Every summer, Fort Leavenworth takes in one of the largest moving groups in the Army. The Command and General Staff Officers Course is a ten-month resident program. The Class of 2026 opened on August 11, 2025, with 966 students. That count included 120 international students alongside more than 900 U.S. service members and civilians, the Army reported. That class graduated in June. The Class of 2027 is now in session and is set to graduate on June 11, 2027, according to the CGSC Foundation's academic calendar.
Put the county's 2026 home sales on a monthly chart and the curve has the same shape as that school year. Contracts pile up in spring. Closings peak in early summer. Then contract activity drops off in fall, while the number of homes for sale barely moves. For anyone buying or selling here, the month you go to market matters more than the median price does.
The 2026 curve, month by month
The Kansas City Regional Association of REALTORS publishes monthly Local Market Updates from Heartland MLS data. Its report titled "Leavenworth, KS" appears on a list of 26 areas that also includes Atchison, Bates, Cass, Clay, Jefferson, Platte and Ray, which are all county names. The report itself gives no boundary definition, so the figures here treat it as covering the wider Leavenworth County area. Pending sales count contracts signed during the month. Closed sales count deals that finished. Inventory is the number of homes on the market.
| 2026 | Pending sales | Closed sales | Inventory |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 80 | 60 | 213 |
| February | 89 | 69 | 223 |
| March | 112 | 87 | 220 |
| April | 129 | 112 | 217 |
| May | 97 | 112 | 255 |
| June | 108 | 125 | 255 |
| July | 98 | 132 | 251 |
| August | 90 | 116 | 227 |
| September | 68 | 96 | 251 |
Contracts peaked in April 2026 at 129. Closings peaked about three months later, rising to 125 in June and topping out at 132 in July. A deal signed in spring usually closes in summer, so that gap is about what you'd expect. The more useful number is September. That month there were 68 new contracts, close to half of April's total, and 251 homes on the market. That is about the same inventory as May and June.
This was not a one-year fluke. September 2025 had 65 pending sales and 249 homes on the market, so the fall falloff happened in nearly the same place both years.
Why the spring rush lines up with a summer report date
Army University's page for incoming CGSC students lays out a phased arrival schedule for summer 2026. International students reported June 15. Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and Space Force students reported between June 11 and July 5. The Army arrival groups were spread across July, with the last group listed for July 28. The same page explains why those dates are firm:
"There are a limited number of houses and transportation carriers available per week. CGSS is one of the largest moving bodies in the Army and we use carriers from multiple states to stay on top of the need."
Students who wanted on-post housing had to apply by May 1, 2026, to be part of the automated assignment run. Applications that came in later went to a waitlist. Students living off post are told to time their arrival to their orders and their off-post lease. So a family deciding whether to rent or buy in the county faces two deadlines: a housing application due in spring and a report date in summer. Count back from a closing in late June or July and you land on a contract signed in April or May. That is when the county's pending sales peaked.
There is a limit to how far this goes. Plenty of markets with no Army post also see spring contracts and summer closings, and the KCRAR reports do not break out sales by buyer type. The staff-college calendar fits the timing of Leavenworth County's curve. Nobody has measured how much of the curve it explains. Still, a 966-student class that arrives in one summer window, plus a hard May 1 housing deadline, gives a date-driven reason for the spring rush here, on top of the usual pull of school breaks and good weather.
What a fall buyer actually gets
Pricing held up in September 2026 even after the contract rush had faded.
- Original list price received: 98.2% in September 2026, up from 97.8% in April 2026 and 97.5% in September 2025.
- Days on market until sale: 43 in September 2026, compared with 33 in June 2026.
- Months of supply: 2.6 in September 2026, compared with 2.3 in April 2026.
Homes took longer to sell in fall, and the supply cushion grew a little. But the share of asking price sellers received went up slightly. What a fall buyer gains is time and choice. With about the same number of homes listed and far fewer contracts being signed, there is less chance of losing a house to another offer while you set up a second showing. The data gives no sign that buyers are getting a seasonal discount, at least not as of September 2026.
That matters for anyone house-hunting the week this post goes up. October and November reports will come out later. But the September pattern held almost exactly from 2025 to 2026, so the late-year market probably still rewards a buyer who takes their time and bargains carefully, more than one who expects big price drops.
What a seller should take from the same chart
For sellers, the calendar points the other way. If the busiest stretch for new contracts is March through May, a home listed in late summer goes up after many of that year's arriving families have already signed. In 2026, pending sales fell from 129 in April to 90 in August and 68 in September.
Fall sellers still got strong prices. What they lost was speed and the number of buyers looking at the same time. With a June 11, 2027, graduation already on the calendar, the next turnover is easy to predict. Departing families are likely to list in spring, and the next class is likely to look over the same months. Being ready to list by March gives a seller the best chance of catching that overlap. Our sellers' guide covers the prep work that has to happen before then.
The median is the least useful number here
In September 2026, the county's median sale price was $361,000, down 2.4% from $370,000 a year earlier. The average sale price rose 2.5% over the same period, to $393,532. Those two numbers moved in opposite directions because a month with 96 sales can swing on which homes happened to close. KCRAR's own footnote warns that percent changes "can sometimes look extreme due to small sample size."
The monthly medians earlier in 2026 bounce around for the same reason: $308,000 in February, $365,000 in March and April, $336,175 in May, $397,450 in August. The year-to-date totals are steadier. Through September 2026 the county recorded 917 closed sales, up 10.9% from 827. The year-to-date median was $357,000, up 3.5%. The county is selling more homes at slightly higher prices. The seasonal timing on top of that is what decides how competitive a given week feels.
A few quick answers
Is the "Leavenworth, KS" market report about the city or the county? The report doesn't define its boundary. On KCRAR's list it sits among areas named for counties, such as Atchison, Jefferson, Clay and Platte, and the list has no separate report for Lansing, Basehor or Tonganoxie.
Did the spring peak happen in 2025 too? Close to it. Closed sales peaked in June 2025 at 135 and in July 2026 at 132. Inventory peaked in June 2025 at 266, and in 2026 it hit 255 in both May and June. The peak landed in the same warm-season window both years, though not in the same exact month.
When is the next staff-college turnover? The Class of 2027 is scheduled to graduate on June 11, 2027. The arrival dates for the following class will be on Army University's CGSC inbound page once they are published.
If you're deciding whether to list this fall or wait for the spring 2027 contract season, the team at Gateway Real Estate & Auction can run the numbers for your home with you. Start with an instant home valuation, then ask us how your timing fits the county's calendar. You can find more on the area on our Leavenworth County page.
