Fort Scott, Kansas

Homes for sale, and what it’s like to live here

A county seat of 7,500 with a frontier fort in the middle of town, a lake on the edge of it, and the fastest-selling houses anywhere we work.

Fort Scott is half an hour west of Nevada on Highway 54, just across the state line — close enough that people here shop, work and sell houses in both directions without thinking much about the border. The town grew up around the 1842 army fort that still stands, restored, at the head of Main Street; the downtown below it is brick streets and two- and three-story storefronts that the 2005 fire didn’t get to. It has the oldest community college in Kansas, its own school district, a 352-acre lake, and — as of last year — an emergency room again. Houses sell here in under two weeks.

What you’ll find here

About 150 homes a year sell in Fort Scott, and they sell fast: the typical house goes under contract in twelve days, the quickest turnaround of any town in our footprint. Prices are the lowest, too. The median sale since 2021 is $120,000, and nearly half of all sales are under $100,000 — older two- and three-bedroom houses on the grid of streets south and east of downtown, plenty of them bought for cash by investors and first-time buyers alike. Above that there’s a steady market between $150,000 and $250,000 for updated houses, newer ranches on the west side and a few acres outside town, and a small top end at the lake, where waterfront homes sell for several times the town median. Prices have been climbing: the median was about $100,000 in 2021 and $144,000 over the last twelve months. Roughly a third of buyers pay cash and a quarter use USDA, VA or FHA loans, so the town works for both ends.

The county around it is farm ground — Bourbon County land sales run a median of 64 acres, and four in ten parcels are 80 acres or more.

The things people ask about

Work. Fort Scott makes things. Peerless Products builds architectural windows and doors; Ward-Kraft prints labels and business forms; Niece Products, Labconco, Extrusions Inc. and Key Industries are all in the industrial park. The Timken belt plant closed in 2025, and the town has been filling the gap: Diversey, a Solenis company, is putting more than $10 million into the former Valu Merchandisers warehouse on Campbell Drive to blend cleaning products for the food industry — about 40 jobs, hiring from late 2026 — and the city says a second manufacturer is close behind. City hall is openly asking developers to build houses in the $200,000–$250,000 range because it expects more workers than it has homes. Fort Scott Community College and the school district are the other big employers, and a fair number of people drive to Pittsburg or Nevada.

Health care. Fort Scott lost its hospital when Mercy closed in 2018, and getting care back has been the town’s project ever since. Freeman Health System opened an emergency department on Woodland Hills Boulevard in September 2025; the building’s owner, Kansas Renewal Institute, runs a treatment center there as well, and the two are working out the hospital’s long-term ownership now. It is not the full hospital the town had, but it is an ER ten minutes from anywhere in Fort Scott, and Nevada Regional Medical Center is half an hour east.

Schools. USD 234 — the Fort Scott Tigers — runs two elementary schools, a middle school and the high school. Fort Scott Community College, founded in 1919, is the oldest community college in Kansas: two-year degrees, trades and nursing programs, a rodeo team, and the Gordon Parks Museum on campus, dedicated to the Fort Scott-born photographer and filmmaker. The Gordon Parks Celebration brings people to town every October.

Getting places. Highway 69 runs straight north to Kansas City — about 90 miles, an hour and a half — and south to Pittsburg. Highway 54 goes east to Nevada and I-49 in half an hour. Joplin is an hour south.

Doing things. The Fort Scott National Historic Site is a real 1840s frontier fort you can walk through, right downtown, with the National Cemetery across town. Lake Fort Scott, southwest of the city, is 352 acres of city-owned water open to skiing, pontoons and jet skis, with a sailing club that races on it. Gunn Park has 155 acres, two fishing lakes, camping and an 18-hole disc golf course. Downtown has kept its brick streets, its restaurants and the kind of storefronts the city now pays grants to fill.

Fixing up a house. If you buy an older home here and improve it, the city’s Neighborhood Revitalization Program rebates 95% of the property-tax increase from the improvement for five years — fifteen years in the historic districts — as long as the work adds at least 15% to the appraised value. The city’s housing office handles the applications; we’ll point you to them.

Buying a home in Fort Scott

Every home for sale in Fort Scott is listed below, straight from the MLS. With houses going under contract in under two weeks, the ones worth having don’t wait for the weekend — tell us what you’re looking for and we’ll call you the day something fits. First-time buyer, USDA or VA loan, an investor buying for cash, or a family moving down from Kansas City: our Kansas-licensed agents have sold houses on both sides of the line for years.

Selling a home in Fort Scott

We’ll pull the comparable sales, walk your house, and give you a written valuation — free, no obligation. Get a free, written valuation → — and read how we market a home before you list with anyone. When we last had listings in Fort Scott, they drew more than two hundred buyer inquiries in two years — Kansas buyers are out there, and they’re looking online.

Talk to us

Curtis and Sons, Inc.
121 S. Main St., Nevada, MO 64772 — on the square, thirty minutes east on Highway 54
417.667.7868 · office@curtisandsonsrealty.com

Our Kansas-licensed agents are Vanessa, Monte, Andy, Jacob and Konner. Call, email, or tell us what you’re looking for and we’ll get back to you the same business day.

Homes for Sale in Fort Scott

Fort Scott residential, as of 22 Sep 2026 — 26 homes for sale · 10 under contract · 2.2 months of inventory · half sold within 12 days

Listing and under-contract counts update from Heartland MLS through IDX Broker. Inventory and days-to-contract are from Heartland MLS closed residential sales for the 12 months through September 2026.