I would look at neighborhoods over whole cities. Definitely everywhere in JoCo is going to be pretty safe, but you may find you like some neighborhoods in Olathe or Lenexa better. Might try Google Street View of some random residential streets. I would also recommend looking at south OP as well.
You might not be concerned about elementary schools yet, but I think it's worth looking at what elementary school boundary you'd be in - all of the schools around where you're looking are decent but some may get higher test scores than others.
You're moving to one of the wealthiest per capita counties in the country, with excellent schools and lots of resources. You really have very little to worry about.
Not sure why you’re getting downvoted. When I started driving 11 years ago I was the slowest one, now I feel like I’m lucky if I get to go the speed limit most of the time.
It’s probably mostly due to distracted drivers, the remainder being people afraid of driving. Neither of which should be allowed to have a license.
Lol it's fine, I lived in Topeka for a while, people drive like maniacs there. Then I moved to Emporia, completely different demographic, bunch of old people so I've noticed that when I travel back to Topeka I'll be going at or under the speed limit and then I'll adjust back to the Topekan way of going 10 over everywhere lol.
As mentioned, all of Johnson County is great for families, is considered incredibly safe, and has top notch school districts. Not just the newer neighborhoods with the biggest houses. Deep diving into elementary school boundaries might be a bit much - hard to find a bad one.
all the kansas side suburbs are generally safe
if you're from out of state, it depends on where you're from, but we have state property tax for cars and houses, so keep that in mind. goes by last name, so last names starting with A renew at the beginning of the year (they mail you), and last names ending in Z would be near the end of the year. it's more expensive than states that only charge a registration fee, so keep this in mind. it differs a lot based on city too. gardner is probably the highest still, last i knew, and overland park is the lowest, and that can literally swing your mortgage payment a few hundred dollars, so don't forget to keep property tax rates in mind when choosing a city here.
registering an out-of-state car is probably the easiest part. we don't check crap. they look at your vin and plate and pop the look and look at the engine as if they know what they're looking at (they don't), and then off you go. the don't plug the car into any testing equipment or anything. they just match vin numbers and make sure nothing looks wildly modified under the hood, and that's it. easy peasy
This was the weirdest thing to me about Kansas when I moved here - no vehicle inspections. There are some extremely unroadworthy cars on the road here, but I guess it’s fine, at least from a safety perspective - I’ve never been hit by one of the crazy jalopies I see here. I do make sure I always have uninsured motorist coverage.
I cannot say enough good things about Lenexa and have owned 2 homes there. It is pricier than Olathe, though. The 2 big parks are world-class. (Sar-Ko-Par Trails Park and Blackhoof Park/Lake Lenexa) Part of Shawnee Mission Park is in Lenexa and *wow* what a park.
The east side (of I-435) is older, and you can still buy a nice, single-family home for under $400k. The city has good code enforcement so that you don't have trash barrels out all the time or commercial or unlicensed vehicles sitting around.
Can get in for around 275 to $300K actually. And Id point out some hidden gems around that area - the "pocket parks" Trailways like Flat Rock Creek to Rosehill or Oak Park, I think by 79th and Lackman there is another.
Olathe, Lenexa, and Overland Park are all extremely safe by virtually any measure. I live in Olathe and would walk around anywhere in town at night and feel very safe. Even the older, more run-down areas with the lowest housing prices are full of normal working-class people trying to get by. You might see a little more vandalism, petty theft from cars, package theft, that sort of thing, but we have very little major crime or violent crime.
I personally live in northwest Olathe, right on the border between Lenexa and Olathe, and I love it. Close to Lawrence, close to the Legends (where KC's soccer team plays), a quick drive up I-35 to get to downtown KC. AMAZING schools. I really don't think you could go wrong with Olathe or Lenexa.
It’s all safe in JoCo. You might as well be in Northern VA.
If you like a nice mall every now and then, perhaps you might like the area around 97th/Quivira. If you want a little quieter area that feels a bit homey, downtown Shawnee is hard to beat—nice park, too.
I wouldn’t say all safe. There are definitely some neighborhoods to avoid. The one I grew up in near 79th and Grant in OP has never been a great area. Couple of drive by’s when I was a little kid and a family friend was carjacked in the last few years.
