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What Are the Fastest-Growing Kansas City Suburbs?

What Are the Fastest-Growing Kansas City Suburbs?

What Are the Fastest-Growing Kansas City Suburbs?

By Joe Nelson, Retired Air Force, Nelson Home Group Team Leader and Mortgage Loan Originator

The fastest-growing Kansas City suburbs are Spring Hill, Kansas at 35.5%, Parkville, Missouri at 27.8%, Basehor, Kansas at 19.6%, Raymore, Missouri at 16.1%, and De Soto, Kansas at 15.8%. Those are measured from the April 2020 Census count to the Census Bureau’s July 2025 estimate. Overland Park and Lee’s Summit are not on the list.

Moving to Kansas City or thinking about it? Grab my free KC Relocation Guide. It covers the metro side by side, what to expect on both sides of the state line, and how to narrow a list of suburbs down to two.

Which Kansas City Suburbs Grew Fastest From 2020 to 2025?

Here are the fastest-growing Kansas City suburbs, with both numbers. Percentage tells you how fast a place is changing. Headcount tells you how many people actually showed up. A ranking that only gives you one of the two is hiding half the story.

City 2020 Census count July 2025 estimate People added Growth
1. Spring Hill, KS 7,952 10,777 +2,825 +35.5%
2. Parkville, MO 7,117 9,093 +1,976 +27.8%
3. Basehor, KS 6,896 8,249 +1,353 +19.6%
4. Raymore, MO 22,941 26,633 +3,692 +16.1%
5. De Soto, KS 6,118 7,083 +965 +15.8%

Source: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts, Vintage 2025 tables, each city page accessed August 24, 2026. Percentages calculated from the April 1, 2020 Census count to the July 1, 2025 estimate.

Notice the gap between Spring Hill and everybody else. It grew 7.7 percentage points faster than the city in second place. In five years it added roughly one new resident for every three it had in 2020.

How Did I Calculate These Numbers?

One metric, one source, disclosed. The starting figure for every city is its official April 1, 2020 Decennial Census count. The ending figure is the Census Bureau’s July 1, 2025 population estimate, from the Vintage 2025 release published May 14, 2026. The arithmetic in between is mine.

Two guardrails. A city needed at least 5,000 residents at the 2020 Census to be eligible, because a town of 900 people can post a spectacular percentage on a few subdivisions. And the geography is the Kansas City metro area only.

One honest note on the math. If you pull up Census QuickFacts and check my percentages, yours will come out slightly lower on some cities. QuickFacts divides by a revised estimates base rather than the raw 2020 count. Same data, different denominator, and neither one is wrong. I am telling you which one I used so you can reproduce it.

Why Is Spring Hill, Kansas Number One?

Pull quote graphic reading population data tells you what already happened, permit data tells you what is coming, on a deep teal card

Spring Hill pulled 53 single-family permits in March 2026 alone, second most in the metro.

Spring Hill sits on the southern edge of Johnson County, and it went from 7,952 residents to an estimated 10,777. That is 2,825 people in five years.

The building activity matches the population number, which is the check I always want to see. The city told KSHB in May 2026 that it had approved 1,800 new residential dwellings over the past four to five years and issued about 400 new building permits in the prior year. In March 2026 alone, Spring Hill pulled 53 single-family permits, second most of any city in the entire Kansas City metro. Named projects in the pipeline, per the Johnson County Post’s February 2026 rundown, include Wiswell Farms, Hidden Hills at 115 lots, Garrett Ranch at 113 homes plus 255 townhomes, and Fox Hollow at 352 homes. My Spring Hill community page has current prices and listings.

Population data tells you what already happened. Permit data tells you what is coming. When the two agree, the growth is real and it is continuing.

What Is Driving Growth in the Other Four?

Why Is Parkville, Missouri Growing So Fast?

Parkville, Missouri, up 27.8%. The Northland’s growth leader is not Liberty and it is not Smithville. The development everybody points to is Creekside, on nearly 300 acres where Interstate 435 meets Missouri Highway 45, with 148 single-family homes, 272 townhomes, 416 apartments and $200 million of investment already in the ground. Parkville’s mayor described it on KCUR in June 2026 as being in the process of adding over 1,000 housing units. On March 17, 2026 the Board of Aldermen approved rezoning and a preliminary plan for Creekside West R4, another 246 residential units. That approval is too recent to appear in these census figures. It is approved, not built, so it lands in a future reading rather than this one. My Parkville community page covers what the market looks like on the ground.

