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The Midwest has long been touted as having an abundance of affordable, livable communities. Kansas City, the nucleus of the Heartland, is no exception. With good schools, plentiful parks, low housing costs and an active business climate, the metropolitan area is the ideal relocation spot for those who want to have it all without breaking the bank.
Saving Money
TThe Kansas City metropolitan area stretches into both Missouri and Kansas, and according to recent statistics from the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center, the two states were the sixth and fifth least expensive respectively in the United States. Missouri received a rating of 90.5 and Kansas 90.4 on ACCRA’s Cost of Living Index; similar states included Texas with 90.5, Colorado with 104.4 and Kentucky with 90.8.
One of the reasons the area is so affordable is the cost of housing. For the first quarter of 2010, the median price for a single-family home in Kansas City was $130,700 -- comparable markets came in at $127,700 in Louisville, Ky.; $150,100 in Houston; $110,100 in Atlanta; and $224,800 in Denver, Colo., according to statistics from the National Association of Realtors.
Cindy Guttery, president of the Coldwell Banker Relocation Center in Kansas City, has spent years wooing companies and helping people move to the area. She says housing is affordable because Kansas City’s building community is comprised mainly of local builders. Instead of the overhead of national companies, which corner the market in many communities, local builders have much lower margins and are able to keep prices reasonable.
When relocating to the area, the No. 1 topic she is asked about is the quality of area schools. She says it is a pleasant surprise for many relocators to find out they can save money by putting their kids into public rather than private schools. Many of the suburbs are awash with Blue Ribbon school districts. “Private schools are great, and many want their kids there,” she says, “but as far as saving money on education, I tell them you’ll never find a place better than the Kansas City area for public schools.”
Another cost-saving feature of Kansas City is its expansive infrastructure. The area is easy to travel, and you can get from almost any part of town to the opposite end in about 45 minutes. There are numerous main arteries to travel and, as Guttery says, “We measure rush hour in minutes, not hours,” which saves both time and money for the local workforce.
Air travel is also an inexpensive perk to living in Kansas City. Travel costs less because the distance to many places is shorter than if one were on a coast. Guttery also says that because Kansas City International Airport lacks a major airline hub to control pricing, flights are cheaper than in other cities like Chicago or Houston.
For those staying close for entertainment, it is difficult to beat the deals found in Kansas City. The area offers a plethora of diversions that are free to the public. Some include catching a free movie on a summer evening at Crown Center, visiting one of the many local family- and dog-friendly parks or the Deanna Rose Petting Zoo, or touring one of the local companies like Harley Davidson or Boulevard Brewing Company, the area’s largest specialty brewery.
“All of the different free entertainment offered is so accessible,” Guttery says. “There are a lot of free opportunities to enjoy culture and fun activities with your family that you can’t find in other places.”
There are also other opportunities for activities that are low-cost like those through local parks and recreation programs, inexpensive concerts and events, and reasonably priced tickets to Royals and Chiefs games.
Making Money
Wages earned in Kansas City are comparable, if not higher, than those in similar cities in other parts of the country. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the annual mean income for the metropolitan area is $42,340. Other cities include Louisville, $38,920; Houston, $42,880; and Denver, $47,150.
The Kansas City area is home to headquarters of companies from all walks of life, from information technology innovators like Garmin to the health care giant Cerner, as well as Hallmark, YRC Worldwide, Sprint, and Black & Veatch.
On top of the companies headquartered here, Guttery says there are a large number of Fortune 500 organizations with regional offices in the area like General Electric and UPS. Some of the major sectors of employment include health care, local government, and accommodation and food services. The reason companies like H&R Block and American Century Investments were able to flourish in Kansas City is because of the vast entrepreneurial network in the area.
KCSourceLink is one of the major organizations providing assistance to small business owners, connecting them with support and help they need to grow. Maria Meyers, director of KCSourceLink, works with a network of 150 organizations that support small business development, offering everything from business planning and cash flow management to finding a retail location or office space.
Other support links in the area include local chambers of commerce and economic development offices, classes on starting a business, an active angel investor network and business incubators. Entrepreneurs also can get guidance from the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where people can get academic degrees in entrepreneurship, and through the Kauffman Foundation, which works in research and policy and provides education to local entrepreneurs.
“We have a great history of helping people be successful in this town,” Meyers says. “Those leaders who have [started businesses] in the past reach out and help mentor others.”
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