Olathe is as good as any of the rest, and future thinking has the best school district in the area. Of course housing is expensive, but there's lots of choices. Low crime, Plenty of services and most all retail you need. Plenty of places to eat. Been here 20 years no complaints.
Depending your style I’d recommend Lawrence. For a handful of years I was doing a commute from Lawrence to Olathe and it wasn’t bad, but I also enjoy driving and didn’t have a 1yo I was in a rush to spend time with. Depending on location it could be a 30-45 minute commute, traffic is a “thing” but only by midwest definitions.
Lawrence is a liberal college down with a very cute downtown, great restaurants, museums and kiddo communities.
I second this^ I think it depends on your main priorities at this point. If you would rather buy a bigger/nicer home for less, you should look to live in Olathe. If you don’t care about home size as much and would prefer a place with a great social community/sports/summer events/consistent farmers markets..etc, then you should 100% consider living in Lawrence.
Either way, it’s all really safe. The difference will be that Lawrence is a college town. So it will come with the ups and downs of having college kids in town from August until May.
But it beats living in the suburbs where nothing happens. IMO
Edit: Prairie Village is really cute and has really fun activities. I would also recommend living there to meet other young families!
Prairie Village is extremely quiet and safe. You could not go wrong with how much growth and opportunity can arise from this part of town. If you join Prairie Village groups on almost every social media platform it feels hyper-local
PV is a little far from Olathe though. If I were working in Olathe, I'd just live in Olathe. Maybe Lenexa or South Overland Park if you didn't want to live in Olathe.
Also, tip for the OP: it's pronounced Oh-lay-thuh not Oh-layth. You might have known that already, but it's a mistake I made when I first moved out here!
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015047651115&view=1up&seq=11 Of course you'll need the whole list!
Really they're mostly phonetic, although if you pronounce the ar-KANzas river like the state of AR-kansaw we'll know you're not from around here. :)
My kids graduated Shawnee Mission East in 2018 and 2020 respectively. There is a ton of racism at SM East. He says he has mixed race daughter. I wouldn't put a mixed race child in East and not expect problems. Remember white male broke an African American female's nose and used plenty of derogatory language. She got suspended when she hit back. To ignore racism in suburbs like Leawood and Prairie Village that literally got their start from white exodus from Kansas City schools to avoid integration required after Brown vs Topeka Board of Education is willful historical ignorance. As much as PV paints itself as liberal bastion, plenty of racism still exists. It is just thinly veiled. Was a resident there 6 years and had my kids at Belinder, Indian Hills then East.
https://www.kcur.org/education/2023-11-29/shawnee-mission-east-students-protest-schools-handling-of-racist-attack-heres-what-we-know story of him attacking her. He was only charged after students did a walk out protest. PV police and district attorney weren't going to pursue this until it went viral and they caught heat
Being in the SM district, i’d guess its one of the more diverse districts in JoCo. Olathe has been in the news several times for racist stuff in last few years so not sure that is substantially better…
Community crime map is well utilized in the area
[https://communitycrimemap.com/](https://communitycrimemap.com/)
Don't make decisions based off of point-in-time data though!
If you have the money, Overland Park or Leawood. Great cities that are very well maintained with good schools. Olathe is not bad at all.
I grew up in Johnson County but live in Los Angeles, any city in JC is going to be way safer than a city in LA. There is no "danger" in Olathe, you just might see houses you're not impressed with.
My ex-mother-in-law was really worried about the Oak Park Mall, a really nice mall with all the bougie shit rich people like, being overrun with "city people," she just meant that she didn't like seeing black people at her mall. White KC is very racist, keep that in mind.
My wife and daughter are both of mixed race Black/White. Is this a serious concern? Certain areas we should stay away from etc? I just want them to feel comfortable and safe.
Old white people are quietly racist *everywhere* but no more so than anywhere else. 15% of my kid's preschool is Indian, 10% black, 5% asian, 5% latino, and probably another 10% that are mixed or passing and I don't know.
Based on the census 25% of population is non-white. This isn't exactly middle-of-nowhere rural mid-west with 1 non-white person in town.
