Published October 26, 2026 in Market Update

West JoCo is still tight, even with fewer new listings

By Josh Funnell

Real estate, West JoCo

Nationally, Realtor.com counted active listings up 5.5% year over year in September. That sounds like relief for buyers. But in West JoCo, the Real Estate Data Aggregator counted inventory down 8.7% over the same stretch. More competition here, not less.

Here is the plain version of those numbers. More homes sold than a year ago. Fewer homes were available to buy. Fewer new listings came to market. That math keeps pressure on buyers, even though the national headlines suggest the opposite.

Not every ZIP code is moving the same way

West JoCo covers a lot of ground. Lenexa, Shawnee, Olathe, Gardner, De Soto. Each ZIP has its own story right now. The Real Estate Data Aggregator numbers show real differences between them.

Where it moved fastest

The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted a median of 4 days on market in 66219 Lenexa. That is the tightest number in the whole market. Over 80% of homes there went under contract within two weeks of listing. Inventory in that ZIP dropped 30% from a year before.

66216 Shawnee matched that 5 day median. The Real Estate Data Aggregator showed 74.5% of homes there going under contract within two weeks. Prices in that ZIP were up 2.1% year over year.

Where buyers had a little more breathing room

66227 Lenexa sat at 34 days on market. 66220 Lenexa was at 26 days. Both are still well under what most people would call a slow market, but they are a different experience than the 4 and 5 day ZIPs.

Gardner (66030) added 8 days to its median compared with a year ago, putting it at 22 days. The Real Estate Data Aggregator showed inventory there up 19.7%, which is the opposite of what most other ZIPs saw. More choices, a little more time. Prices still edged up 3.8%.

De Soto (66018) is worth watching. Sales jumped 39.1% year over year there, according to the Real Estate Data Aggregator. New listings were up 57.1%. That is a ZIP that got a lot more active all at once.

What sellers were getting at the closing table

In most of these ZIPs, sellers still closed above list price on average. The Real Estate Data Aggregator put 66216 Shawnee at 101.9% of list. 66219 Lenexa came in at 102.2%. 66218 Shawnee was at 101.8%.

66220 Lenexa was the exception. That ZIP averaged 99.6% of list, and only 30% of homes sold above asking. Higher price point, more days on market, a little more negotiating room. That is a different conversation than the entry level ZIPs.

The national picture, and why it does not match here

Realtor.com reported that 20.8% of listings nationally took a price cut in September. That is the highest September share since 2018. The Federal Housing Finance Agency put national price growth at 2.6% year over year through July.

Those numbers describe a country where some markets are cooling. West JoCo is not one of them right now. Inventory here dropped while sales climbed. That combination keeps the pressure on, whatever the national numbers say.

CNBC reported that a mortgage payment on a median priced home took up about 33% of a median family's income in 2025. That is up from 26% in 2022. Affordability is real and it shapes who can buy. But it has not slowed the pace here, at least not yet.