry State Park are both a short drive away, and Halfday Creek is close by as well. For a longer day out, the Spencer Museum of Art is a longer drive away, and the Topeka Zoo and Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park are also a longer drive away.
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- 22%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 22 mintypical commute
- 1%work from home
What people in Jefferson County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Jefferson County had 3,824 jobs in 2025, 1.0% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 40° and lows near 20°; warmest in July, with highs near 90° and lows near 69°. About 17 inches of snow and 37 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Topeka Municipal Airport weather station, 9 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Jefferson County
- Mammoth Sports ConstructionOutdoor recreation facility construction431
- Jefferson West SchoolsSchool district140FTE
- Jefferson Co Memorial HospGeneral medical and surgical hospitals125
- Perry Public SchoolsSchool district112FTE
- Oskaloosa Public SchoolsSchool district96FTE
- R&S Maintenance ServicesIndustrial maintenance and manufacturing84
- Jefferson County North SchoolsSchool district72FTE
- Valley Falls SchoolsSchool district66FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 640 people in all across the county; Meriden has one of its own. School districts come 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
- LightningVery high
- Strong windVery high
- Winter weatherVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- Ice stormsRelatively 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 Meriden’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 Jefferson County and the Topeka, KS metro.
Meriden home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Meriden$309,903
- 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.
- Meriden12
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Meriden6
Zip codes with a Meriden address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Meriden — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.