A 2021 housing study said Overland Park needed to build around 4,500 more homes valued at roughly $321,000 (in 2025 dollars) or less. Since then, just one home has been built in the city at that price point.

That’s according to a new housing needs assessment that determined Overland Park has a persistent shortage of housing, one that’s only getting worse.

Putting it succinctly, Councilmember Amy Antrim, who works professionally as a realtor, said that, “especially in this ‘missing middle’ price range, it’s very, very hard to find homes in our city.”

Though the city has few options when it comes to developing new housing, the assessment could prove to be a first step toward making some headway on building more housing at a more affordable price for more people.

Why is Overland Park studying its housing situation?

The city generated the assessment as a first step toward formally establishing a Reinvestment Housing Incentive District, a type of economic development tool that aims to encourage the creation of new housing or restoration of aging housing by covering some of the development costs.

To create eligibility for this type of district under state law, an assessment must show there’s a shortage of housing that is expected to persist, among other factors.

Overland Park has yet to establish a Reinvestment Housing Incentive District. However, last year, Midwest CRE Advisors proposed building a neighborhood of for-sale single-family and twin villa-style residences, roughly at 6630 and 6680 W. 151st St., that would be financed with the support of such an incentive district.

Overland Park finds a “persistent shortage of housing”

In a presentation earlier this month to the Overland Park City Council Community Development Committee, where she presented the findings of the housing assessment, strategic planning manager Erin Ollig said the data revealed a “persistent shortage of housing,” and that the available housing is frequently at the wrong price point.

For instance, the Johnson County Housing Study from 2021 found that Overland Park needs to build an average of about 1,420 new dwelling units every year through 2030. In reality, the city has averaged fewer than 700 units annually since 2020, meaning the city is well behind that goal. What is being built, Ollig said, is primarily larger single-family homes and multistory, luxury apartments, which aren’t necessarily meeting the housing needs.

More specifically, the study made specific recommendations about cost, detailing how Overland Park needed 4,633 additional owner-occupied units below $250,000 in 2018 dollars, or $321,350 in 2025 dollars. However, the median home value in Overland Park is $384,400, and Ollig said just one home had been built since 2021 in the city at the prescribed price point.

The study also said Overland Park needed 2,706 rental units below $1,000 per month in 2018 dollars, or $1,307 in 2025 dollars. The median rent in Overland Park is instead $1,455 per month, and only one 10-unit project has gone up in that price range since 2021 in the city — a rebuild after a fire.

On top of that, Overland Park has a low vacancy rate (the recommendation is around 5%, while Overland Park’s is 0.6% for owner-occupied units), making it hard to find options, even if you can afford them.

“My takeaway is just that we need to build more of everything as soon as possible, and that’s not controversial at all,” said Councilmember Drew Mitrisin. “There’s an extreme demand for housing in Overland Park, and if we don’t build it, all of our costs of housing will continue to go up, whether that’s rental or ownership.”

What can be done about the housing situation in Overland Park?

Cities themselves are limited in what they can do on the actual housing development front, Assistant City Manager Jack Messer stressed. Cities typically do not buy land for housing development, propose housing projects, or build them; developers usually carry out all of these tasks.

Overland Park has a backlog of approved but so far unbuilt projects. Ollig estimated that there are about 3,200 single-family homes unbuilt in southern Overland Park alone, plus an additional 7,000 multifamily units unbuilt across the city. A large sum of the multifamily housing backlog is in the northern Overland Park Brookridge redevelopment project, said Leslie Karr, the city’s director of planning.

“It kind of indicates that, while developers are seeking and receiving approval, there is something that is not delivering these types of units in the marketplace,” Ollig said, though city staff said they don’t have a specific reason to explain the growing backlog.

All that said, cities do have a lot of authority when it comes to design and development standards, which can contribute to the cost of an end housing product. Currently, Overland Park is working through a multiyear review of its Unified Development Ordinance, a 1,100-page document that lays out such rules and codes.

Additionally, last year, Overland Park launched a Portfolio Homes pilot program designed to expedite some of the time and cost-intensive parts of adding new housing by offering a collection of pre-selected, nearly pre-approved designs for single-family homes and duplexes. However, in early January, Karr said that so far, no development applications have been submitted to the city using those designs.

Looking ahead:

• Ollig said the housing needs assessment will be updated annually, and its findings will be presented to the city’s Community Development Committee.
• At this time, city officials and the city council have not proposed any action related to the findings of the housing needs assessment, though there has been talk of some kind of streamlined zoning tool tied to the Portfolio Homes housing pilot. The specifics of that are unclear.
• If a Reinvestment Housing Incentive District were to be formed in Overland Park, it would require approval from the city as well as the Kansas Department of Commerce.

Keep reading: A Johnson County couple feels squeezed by housing market. Data shows they’re not alone.