Wakarusa, Kansas.
Typical home $312,965 (+0.3% in a year). Topeka, KS metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$911 (+124%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $808 +0%
- $312,157$312,965 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $70,795 +29%
- $242,170$312,965 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.
- Wakarusa$1,643
- Kansas$1,291
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 14 years.
Typical home values in Wakarusa, KS rose 0.3% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Wakarusa, Shawnee County, Kansas
Wakarusa, in Shawnee County, had 242 people in the 2020 census. Unemployment in Shawnee County was 4.5% in August 2026, and the county had 3.2% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Shawnee County work in schools and health care, then government.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Wakarusa is a very small community in Shawnee County, Kansas, where the people tend to be considerably older than in most American towns. Homes here are worth more than many people would guess for a place this size.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with government, manufacturing and retail also employing many. Across Shawnee County, the largest workplaces include Stormont-Vail Regional Health Center, Topeka Public Schools and the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. Unemployment across the county has risen a little over the past year, though the county has added jobs.
Things to do. Lake Shawnee and Lake Sherwood, both reservoirs and lakes within a short drive, are the closest places for time on the water, and the Combat Air Museum is also a short drive away. For a longer outing, the Topeka Zoo and Clinton Lake are a longer drive away. Winters are cold, with summers that turn hot in July, so the lakes are best suited to the warmer months.
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What people in Shawnee County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Shawnee County had 102,421 jobs in 2025, 3.2% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 40° and lows near 19°; warmest in July, with highs near 90° and lows near 69°. About 37 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Topeka Forbes Field weather station, 4 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Shawnee County
- Stormont-vail Regional Health CenterGeneral hospital5,235FTE
- Topeka Public SchoolsSchool district2,075FTE
- Veterans Health AdministrationFederal government · Department of Veterans Affairs1,570
- Goodyear Tire & Rubber CompanyTires manufacturing1,525
- Frito LAYOther snack food manufacturing1,184
- TargetDiscount department stores1,037
- Auburn-Washburn SchoolsSchool district990FTE
- St.francis Health CenterGeneral hospital963FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 164 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 26,916 people in all across the county; Wakarusa has none of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and federal offices from OPM's federal workforce data (2026); 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
- Winter weatherVery high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Wakarusa’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 Shawnee County and the Topeka, KS metro.
Wakarusa home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Wakarusa$312,965
- 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.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Wakarusa address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Wakarusa — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.