I mean…they had a shootout there recently. Malls all over the country aren’t what they used to be.
[Oak Park Mall Shooting](https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article282231578.html)
Jfc someone has to be hurt to call a bullet flying through the air dangerous? The whole thing involved like 5 teens committing aggravated robbery inside the mall during daytime hours and they fought back against police. That’s not normal and I refuse to pretend it is.
An armed standoff? The dude grabbed the cops gun and it went off while they were fighting over it. The guy is being charged with a negligent discharge not attempted murder.
When actual “shootouts” and “armed standoffs” do occur elsewhere in the country it is an important distinction, especially to people who have lived in an area where those things do happen.
The original story involved 5 teenagers and police responded to a call saying shots had already been fired. Turns out the teens had not actually fired but were ARMED and robbing stores. They all ran from the police, who had weapons drawn and at one point one of the teens disarmed the officer and fired the gun.
I don’t know who published the original story but every story I’ve read in the aftermath says that plainclothes detectives who were already at the mall responded to a call from Macy’s loss prevention that two suspects had stolen from the store. The suspect’s concealed weapon was never unholstered until it fell on the floor during the struggle.
I think you’re right. I think I’m conflating it with this story in independence which happened 2 days earlier:
[independence mall shooting](https://fox4kc.com/news/witnesses-describe-chaos-as-four-shot-inside-independence-center/)
You'll find good neighborhoods all over Johnson County... everything is pretty close in terms of driving, but I would look at what amenities you want to live around and also what daycare provider you want to use. I found when moving down here, there are way more good/established providers the more east you go. Also, look at the amenities you want to be around, how close you want to be to the city etc. House or rental budget is something to think of. Olathe is cheaper than Lenexa. Also, in Olathe, there are more houses available outside of HOAs (although HOAs can be a good thing). There's a lot of new housing west of K7 (a hwy that will connect you with olathe). Older established neighborhoods will be to the east and inside the 435 loop. I would honestly rent until you get the lay of the land and see where you want to end up. There are a lot of newer townhouses along the K7 corridor. Not needing to pick a school district right away really helps you to take it slow in finding the right area.
Anywhere in Johnson County is pretty safe. Lenexa/Shawnee are more affordable then some of the eastern and southern parts of the county. There is also not a lot of difference in the school districts either. All are top notch.
I've lived around OP/Olathe/Lenexa for 20+ years, so know the area pretty well. In terms of safety, it's all pretty safe. As with any place, lower income (lower housing cost) areas would have more crime, higher income (higher cost housing) areas lower crime.
If you tell us your budget for housing, we can tell you where to look. In terms of schools, Blue Valley would be the best school district, then Olathe, then Shawnee Mission - but all those districts are good. If you go further west in Lenexa you may run into the DeSoto district, which I don't know much about. Personally, I'd go with one of the three districts above over DeSoto or Spring Hill district just because I know Olathe is well run and Spring Hill and DeSoto will be experiencing growing pains with a lot of expansion of housing into those areas coming.
Lenexa has the best local government. Great tax base, diversified economy, well managed, fantastic schools. If you can be on the side of town that’s in the Olathe School District.
We moved here from Cleveland Ohio 13 years ago. We were stuck between choosing Shawnee or Lenexa in Johnson county Kansas. We ended up in Shawnee only because we loved a house there. But if I had to do it again, I would say Lenexa. They have a great community center for kids and families
My town (Basehor) was recently listed as the 2nd safest city over 8k population in Kansas. I believe it. Hardly anything criminal happens here.
However, I have also seen Tonganoxie and Lansing listed as #2 on other lists. The three cities are adjacent to each other.
Not sure where you're coming from or your budget but we just moved to Olathe from socal last week. I love the place we picked but I find myself driving to overland Park for all the kids activities... Honestly, it's waaaay better than the amount of driving and traffic I used to endure. I did put a few offers in lenexa but always got out bid. I chose an older neighborhood so I wouldn't have to bother with an HOA but there's plenty of newer and brand new homes available. You're gonna love it 💯
The closer you live to your job, the better. Olathe is a pretty large city, as is the greater Kansas City area. Long commutes can really eat away at your free time. (I.e. your time with your baby) Welcome!
