Ransom, Kansas.
Typical home $115,432 (+2.7% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$324 (+115%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $3,085 +3%
- $112,347$115,432 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $23,086 +25%
- $92,346$115,432 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.
- Ransom$606
- Kansas$1,291
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 16 years.
Typical home values in Ransom, KS rose 2.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Ransom, Ness County, Kansas
Ransom is a city of 260 people in Ness County. Unemployment in Ness County was 3.1% in August 2026, and the county had 0.8% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Ness County work in farming, 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Ransom is a very small farming town in western Kansas, the kind of place where people tend to know one another. Homes here cost far less than the national typical, and winters are cold while summers turn properly hot. Fewer adults hold a four-year degree here than in much of the country, and a good number of households live on limited means.
Work. Many residents work in farming, followed by schools, hospitals and social care, other services, and government. Across Ness County, the largest workplaces include the Ness County Hospital District, Grisell Memorial Hospital District and Ness City Schools. Very few people work from home, and the county has lost a small share of its jobs over the past year, though unemployment there is low and has eased a little since last year.
Things to do. Cedar Bluff State Park is a protected area, and Cedar Bluff Reservoir is the water beside it, both a longer drive away. The Bukovina Society Headquarters and Museum is also a longer drive away and suits anyone curious about local history. Outings from Ransom are mostly day trips, so it helps to plan the drive.
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- 124households
- 16%of adults have a degree
- 15%below the poverty line
- 2%work from home
What people in Ness County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Ness County had 1,076 jobs in 2025, 0.8% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 43° and lows near 16°; warmest in July, with highs near 93° and lows near 65°.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Brownell 3NW weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Ness County
- Ness County Hospital DistrictCritical access hospital73FTE
- Grisell Memorial Hospital DistCritical access hospital52FTE
- Ness City SchoolsSchool district47FTE
- Western Plains SchoolsSchool district31FTE
- BTIPlanting machinery and equipment, farm-type, merchant wholesalers30
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 2 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 150 people in all across the county; Ransom has two 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
- Strong windVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- Winter weatherVery 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 Ransom’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 Ness County.
Ransom home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Ransom$115,432
- 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.
Zip codes with a Ransom address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Ransom — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.