OLATHE — As dozens of local officials and advocates recently took a peek at Maura Heft’s new three-bedroom home, she proudly showed off her spacious kitchen with dark wood cabinets and joyfully explained that the home came with a finished basement.
Heft and her 6-year-old daughter were moving into their first home that they own. They are the first tenants to move into a new type of affordable housing constructed by Habitat for Humanity of Kansas City on the southern edge of Olathe in Johnson County.
It’s a 14-home neighborhood built on a community land trust. That’s a real estate tool that allows the organization to sell the homes at a reduced price — and keep them affordable in the future.
Habitat for Humanity sold the home to Heft for about $250,000, less than half of the average home price in the county.
Heft said moving into the new home is a life-changing moment for her and her daughter — who have been homeless for five years while staying with family or living in transitional housing — despite Heft working a full-time job.
“I do make a good income, but even with that it is difficult to find housing,” Heft said. “Having our own place and something that I own will build a foundation for my daughter, something I didn’t have growing up.”
The development is significant because it is one of the first community land trusts in Kansas that features an entire neighborhood. The real estate mechanism has largely been used to create only a couple of affordable homes at a time.
But organizations across the country like Habitat for Humanity have begun to use it to build dozens of affordable homes at once.
Lindsay Hicks, president and CEO for Habitat for Humanity of Kansas City, said the organization wants to build an even larger community land trust neighborhood in Lenexa. That would include 50 homes.
“Our goal and our hope is to continue to develop at this larger scale,” Hicks said, “so we can serve and partner with more families to obtain affordable home ownership.”
The idea comes to Kansas as home prices continue to soar, making it harder and harder for lower-income residents to purchase one.
Wichita State University’s Center for Economic Development and Business Research shows the average home price in Kansas grew to $330,000 in 2025. That’s nearly $100,000 more than the average Kansas home in 2020, about a 43% increase in five years.
Lack of affordable housing
Johnson County, which is part of the Kansas City metro area, is the most expensive housing market in Kansas.
In 2024, homes in Johnson County sold for an average price of about $560,000. That made it very difficult for Heft to ever envision owning her own home in the community where she grew up.
“There’s no way I would have owned a home in Johnson County or Olathe without Habitat,” she said.