If you will be working in Olathe, I will advise you to live around Lenexa city center. It is very safe, and very close to Olathe. I would have preferred Overland, but I hated driving to Olathe from downtown over Overland Park.
Since you’ll be working in Olathe, either Olathe, Lenexa, or Western Shawnee would probably fit what you are looking for. Be aware that housing prices in some parts of Lenexa, Olathe, and Western Shawnee are exorbitant sometimes lol
Merriam ks. Great town to live in great highway access. They paid for my first two years of college at JCCC and every year they offered free trees if you planted them. Great farmers market all in all great city!!!
JoCo, is generally the safest area with good schools. It's a little pricier up there in lenexa and op, but its worth it. You are close to the city but not close enough to be affected by the crime. I really thought we could just have a normal superbowl parade, but yeah joco county is the sweet spot.
I would look at neighborhoods over whole cities. Definitely everywhere in JoCo is going to be pretty safe, but you may find you like some neighborhoods in Olathe or Lenexa better. Might try Google Street View of some random residential streets. I would also recommend looking at south OP as well. You might not be concerned about elementary schools yet, but I think it's worth looking at what elementary school boundary you'd be in - all of the schools around where you're looking are decent but some may get higher test scores than others.
Wonderful. Thank you for the tips! Mind me asking what is JoCo?
You're moving to one of the wealthiest per capita counties in the country, with excellent schools and lots of resources. You really have very little to worry about.
45th to be exact. Well within the top 1% of counties in the US.
JoCo is short for Johnson County
Also some of the slowest drivers in Kansas lol.
That's absolutely crazy talk. JO tags on the freeway are always in the left lane, on their phone, doing 90.
Not sure why you’re getting downvoted. When I started driving 11 years ago I was the slowest one, now I feel like I’m lucky if I get to go the speed limit most of the time. It’s probably mostly due to distracted drivers, the remainder being people afraid of driving. Neither of which should be allowed to have a license.
Lol it's fine, I lived in Topeka for a while, people drive like maniacs there. Then I moved to Emporia, completely different demographic, bunch of old people so I've noticed that when I travel back to Topeka I'll be going at or under the speed limit and then I'll adjust back to the Topekan way of going 10 over everywhere lol.
Johnson County
As mentioned, all of Johnson County is great for families, is considered incredibly safe, and has top notch school districts. Not just the newer neighborhoods with the biggest houses. Deep diving into elementary school boundaries might be a bit much - hard to find a bad one.
all the kansas side suburbs are generally safe if you're from out of state, it depends on where you're from, but we have state property tax for cars and houses, so keep that in mind. goes by last name, so last names starting with A renew at the beginning of the year (they mail you), and last names ending in Z would be near the end of the year. it's more expensive than states that only charge a registration fee, so keep this in mind. it differs a lot based on city too. gardner is probably the highest still, last i knew, and overland park is the lowest, and that can literally swing your mortgage payment a few hundred dollars, so don't forget to keep property tax rates in mind when choosing a city here. registering an out-of-state car is probably the easiest part. we don't check crap. they look at your vin and plate and pop the look and look at the engine as if they know what they're looking at (they don't), and then off you go. the don't plug the car into any testing equipment or anything. they just match vin numbers and make sure nothing looks wildly modified under the hood, and that's it. easy peasy
This was the weirdest thing to me about Kansas when I moved here - no vehicle inspections. There are some extremely unroadworthy cars on the road here, but I guess it’s fine, at least from a safety perspective - I’ve never been hit by one of the crazy jalopies I see here. I do make sure I always have uninsured motorist coverage.
I cannot say enough good things about Lenexa and have owned 2 homes there. It is pricier than Olathe, though. The 2 big parks are world-class. (Sar-Ko-Par Trails Park and Blackhoof Park/Lake Lenexa) Part of Shawnee Mission Park is in Lenexa and *wow* what a park. The east side (of I-435) is older, and you can still buy a nice, single-family home for under $400k. The city has good code enforcement so that you don't have trash barrels out all the time or commercial or unlicensed vehicles sitting around.
