Thinking About Moving to Wichita, Kansas? Here’s What You’ll Want to Know First

Wichita by the Numbers: Quick Facts at a Glance 

A historic cattle town on the Chisolm Trail, Wichita may have started out as a railroad hub and an agricultural hotbed, but it quickly rode those enterprising thermals to make itself the Air Capital of the World. Despite many ups and downs, this aviation and aerospace leader still holds itself aloft in the global marketplace with sheer force, producing a third of the general aviation planes in the U.S.  

As the home of Spirit AeroSystems and the McConnell Air Force Base, Wichita has leveraged its industriousness in other industries as well, making it an appealing city to move to for a career. And, of course, Wichita State University keeps the city’s workforce and sense of community strong, while also ensuring a strong supply of great bars and coffee houses. 

These are just a few of the reasons why Wichita’s population has grown to roughly 400,000, making it the largest city in Kansas. The median home price in Wichita is $179,500 — nearly half the U.S. average — and the homeownership rate is close to 60%. At $63,072, the median household income is far lower than the U.S. average, so you’ll want to consider carefully how your own salary might change if you move here.   

But if anything sells the city on its own, it’s the cultural amenities. Creative hubs like the Douglas Design District and the numerous historic sites and museums — from Old Cowtown to the Mid-America All-Indian Museum and the Wichita Art Museum — make it an enriching city to call home. 

If you’re looking for an affordable college town with low-key Midwestern cool and a side of cowboy vibes, Wichita may be the place for you. Learn more about the Air Capital below in our moving guide, where we’ll discuss the pros and cons of living in Wichita, from the job and housing markets to neighborhood hotspots, the best places to hang out, and even the weather.  

Why Wichita is Gaining Attention — Fast 

With a lower cost of living and slower pace of life, Wichita is an increasingly appealing option for young professionals hoping to balance cosmopolitan dreams with economic realities. Wichita’s family-friendly museums, its beautiful greenspaces and its laid-back, outgoing spirit have made it an easy sell. And that’s borne out by its steadily increasing population. Wichita has gained nearly 15,000 new residents in the past 15 years — a respectable growth rate that doesn’t raise the eyebrows of boomtown alarmists. A stable and diverse employment base and affordable housing — even by Kansas standards — make Wichita a city to watch for the future. 

Solid, Affordable Living 

Wichita may be the biggest city in the state, but its real estate doesn’t carry the largest price tags. Both renters and buyers in Wichita can save money on housing, compared to typical Kansas prices, and the gap between national rates is even greater. Between 2019 and 2023, the median value of an American home was $303,400, while Wichita’s was only $179,500 — that’s more than $20,000 below the statewide median. In the trendy college town of Lawrence, home values neared the $270,000 mark while Overland Park’s now tops $380,000.  

If you plan to lease an apartment or house in Wichita, you might also be pleasantly surprised to discover the median price doesn’t even break a grand — comparable to Topeka — but $500 less than rentals in Overland Park.     

But wages trend lower in Wichita, so you may find you have less to spend in this city versus the average U.S. resident. The median household income in Wichita is $63,072, and the annual per capita income is estimated at $40,773 — close to what the MIT Living Wage calculator estimates an individual without children would need in pre-tax earnings to afford these essentials each year: 

• Food: $4,143 
• Medical: $3,582 
• Housing: $8,300 
• Transportation: $10,116 
• Civic: $3,126 
• Internet/Mobile: $1,433 
• Miscellaneous: $4,112 
• Taxes: $6,343 

Neighborhoods That Fit Your Style 

Like many of our favorite Midwestern cities, Wichita has so many different appealing neighborhoods, it’s hard to narrow down to our favorites.  

Downtown Wichita is hardly a monolith, with the spoils of the riverfront, cultural hotspots like the Century II Performing Arts & Convention Center and local eateries like Lottē, refreshing the possibility of what Midwestern cuisine can be. Downtown is still mostly a renter’s market, but you’ll find the occasional loft or condo here, if you’re committed to living in the city core.  

East of downtown, College Hill is charm central, with historic Tudors, gingerbreads, bungalows and more expansive estates. You might even be neighbors with Frank Lloyd Wright’s Allen House. The Douglas Design District, which stretches across I-135 from Old Town to Crown Heights, makes this one of the more walkable areas, too, and you’ll find galleries, trendy dining spots and great coffee and boba joints along the way.  

On the west side of downtown, the Midtown and Riverside districts are bound by the waters of the Arkansas and Little Arkansas rivers. It’s not just the waterways that converge here but the cultural destinations, from the Mid-America All-Indian Museum to Botanica, Wichita’s gorgeous gardens. Whether you live in one of the area’s tidy, tiny clapboards or one of its tony Victorians, you’ll have access to some of the best green spaces in the city, including Oak Park and the Arthur B. Sim Golf Course. 

