Rich Hill, Missouri

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

A coal town of about 1,250 people on I-49 between Nevada and Butler, with solid, affordable houses, its own K-12 school and clinic, and a Fourth of July that has run since 1881.

Rich Hill sits just off I-49 at exit 120, twenty minutes north of our office in Nevada and fifteen south of Butler. It calls itself the town that coal built, and it was: platted in 1880 on top of the Rich Hill coal field, it had 4,000 people, two railroads, waterworks and electric lights before the decade was out, and its mines ran into the 1900s. The coal is long gone, but the grid of streets it paid for is still there — blocks of well-built houses on quarter-acre lots, a downtown with the library and Swopes Drive-In (since 1959), the Tigers’ two schools, and a hospital clinic in town. And every Fourth of July the town of 1,250 hosts a crowd several times its size.

What you’ll find here

About sixteen homes a year sell in Rich Hill — more than any town in our area outside Nevada and El Dorado Springs — and the market is steadier and a little higher than the small towns to the south. Since 2021 the median sale is $134,500, and half of all sales land between $94,000 and $168,000.

In town, which is most of the market, the typical house is a three-bedroom of about 1,300 square feet on a third of an acre, built in the 1950s; a quarter of them date from before 1940 and the coal-boom years. The median in-town sale since 2021 is $123,000, and the better ones — updated, on a corner, with a garage — have brought $200,000 to $255,000.

Out in the country, a Rich Hill address means a house on a few acres: the median since 2021 was about $165,000 on three acres, and the top end runs from a house on fourteen acres at $310,000 to a place on 39 acres that sold for $650,000 last fall.

A well-priced house here goes under contract in about a month, and half sell at or above asking. FHA and USDA loans are common — Rich Hill qualifies for USDA’s no-down-payment rural loan — and nearly half of all buyers since 2021 used an FHA, USDA or VA loan. Another three in ten paid cash.

The things people ask about

Schools. Rich Hill R-IV — the Tigers — runs an elementary school and a junior-senior high on one campus on North Third Street: about 380 students, twelve per teacher, 8-man football, and a track program that has sent athletes to state most years. Nearly every house sold with a Rich Hill address is in the district — 77 of the last 80.

Work. Most people drive: Butler is fifteen minutes north, Nevada twenty minutes south, and I-49 puts Kansas City’s south suburbs about an hour away, which is why a share of Rich Hill buyers come down from the metro. In town, the school district, the hospital clinic, Rich Hill Truck & Equipment and the stores are the employers.

Health care. Rich Hill has its own clinic — Rich Hill Family Care, run by Bates County Memorial Hospital — on North 14th Street. The hospital itself, with a 24-hour emergency room, is thirteen miles north in Butler, and Nevada Regional Medical Center is twenty miles south.

Getting places. I-49 exit 120 (Route A). Nevada 20 miles, Butler 13, Fort Scott 38, Kansas City about 75, Joplin about 85. Jefferson Lines buses stop in town.

Doing things. The Fourth is the thing. Rich Hill’s Famous for the Fourth celebration has run every year since 1881 except during the two world wars: four days of free headline concerts — Sawyer Brown in 2024, Aaron Tippin in 2026 — a parade, a carnival, a car show, a baby contest, fireworks, and the pie auction, where a single pie has gone for $4,000 and the 2025 auction raised more than $40,000. The rest of the year: the Four Rivers Conservation Area starts six miles south — nearly 14,000 acres of wetlands and river bottom for duck hunting, fishing and camping — and Harmony Mission Lake and the Peabody Conservation Area, on the old strip pits west of town, are close for fishing.

Water. Houses in town are on city water and sewer; the city received a state grant in 2025 to plan improvements to the water system. Country places may be on a rural water district or a well — we’ll tell you which.

Our history in Rich Hill

Rich Hill is the Bates County town we know best. Since 2021 we’ve listed nearly a third of the homes sold here — more than any other office — and we’ve sold everything from $10,000 fixer-uppers to the best houses in town.

Buying a home in Rich Hill

Every home for sale in Rich Hill is listed below, straight from the MLS. With a month to contract on the good ones, tell us what you’re looking for and we’ll call you the day something fits. First house, USDA or VA loan, a move down from the metro, or a rental to add to a portfolio — we’ve closed all of them here.

Selling a home in Rich Hill

We know what every street in Rich Hill has brought. 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. If it’s an estate or a house full of a lifetime’s contents, ask us about selling at auction.

Talk to us

Curtis and Sons, Inc.
121 S. Main St., Nevada, MO 64772 — on the square, twenty minutes down I-49
417.667.7868 · office@curtisandsonsrealty.com

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 Rich Hill

Rich Hill residential, as of 21 Oct 2026 — 9 homes for sale · 2 under contract · 5.1 months of inventory · half sold within 38 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.