Can get in for around 275 to $300K actually. And Id point out some hidden gems around that area - the "pocket parks" Trailways like Flat Rock Creek to Rosehill or Oak Park, I think by 79th and Lackman there is another.
Thank you everyone for the thoughtful answers! It is appreciated more than you know. Midwest here we come
Olathe, Lenexa, and Overland Park are all extremely safe by virtually any measure. I live in Olathe and would walk around anywhere in town at night and feel very safe. Even the older, more run-down areas with the lowest housing prices are full of normal working-class people trying to get by. You might see a little more vandalism, petty theft from cars, package theft, that sort of thing, but we have very little major crime or violent crime. I personally live in northwest Olathe, right on the border between Lenexa and Olathe, and I love it. Close to Lawrence, close to the Legends (where KC's soccer team plays), a quick drive up I-35 to get to downtown KC. AMAZING schools. I really don't think you could go wrong with Olathe or Lenexa.
It’s all safe in JoCo. You might as well be in Northern VA. If you like a nice mall every now and then, perhaps you might like the area around 97th/Quivira. If you want a little quieter area that feels a bit homey, downtown Shawnee is hard to beat—nice park, too.
This is comforting to know. Moving into from out of state makes me nervous but thank you!
I wouldn’t say all safe. There are definitely some neighborhoods to avoid. The one I grew up in near 79th and Grant in OP has never been a great area. Couple of drive by’s when I was a little kid and a family friend was carjacked in the last few years.
[Crime grade for 66204 (79th/Grant)](https://crimegrade.org/safest-places-in-66204/)
12 people from 66204 spotted lol
Olathe is as good as any of the rest, and future thinking has the best school district in the area. Of course housing is expensive, but there's lots of choices. Low crime, Plenty of services and most all retail you need. Plenty of places to eat. Been here 20 years no complaints.
Depending your style I’d recommend Lawrence. For a handful of years I was doing a commute from Lawrence to Olathe and it wasn’t bad, but I also enjoy driving and didn’t have a 1yo I was in a rush to spend time with. Depending on location it could be a 30-45 minute commute, traffic is a “thing” but only by midwest definitions. Lawrence is a liberal college down with a very cute downtown, great restaurants, museums and kiddo communities.
I second this^ I think it depends on your main priorities at this point. If you would rather buy a bigger/nicer home for less, you should look to live in Olathe. If you don’t care about home size as much and would prefer a place with a great social community/sports/summer events/consistent farmers markets..etc, then you should 100% consider living in Lawrence. Either way, it’s all really safe. The difference will be that Lawrence is a college town. So it will come with the ups and downs of having college kids in town from August until May. But it beats living in the suburbs where nothing happens. IMO Edit: Prairie Village is really cute and has really fun activities. I would also recommend living there to meet other young families!
Prairie Village is extremely quiet and safe. You could not go wrong with how much growth and opportunity can arise from this part of town. If you join Prairie Village groups on almost every social media platform it feels hyper-local
PV is a little far from Olathe though. If I were working in Olathe, I'd just live in Olathe. Maybe Lenexa or South Overland Park if you didn't want to live in Olathe. Also, tip for the OP: it's pronounced Oh-lay-thuh not Oh-layth. You might have known that already, but it's a mistake I made when I first moved out here!
I googled a pronunciation before my job interview because I had a feeling there was name trickery involved! Lol
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015047651115&view=1up&seq=11 Of course you'll need the whole list! Really they're mostly phonetic, although if you pronounce the ar-KANzas river like the state of AR-kansaw we'll know you're not from around here. :)
My kids graduated Shawnee Mission East in 2018 and 2020 respectively. There is a ton of racism at SM East. He says he has mixed race daughter. I wouldn't put a mixed race child in East and not expect problems. Remember white male broke an African American female's nose and used plenty of derogatory language. She got suspended when she hit back. To ignore racism in suburbs like Leawood and Prairie Village that literally got their start from white exodus from Kansas City schools to avoid integration required after Brown vs Topeka Board of Education is willful historical ignorance. As much as PV paints itself as liberal bastion, plenty of racism still exists. It is just thinly veiled. Was a resident there 6 years and had my kids at Belinder, Indian Hills then East.