Why Is Basehor, Kansas Growing So Fast?

Basehor, Kansas, up 19.6%. Leavenworth County, straight west of the state line. The number that matters here is not population, it is permits: in May 2026 Basehor issued more single-family permits than Overland Park, a city more than twenty times its size. Friday’s post has the full month-by-month comparison. My Basehor community page has the current numbers.

Why Is Raymore, Missouri Growing So Fast?

Raymore, Missouri, up 16.1%. Raymore added 3,692 residents, the largest headcount gain of anyone in the top five, and it is the only city on the list above 20,000 people, which makes a percentage that size harder to earn. For about two years the city fought a proposed landfill near its northern limit. On April 15, 2024 the city council unanimously approved a $3.73 million settlement that ended the project, and the governor signed related legislation on May 6, 2024. The permit activity since then tells the story. City leaders told KSHB in March 2025 that Raymore issued 220 permits in 2024 for new homes, new subdivisions and renovations of existing homes, and that more than 600 new single-family lots had been approved across White Tail Run, Park Side, Creekmoor, Madison Valley and Creekside Ranch. My Raymore community page has the current market numbers.

Why Is De Soto, Kansas Growing So Fast?

De Soto, Kansas, up 15.8%. The Panasonic plant is why you know the name. It is a 4.7 million square foot facility that opened in July 2025, built with nearly $830 million in Kansas tax credits. Be careful with the employment numbers, because the coverage has been loose. A Panasonic representative told the Kansas Reflector in June 2026 that the plant employs 1,800 people with four production lines running. It was projected to reach 4,000 at full capacity. Those are two different numbers. The ramp to full capacity was delayed by Trump administration changes in support for green energy and electric vehicles. In June 2026 Panasonic said it is adding data center battery production in Kansas as part of a $2.18 billion global investment, with first cells expected in late 2028 or early 2029, and that EV battery cell production will continue at the Kansas facility. My De Soto community page covers the housing side.

One objection worth answering before it lands in the comments: De Soto annexed thousands of acres of land for that plant, so did annexation manufacture the growth? No. The Census Bureau’s revised starting point for De Soto sits 7 people above the raw 2020 count. The annexed ground was mostly empty. The people are real.

Which Kansas City Suburbs Missed the Top Five?

Pull quote graphic reading a floor you do not disclose is a thumb on the scale, on a cream card

North Kansas City grew 25.7% but started below the 5,000 resident floor, so it sits out.

Oak Grove, Missouri is the real number six, and it missed the cut by nine tenths of a percentage point. Below it are the names people usually guess first.

City 2020 Census count July 2025 estimate People added Growth
Oak Grove, MO 8,157 9,370 +1,213 +14.9%
Peculiar, MO 5,621 6,365 +744 +13.2%
Gardner, KS 23,287 26,154 +2,867 +12.3%
Kearney, MO 10,404 11,296 +892 +8.6%
Smithville, MO 10,406 11,160 +754 +7.2%
Lee’s Summit, MO 101,108 107,514 +6,406 +6.3%
Overland Park, KS 197,238 203,677 +6,439 +3.3%

Source: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts, Vintage 2025 tables, accessed August 24, 2026. Same method as the top five: April 1, 2020 Census count to July 1, 2025 estimate.

Gardner, Kansas is the interesting case in that table. It added 2,867 people, more raw bodies than Spring Hill added, and it still finished eighth, because Gardner started from a much larger base.

One asterisk I owe you. North Kansas City grew 25.7%, from 4,467 residents to an estimated 5,613. That rate would have placed it third. It is off the list because it was under my 5,000 person floor in 2020. I am telling you that rather than quietly leaving it out. A floor you do not disclose is a thumb on the scale.

What Do the Fastest-Growing Kansas City Suburbs Mean for a Buyer?

Pull quote graphic reading growth tells you where people are going, it does not tell you what your house will be worth, on a teal card

Raymore added 3,692 residents, the largest headcount gain of any city in the top five.

