Kansas City Metro Overview

Kansas City's apartment market continues to outperform, driven by robust demand and a modest, balanced supply pipeline. Annual absorption surged to nearly 6,300 units through Q3 2025, fueling 2.2% year-over-year rent growth, among the Top 10 highest of the nation's 50 largest markets. Occupancy climbed 120 bps YoY to 96.2%, reflecting the metro's tight fundamentals. New supply remains manageable, with just 4,358 units delivered over the past year (a 2.3% inventory increase) and only 3,061 units, a mere 1.6% of inventory, slated for delivery in the coming year and spread across 8 of the metro's 11 submarkets. This measured pipeline positions Kansas City for continued rent growth and sustained occupancy levels. Investor appetite remains strong, with 4-quarter transaction volume climbing to $1.55B in Q3 2025, a stark increase from the $1.22B recorded a year earlier.

Rent

•Kansas City rents increased 2.2% for the period, ending Q3 '25 to an average of $1,414/Unit, or $1.54/SF.
•Kansas City's annual rent growth was 8th highest among the nation's Top 50 markets, outperforming the U.S. (-0.1%) but slightly lagging Midwest growth rates (2.4%), according to CBRE EA.
•Class C properties saw the largest rent increase at 2.7% (to $1,055/Unit, $1.13/SF), followed by Class B at 2.1% (to $1,398/Unit, $1.49/SF) and Class A at 1.7% (to $1,801/Unit, $1.88/SF).
•The Kansas City Northland led the metro in rent growth with Clay County posting 4.0% growth.

Occupancy

•Over the last four quarters, Kansas City metro occupancy increased 1.2% to a Q3 '25 average of 96.2%.
•YoY occupancy in Class B product was highest at 96.4% (+1.3%), followed by Class C at 96.1% (+1.5%) and Class A at 95.9% (+0.7%).
•Johnson County, KS submarkets posted some of the metro's top occupancies, led by Central Kansas City at 94.0%.

Supply

•New supply for the year ending Q3 '25 totaled 4,358 units, expanding metro inventory by a modest 2.3% to 253,849 units.
•Submarkets with the highest annual deliveries were Central Kansas City at 1,034 units (3.4% of inventory), Shawnee/Lenexa/Mission at 849 units (4.7% of inventory), and Wyandotte County/Leavenworth at 678 units (4.7% of inventory).
•As of Q3 '25, there were 6,281 units under construction across all 10 of the 11 metro submarkets (3.3% of inventory). About half of the active pipeline (3,061 units or 1.62% of inventory), will deliver in the next four quarters across all but two metro submarkets.

Demand

•Annual demand of 6,275 units far exceeded twelve-month supply by +1,917 units.
•Submarkets with the highest quarterly demand were Shawnee/Lenexa/Mission at 1,119 units, Shawnee/Lenexa at 1,119 units, and Wyandotte County/Leavenworth at 769 units.
•Submarkets with highest annual demand were Central Kansas City at 1,252 units (+212 units over supply), Wyandotte County/Leavenworth at 1,064 units (+386 units), and Shawnee/Lenexa/Mission at 991 units (+142 units).

Transactions

•The metro completed $1.55B in sales in Q3 '25, above the Q3 '24 volume of $553.9 million.
•Rolling 4-quarter volume for the quarter ending Q3 '25 was $1.42 billion, up 27% from the same period last year of $937.3 million.
•Over the quarter, the average price per unit in the metro was $155,508, which was lower than Q2 '25 price per unit of $159,641. This decrease was largely due to an influx of Class C deals traded in Q3 '25.
•In YTD sales activity, buyer composition was led by private, institutional, and REIT capital at 57.2%, 29.5% and 10.3%, respectively. Seller composition was led by 68.2% private, 27.7% institutional and 3.6% cross-border capital.

Economy

•Kansas City's unemployment rate averaged 4.15% through September '25, on par with the national average of 4.16% for the same period.
•The metro's employment base sits around 1.151 million jobs, sitting roughly 56,200 jobs, or 5%, above the pre-pandemic level in February 2020.
•Over the past four quarters, job gains were highest in Construction (+5.9% growth), Other Services (+3.6%), and Financial Activities (+3.3%).
•For the year ending Q3 '25, metro single-family home prices increased 2.5% to a median price of $343,000.

Sources: CBRE Econometric Advisors (EA), MSCI Real Capital Analytics, Bureau of Labor Statistics

Metro Statistics

Q3 2025| CBRE EA

Total Inventory

253,849

units across 16 submarkets

Avg Vacancy Rate

3.8%

metro-wide average

Avg Monthly Rent

$1,414

across all submarkets

Avg Rent Growth

+2.2%

year-over-year

Population

2.31M

metro area residents

Economic Development Pipeline

Major investments across 6 metro counties

Total Investment

$117.2B

Jobs Created

36,315

Total Projects

Metro Counties

Investment by County

Platte: $105.1B

Johnson: $5.1B

Jackson: $3.8B

Wyandotte: $1.9B

Clay: $0.8B

Cass: $0.5B

Property Inventory

Comprehensive multifamily property database

Total Properties

1684

Total Units

321,904

Avg Rent

$920

Avg Occupancy

77.6%

Units by Property Class

Class A

55,590(218 properties)

Class B

155,920(792 properties)

Class C

109,309(669 properties)

Alert Status

Active monitoring and notifications

Active Alerts

Pending Alerts

Submarkets by Inventory

Click any submarket for detailed analysis • Source: CBRE Q3 2025

Central Kansas City

6.00% vacancy • $1,625.64/mo

31,750

Inventory

Clay County

3.80% vacancy • $1,250.42/mo

18,928

Inventory

Shawnee/Lenexa/Mission

2.50% vacancy • $1,488.23/mo

17,220

Inventory

Shawnee/Lenexa

2.50% vacancy • $1,488.23/mo

17,220

Inventory

South Kansas City/Grandview

4.80% vacancy • $1,144.39/mo

16,778

Inventory

Kansas City Multifamily Market Overview • Data Source: CBRE Q3 2025