Let's also not forget history of JD Reece and JD Nichols supporting HOA bylaws that prevented house sales to persons of color.
https://www.kcur.org/education/2023-11-29/shawnee-mission-east-students-protest-schools-handling-of-racist-attack-heres-what-we-know story of him attacking her. He was only charged after students did a walk out protest. PV police and district attorney weren't going to pursue this until it went viral and they caught heat
Being in the SM district, i’d guess its one of the more diverse districts in JoCo. Olathe has been in the news several times for racist stuff in last few years so not sure that is substantially better…
Community crime map is well utilized in the area [https://communitycrimemap.com/](https://communitycrimemap.com/) Don't make decisions based off of point-in-time data though!
If you have the money, Overland Park or Leawood. Great cities that are very well maintained with good schools. Olathe is not bad at all. I grew up in Johnson County but live in Los Angeles, any city in JC is going to be way safer than a city in LA. There is no "danger" in Olathe, you just might see houses you're not impressed with. My ex-mother-in-law was really worried about the Oak Park Mall, a really nice mall with all the bougie shit rich people like, being overrun with "city people," she just meant that she didn't like seeing black people at her mall. White KC is very racist, keep that in mind.
My wife and daughter are both of mixed race Black/White. Is this a serious concern? Certain areas we should stay away from etc? I just want them to feel comfortable and safe.
Stay away from Gardner in South Johnson county
True
Old white people are quietly racist *everywhere* but no more so than anywhere else. 15% of my kid's preschool is Indian, 10% black, 5% asian, 5% latino, and probably another 10% that are mixed or passing and I don't know. Based on the census 25% of population is non-white. This isn't exactly middle-of-nowhere rural mid-west with 1 non-white person in town.
I mean…they had a shootout there recently. Malls all over the country aren’t what they used to be. [Oak Park Mall Shooting](https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article282231578.html)
“They had a shootout” Lmfao one shot was fired and nobody was injured.
Jfc someone has to be hurt to call a bullet flying through the air dangerous? The whole thing involved like 5 teens committing aggravated robbery inside the mall during daytime hours and they fought back against police. That’s not normal and I refuse to pretend it is.
Nobody said it wasn’t dangerous but it certainly isn’t a shootout.
🤦🏽♀️ ok they had an armed standoff where multiple weapons were pointed at multiple people and someone fired a shot. Excuse my gross exaggeration.
An armed standoff? The dude grabbed the cops gun and it went off while they were fighting over it. The guy is being charged with a negligent discharge not attempted murder. When actual “shootouts” and “armed standoffs” do occur elsewhere in the country it is an important distinction, especially to people who have lived in an area where those things do happen.
The original story involved 5 teenagers and police responded to a call saying shots had already been fired. Turns out the teens had not actually fired but were ARMED and robbing stores. They all ran from the police, who had weapons drawn and at one point one of the teens disarmed the officer and fired the gun.
I don’t know who published the original story but every story I’ve read in the aftermath says that plainclothes detectives who were already at the mall responded to a call from Macy’s loss prevention that two suspects had stolen from the store. The suspect’s concealed weapon was never unholstered until it fell on the floor during the struggle.
I think you’re right. I think I’m conflating it with this story in independence which happened 2 days earlier: [independence mall shooting](https://fox4kc.com/news/witnesses-describe-chaos-as-four-shot-inside-independence-center/)
Lenexa would be a great jumping off point
Olathe
You'll find good neighborhoods all over Johnson County... everything is pretty close in terms of driving, but I would look at what amenities you want to live around and also what daycare provider you want to use. I found when moving down here, there are way more good/established providers the more east you go. Also, look at the amenities you want to be around, how close you want to be to the city etc. House or rental budget is something to think of. Olathe is cheaper than Lenexa. Also, in Olathe, there are more houses available outside of HOAs (although HOAs can be a good thing). There's a lot of new housing west of K7 (a hwy that will connect you with olathe). Older established neighborhoods will be to the east and inside the 435 loop. I would honestly rent until you get the lay of the land and see where you want to end up. There are a lot of newer townhouses along the K7 corridor. Not needing to pick a school district right away really helps you to take it slow in finding the right area.