Job Opportunities and the Local Economy 

Wichita’s economy has long been driven by the aerospace and aviation industry, and the top three employers in the region operate in this arena. Spirit AeroSystems — headquartered in Wichita — is the city’s single largest employer (13,000 employees), followed by Textron Aviation (9,350 employees) and McConnell Air Force Base. Other key employers include Wichita Public Schools, Ascension Via Christi Health, Koch Industries, Cargill Protein – North America, Cox Communications and Wichita State University.  

Wichita’s unemployment rate has remained relatively low for the past six months, sitting at 4.0% in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The total number of nonfarm, civilian workers rose to 315,900, with modest gains in mining, logging and construction (+2.2%), financial activities (+3.2%), and education and health services (+3.7%). 

Trade, transportation and utilities remains the top industry sector in the city, suppling 54,100 jobs, but manufacturing and education and health services supplies an additional 50,000+ jobs apiece. Naturally, in this Air Force town, the government is one of the area’s most critical employers, and with 44,600 employees, you’re likely to know someone (or be someone) on the city, state or federal payroll. 

From BBQ to Ballet: What It’s Like to Live Here  

Wichita is nothing if not kid friendly. With the Great Plains Transportation Museum, the Tanganyika Wildlife Park, Rock River Rapids, and a fabulous science museum — Exploration Place — you can find spots indoors and out, wet and dry, even past and future to take those inexhaustible bundles of energy.  

If one building isn’t enough to contain your crew, the Old Cowtown Museum is the easiest solution. This city-size living history extravaganza has all the old-timey experiences your please-save-me-from-my-family heart desires, from the requisite blacksmithery to a drugstore soda fountain, which — alas — no longer fills hand-compounded narcotics. But you can still do your best Jesse James and swagger into the Cowtown saloon for a swig of sarsaparilla. Tempted as you might be to then hold up the Cowtown bank, it’s unlikely you’ll make off with as much loot as the James crew supposedly did in the 1878 Arkansas City bank robbery, just south of Wichita. Anyway, you don’t want to live out your days in the Cowtown jail, do you? 

This old cattletown isn’t just for kiddos, though. Everyone will be impressed by the Wichita Art Museum, the Kansas African American Museum and the Mid-America All-Indian Museum — one of the most popular sites in the city that’s anchored by the towering Keeper of the Plains statue created by artist and museum founder Blackbear Bosin. In the evenings, entertain yourselves with a performance of Candide by the Wichita Grand Opera or see the Wichita Symphony Orchestra at the Century II Concert Hall. Ballet Wichita even does outdoor performances in the park in June. You can experience even more of the city’s creative culture outside at Wichita Riverfest — the biggest event of its kind in the state. If you’re more a fan of the screen than the stage, the Tallgrass Film Festival showcases the latest and greatest indie stars in cinema.  

While history buffs in the Air Capital naturally glide toward the Kansas Aviation Museum, they might be less familiar with one of the city’s cheesier origin stories — the founding of Pizza Hut. That’s right, if it weren’t for two dairy-loving WSU students (or were they meat lovers?), America might never have known the bliss of the grease-stained pan-pie box that has been the hallmark of any respectable suburban Saturday movie night since the dawn of rentable VHS. Get the lowdown on their gooey path to fame at the Pizza Hut Museum on campus.  

Wichita’s culinary scene isn’t limited to chain food, mind you. You can get a taste of local flavor at events like the Wichita Taco Fest, the Air Capital Bacon, Bourbon & Brews Festival and the Smoke on the Plains Derby BBQ & Music Fest. But you won’t really have tasted Wichita until you’ve had some of its more peculiar specialties, like chicken noodles & mashed potatoes. Get the homemade variety from the Doo-Dah Diner, which also makes one of the best breakfasts in the Sunflower State — pork belly, grits & eggs. Pit vipers will want to sample all the city’s smokiest joints, from Bite Me BBQ to Hog Wild. Wash it all down with some local suds from Central Standard Brewing, like their Wizard of Hops IPA or a Tallgrass Songbird Saison from the Wichita Brewing Company. 

Surrounded by the Tallgrass Prairie, the rolling hills of Wichita are a natural playground to explore the geologic history of the Air Capital. Go for a ride on the Arkansas River Bike Path, which runs for 10 miles along the water, passing straight through the heart of the city. Get a deeper dive into the wild wonders of the area at Chisolm Creek Park, where a nature center complements the lovely, wooded trails. Wichita may be far from the coasts, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get out on the water. Just outside the city, Lake Afton Park welcomes fishing, boating, waterskiing and other aquatic daredevilry. At Cheney State Park, duck hunting is permitted, but we’re still partial to the 8-bit NES version of the sport. 

