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Wichita housing prices grew past expectations last year. Prices are likely to go up again in 2025.

Dan Moyle
/
flickr Creative Commons

Limited housing supply is the main driver behind the rising prices, according to a new report from Wichita State University.

Wichita single-family home prices are predicted to grow almost 8% next year, according to a new report from Wichita State University’s Center for Real Estate.

The price increases are driven by a limited housing supply in Wichita, according to the 2025 Kansas Housing Markets Forecast.

The predicted price increase of 7.7% doesn’t reach the pace housing prices grew in the years after the pandemic.

Still, it’s higher than historical norms in Wichita, said Stanley Longhofer, author of the report. Longhofer is also a professor and director of WSU’s Center for Real Estate.

“Traditionally, our home price appreciation in Wichita – we might expect in a good, healthy market with low inflation, maybe we've got 3 to 4% home price appreciation,” Longhofer said.

Last year, Longhofer predicted Wichita’s single-family housing market would return to a 4% growth rate. Instead, home prices appreciated by nearly 11% in 2023.

Single family home prices in Wichita grew 10.8% in 2023 and are expected to keep growing in 2024 and 2025.
Wichita State University Center for Real Estate
Single family home prices in Wichita grew 10.8% in 2023 and are expected to keep growing in 2024 and 2025.

He attributes the unexpected growth to shrinking mortgage rates, which have decreased since last fall.

“As mortgage rates have begun to come back down, that has caused … the demand side of the market to increase,” Longhofer said.

Lower mortgage rates have also buoyed new single-family home construction, which is expected to grow about 5% in 2025, according to the report. Construction had previously been shrinking since 2022.

But Longhofer said the new housing is unlikely to offset the outsized demand. High construction costs are still a drag on new builds, especially those priced for less than $300,000.

“I just don't think that we're going to see a glut of new housing on the market that's going to cause home prices to somehow decline,” Longhofer said.

New home construction in Wichita.
Wichita State University Center for Real Estate
New home construction in Wichita.

Still, Longhofer said he thinks Wichita’s housing market is returning to a sense of normalcy. The Mortgage Bankers Association is forecasting that mortgage rates will end the year just below 6%, which Longhofer said is consistent with a healthy market with low inflation. And Longhofer said, anecdotally, current buyers are more careful in their approach as opposed to the housing frenzy following the pandemic.

“Buyers remain cautious in the face of higher home prices and financing costs and appear willing to pass on homes they deem overpriced or in less than perfect condition,” the report states.

Celia Hack is a general assignment reporter for KMUW, where she covers everything from housing to environmental issues to Sedgwick County. Before KMUW, she worked at The Wichita Beacon covering local government and as a freelancer for The Shawnee Mission Post and the Kansas Leadership Center’s The Journal. She is originally from Westwood, Kansas, but Wichita is her home now.