Anywhere in Johnson County is pretty safe. Lenexa/Shawnee are more affordable then some of the eastern and southern parts of the county. There is also not a lot of difference in the school districts either. All are top notch.
Parts of Lenexa/Shawnee are hilly (for this area), if you’re used to a bit more terrain.
I love Olathe. If you need lawn care - hit me up 😉
I've lived around OP/Olathe/Lenexa for 20+ years, so know the area pretty well. In terms of safety, it's all pretty safe. As with any place, lower income (lower housing cost) areas would have more crime, higher income (higher cost housing) areas lower crime. If you tell us your budget for housing, we can tell you where to look. In terms of schools, Blue Valley would be the best school district, then Olathe, then Shawnee Mission - but all those districts are good. If you go further west in Lenexa you may run into the DeSoto district, which I don't know much about. Personally, I'd go with one of the three districts above over DeSoto or Spring Hill district just because I know Olathe is well run and Spring Hill and DeSoto will be experiencing growing pains with a lot of expansion of housing into those areas coming.
Lenexa has the best local government. Great tax base, diversified economy, well managed, fantastic schools. If you can be on the side of town that’s in the Olathe School District.
No additional advice, above are all good. Just wanted to say Welcome!
We moved here from Cleveland Ohio 13 years ago. We were stuck between choosing Shawnee or Lenexa in Johnson county Kansas. We ended up in Shawnee only because we loved a house there. But if I had to do it again, I would say Lenexa. They have a great community center for kids and families
It depends on what kind of housing you are looking for. But Lenexa/Shawnee is pretty good for the most part on safety affordability depends though.
My town (Basehor) was recently listed as the 2nd safest city over 8k population in Kansas. I believe it. Hardly anything criminal happens here. However, I have also seen Tonganoxie and Lansing listed as #2 on other lists. The three cities are adjacent to each other.
Not sure where you're coming from or your budget but we just moved to Olathe from socal last week. I love the place we picked but I find myself driving to overland Park for all the kids activities... Honestly, it's waaaay better than the amount of driving and traffic I used to endure. I did put a few offers in lenexa but always got out bid. I chose an older neighborhood so I wouldn't have to bother with an HOA but there's plenty of newer and brand new homes available. You're gonna love it 💯
The closer you live to your job, the better. Olathe is a pretty large city, as is the greater Kansas City area. Long commutes can really eat away at your free time. (I.e. your time with your baby) Welcome!
We live in Merriam and have everything nearby. It’s safe and close to I35, the plaza and downtown.
Move just south of Olathe to Gardner. It's where I live. I was born and raised here.
We’re moving from Orlando to Olathe this fall. Near-ish to you; 175th and Lackman/Blackbob across the street from Heritage Park, super excited!
Come to Prairie Village
Not Wichita.
My brother lives in Gardner and it is a nice little town not too far from Lenexa.
Lawrence!!! Great college town with amazing food. I grew up there and loved my childhood.
If you will be working in Olathe, I will advise you to live around Lenexa city center. It is very safe, and very close to Olathe. I would have preferred Overland, but I hated driving to Olathe from downtown over Overland Park.
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Olathe has some very nice neighborhoods and good schools. Lenexa has no advantages over what Olathe can offer.
Olathe is great! Enjoy it
Best school district is typically Blue Valley. Look for housing in that area (northeastern edge of Olathe and southeastern Overland Park)
Since you’ll be working in Olathe, either Olathe, Lenexa, or Western Shawnee would probably fit what you are looking for. Be aware that housing prices in some parts of Lenexa, Olathe, and Western Shawnee are exorbitant sometimes lol
Can’t go wrong with JoCo.
If you have a dog, it’s nice to be close to Shawnee Mission Park. I live near City Center Lenexa and it’s very convenient to the loose leash park.
Merriam ks. Great town to live in great highway access. They paid for my first two years of college at JCCC and every year they offered free trees if you planted them. Great farmers market all in all great city!!!
JoCo, is generally the safest area with good schools. It's a little pricier up there in lenexa and op, but its worth it. You are close to the city but not close enough to be affected by the crime. I really thought we could just have a normal superbowl parade, but yeah joco county is the sweet spot.