Sterling, Kansas.
Typical home $167,054 (+9.5% in a year). Hutchinson, KS metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$513 (+141%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $14,457 +9%
- $152,597$167,054 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $47,282 +39%
- $119,772$167,054 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.
- Sterling$877
- Kansas$1,291
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 10 years.
Typical home values in Sterling, KS rose 9.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Sterling, Rice County, Kansas
Sterling is a city of 2,248 people in Rice County. Half its households earn more than $54,922 a year and half less, against $63,925 across Rice County; 6% of its people live below the poverty line. 76% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 24% are rented. Unemployment in Rice County was 4.2% in August 2026, and the county had 1.6% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Sterling is a small city in Rice County, Kansas, with a young population for a town its size. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and typical home values and household incomes sit below the county's. Winters are cold and summers are hot, with only light snowfall through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, restaurants and hotels, and shops also providing work. Sterling College, Jacam Chemical Company and KMW, which makes farm tractors and attachments, are among the largest workplaces in town. A good share of adults hold a four-year degree.
Things to do. Smisor Stadium is in or beside town, and Jarvis Creek and Rattlesnake Creek are both a short drive away for time by the water. For a longer outing, the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, a museum, and Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, a protected area, are each a longer drive away.
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- 835households
- 40%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 8%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Rice County had 3,829 jobs in 2025, 1.6% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 42° and lows near 20°; warmest in July, with highs near 92° and lows near 69°. About 9 inches of snow and 29 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Sterling weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Sterling
- Sterling CollegeUniversity or college190
- Jacam Chemical CompanyAdministrative management services130
- KMWTractors and attachments, farm-type, manufacturing110
- Sterling SchoolsSchool district71FTE
- Agewise Living Inc., d.b.a. Sterling VillageHomes for the elderly with nursing care47
- Compass Group31
- Dillon StoresSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores28
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 5 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 346 people in all. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) 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
- Ice stormsVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- Winter weatherVery high
- Strong windVery high
- Cold wavesVery high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Sterling’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 Rice County and the Hutchinson, KS metro.
Sterling home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Sterling$167,054
- 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.
- Sterling10
Zip codes with a Sterling address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Sterling — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.