A growth ranking and a list of the best suburbs in Kansas City to actually buy in are two different documents, and people conflate them constantly. This is where I stop being the guy with the spreadsheet and start being the guy who is also a licensed mortgage loan originator. Growth does not mean appreciation. Growth tells you where people are going. It does not tell you what your house will be worth.

There is national research putting a number on how weakly population growth actually moves prices, and it is weaker than almost anyone assumes. Thursday’s post walks through the study and what it means for a Kansas City buyer.

What growth does do is mechanical. It puts new construction on the market right next to resale homes, so your eventual competition includes a builder running incentives as a standing program across the whole subdivision. New subdivisions also frequently carry a special assessment on the tax bill, and the term is set per district rather than by any standard rule. Thursday’s post covers both of those in full, including how the disclosure rules differ between Kansas and Missouri.

For current prices, days on market and inventory in these markets, my latest Kansas City market update runs off Heartland MLS data and that is where the live numbers are. I am deliberately not putting per-suburb median prices in this post, because the only city-level price data I could source for all five towns came from consumer portals on mismatched date ranges, and side by side those would have been misleading.

What Should You Ask Before Buying in a Fast-Growing Suburb?

Three questions, and none of them are about the house. Ask your title company for the special assessment history on the specific parcel, not the subdivision generally. Ask the city or the builder which construction phase your lot sits in and when utility capacity for that phase comes online. And ask how many competing new-construction homes are scheduled to deliver within a mile of you in the next 24 months, because those are the homes you will be selling against later.

Get every one of those answers in writing before you are emotionally attached to a floor plan.

Tuesday’s companion post, Overland Park population growth and why it missed the top five, works through the denominator problem in full.

Wednesday’s companion post, buying a house in Spring Hill Kansas and what to ask first, takes the number one city and works through lot phasing, special assessments, and utility timing.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the fastest-growing suburb in Kansas City?

Spring Hill, Kansas. It went from 7,952 residents at the April 2020 Census to a July 2025 Census Bureau estimate of 10,777, which is 2,825 new residents and 35.5% growth. That is the highest percentage of any Kansas City metro city that had at least 5,000 residents in 2020. Parkville, Missouri is second at 27.8%, and Basehor, Kansas is third at 19.6%.

Is Overland Park still growing?

Yes. Overland Park went from 197,238 residents in 2020 to an estimated 203,677 in July 2025, a gain of 6,439 people. That reads as only 3.3% growth because the starting number is so large. Tuesday’s post works through why percentage and headcount answer two different questions.

Why isn’t North Kansas City on this list?

North Kansas City grew 25.7%, from 4,467 residents in 2020 to an estimated 5,613 in July 2025. That rate would place it third. It is excluded because this ranking requires at least 5,000 residents at the 2020 Census, and North Kansas City was under that floor. The cutoff keeps very small starting populations from dominating a percentage list.

Where does this Kansas City population data come from?

Two U.S. Census Bureau sources. The starting figure is each city’s official April 1, 2020 Decennial Census count. The ending figure is the Census Bureau’s July 1, 2025 population estimate from the Vintage 2025 release, published May 14, 2026. The percentages are my own arithmetic. Census QuickFacts displays slightly different percentages because it divides by a revised estimates base rather than the raw count.

Does buying in a fast-growing suburb mean my home will appreciate?

No. Growth measures where people are moving, not what homes are worth. In a fast-growing suburb your eventual resale competes with new construction, and newer subdivisions often carry a special assessment on the tax bill. Thursday’s post covers the research and the mechanics in full.

How many of the top five are on the Kansas side?

Three of the top five. Spring Hill, Basehor, and De Soto are all in Kansas. Parkville and Raymore are in Missouri. That split comes down to where undeveloped land sits inside a reasonable commute of the metro core, since percentage growth of this size generally requires open ground to build on. It is a geography result, not a verdict on either state.

Ready to Talk?

If you are weighing two of these suburbs against each other, that is a fifteen minute conversation and it costs you nothing. I will tell you what the assessment situation looks like, what your competition will be when you eventually sell, and which side of the state line actually fits your numbers. My Kansas vs Missouri cost breakdown is a good place to start. Call me or send me an email.

Call: (816) 680-6624
KW KC North Office: (816) 452-4200
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://nelsonhomegroupkc.com/

Nelson Home Group, Keller Williams KC North, 1508 NW Vivion Rd, #205, Kansas City, MO 64118

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