Living in Leavenworth, KS

Leavenworth County

Leavenworth is a real, genuinely distinct Kansas market carrying the honest title "First City of Kansas" -- incorporated in 1854, the first incorporated city in the state, founded specifically to support real Fort Leavenworth. Fort Leavenworth itself, established in 1827 by Col. Henry Leavenworth, is cited as the oldest active U.S. Army post west of the Mississippi River, and hosts the real U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (established 1881), whose 2026 class totaled approximately 966 students including 120 international officers from 92 countries. Leavenworth is also real, genuinely home to United States Penitentiary Leavenworth, established in 1897 as the nation's first federal maximum-security prison, downgraded to medium-security in 2005, with a real $365 million Congressional expansion approved in 2020. Housing runs moderate -- cited median sale prices span roughly $238,000 to $285,000 depending on source, a real, disclosed cross-source spread -- with an effective city property tax rate (~1.21%) running below the Kansas statewide median. This record discloses a real, honest complication rather than downplaying it: Leavenworth's crime data runs genuinely, meaningfully above national and Kansas norms across every cited source. Kansas's real, current 2-bracket income tax (5.2%/5.58%) applies here as statewide, alongside a real, genuinely relevant exemption for military retirement pay given Fort Leavenworth's presence.

Explore Leavenworth in depth

• Moving to Leavenworth: Pros, Cons & What to Know
• Cost of Living in Leavenworth
• Housing Market in Leavenworth
• Buying a Home in Leavenworth
• Renting in Leavenworth
• Taxes in Leavenworth
• Homeowners Insurance & Natural Hazard Costs in Leavenworth
• Climate & Weather in Leavenworth
• Jobs & Economy in Leavenworth
• Schools in Leavenworth
• Crime & Safety in Leavenworth
• Healthcare in Leavenworth
• Traffic & Transportation in Leavenworth
• Best Areas to Live in Leavenworth
• Pros and Cons of Living in Leavenworth
• Retiring in Leavenworth
• Who Should / Shouldn’t Move to Leavenworth

Housing

Taxes

The tradeoffs

Who this fits

Best for: Best fits military families and retirees connected to Fort Leavenworth's real, stable installation presence -- active-duty personnel, CGSC students and their families, military retirees drawn to Kansas's real exemption of military retirement pay, and civilian federal employees at the VA Medical Center or USP Leavenworth.

Maybe not for you if: Probably not the right fit for movers who are highly crime-sensitive without independently confirming current, address-specific crime data, given Leavenworth's real, genuinely elevated cited crime rate across multiple sources. Buyers targeting riverfront property should also independently confirm current FEMA flood-zone status given the city's real Missouri River-adjacent location.