Four Real Seasons to Savor 

Wichita is a city that runs hot and cold, and your feelings about the seasons may fluctuate as wildly as the temperatures in this Midwestern climate.  

You will really feel the heat in the city come June, when the average high will be in the upper 80s F. In July and August, you’ll be lucky if the mercury only hits the low 90s, but the last three years running have seen triple digits, including a high of 101 F in May in 2014 and a scorching 109 F in 2023.  

Another summertime woe — one that starts in spring — is the storms. When you live in the very heart of Tornado Alley, it often seems that Oz is just one whirlwind away from Wichita, which may account for the number of dogs who answer to Toto here, regardless of their given names. Anyone who lived in Wichita in the last decade of the 20th century remembers the devastation of the Wichita/Andover tornado of 1991, which only narrowly missed hitting a cache of B1-B bombers at McConnell Air Force Base — a calamity that not every city has to worry about avoiding. Most of the state’s most devastating tornadoes strike in May and June, when the clash of warm and cold air breeds hazardous conditions in the atmosphere.  

We recommend keeping a stash of snacks, water, non-electronic games, battery-op lights. Tornados also strike at night, and a cold concrete floor is a lot more appealing to hunker down on when you have something comfy to sit (or sleep) on, a stash of potato chips and an adult beverage to pass the time. 

Winters in Wichita are quite the other way, when temperatures plummet below freezing — the average winter low is in the 20s F— but it will occasionally dip below zero here. Wichita isn’t a particularly snowy city, which will please some and disappoint others. Some years, you may only see flurries while others will have you pulling those sleds out as early as November. On average, the Wichita area sees 13-14 inches of snow a year, mostly in January and February. 

The best time to move to this climatically variable city is in the calmer months of early to mid-fall, before the freezing temps arrive, or mid-late spring, after the chance of snow has evaporated.  

Getting Around: Transportation and Daily Commutes 

It won’t take you long to get your bearings in this city of 400,000 (Sedgewick County pop. 524,000). Wichita is straightforward to navigate, and despite being a car-dependent city, commute times are relatively short, averaging under 20 minutes, one way. Circumscribed by a beltway formed by KS-96 and I-235, the city is connected to major north-south routes via I-35 and I-135, which connects to I-70 north of Salina. Route 400 is the city’s most direct pathway west. 

If you’re wanting to go car-free in town, Wichita Transit offers a monthly bus pass for $55 dollars, and there are several fare-free routes around Wichita State University. The Q-Line provides free service around some of the most popular destinations in the city, hitting spots around Old Cowtown, the All-Indian Museum and the Douglas Design District, areas which are also great to walk around. 

Kansas is a hotspot for cyclists, and there are plenty of popular bike routes in Wichita, both for commuting and recreation. If you’re into cycling, you might consider joining one of the many bike clubs in town to make new friends and get tips from experienced riders who know all the best routes, including the roads less traveled.   

Planning Your Move to Wichita: Smart Steps to Take 

If your family is ready to move to Wichita, leave all the details to the pros. Mayflower has been in the business for nearly 100 years, so you know your move will be in experienced hands. Our long-distance movers can help your family relocate anywhere in the U.S. Our nationwide network of professional movers will be with you Every Step of the Way®.  

Get a moving quote now for Wichita. 

Consider Moving Full Service to Wichita

When you find the right professional moving company, relocating to Wichita can be a lot less daunting. As the nation’s most-trusted mover, Mayflower has designed its full-service moving packages to make your move stress-free, and we can customize our services to your needs.  

Making a Long-Distance Move to Kansas?  

If you’re moving cross-country to Wichita, your relocation will be handled by a team fully licensed for interstate moves. Our customizable moving packages include storage services, packing and unpacking, moving debris removal, vehicle shipping and more.  

Making a Local Move in Kansas?  

If you’re moving to Wichita from another location in the city or the state of Kansas, our interstate Kansas agents/movers can assist you with local moves independently under their own businesses and brands. 

Thinking of Going the DIY Route? 

You don’t have to go it totally alone. Let Mayflower’s moving blog be your guide. You’ll find articles on how to move with pets, how to help your parents downsize to a more manageable place and tips on how to settle into your new home. 

Get Moving Tips and Resources from the Pros

However you move, Mayflower’s moving checklist and planner will help keep everything under control. You’ll find our most up-to-date moving tips in Welcome HOME magazine. And, if you’re not 100% sure about Wichita yet, Mayflower’s city guides and state guides can give you a glimpse at other popular places to live in the U.S. 

Get a quote on moving to Wichita, Kansas.