Neighborhood · Missouri · Jackson County · Downtown
Union Hill
Small. Vertical. Half of It Was Built in 1885 and Half in 2005.
Union Hill is sixteen blocks on a hillside between Crown Center and Hospital Hill, and you can walk the entire district in twenty minutes. You probably will, because the grade keeps changing and so does the view — the downtown skyline sits north of you, and the streets rise and fall enough that it appears and disappears as you go.
Two eras of housing, side by side
Half the district is genuinely old: 1880s brick rowhouses and narrow Victorian survivors, built when this was the edge of town and the cemetery was the landmark. The other half went up in the 1990s and 2000s, when the district was redeveloped, and it is townhomes — brick, three stories, garage on the ground floor, roof deck on the better ones.
Statistically, you are buying the second kind. Worth knowing going in, because the photography that sells this neighborhood tends to feature the first kind.
The HOA is the number
In Union Hill, dues are the line item that decides the deal, not price. Most of what trades here is attached, and attached means governed. Monthly dues can move your true cost of ownership by hundreds of dollars, and they can move again when a reserve study comes back on buildings whose roofs are now twenty-five years old.
We could not source a defensible "typical HOA" for this district from any primary source, so we have not published one and we are not going to guess. Get the real figure for the real building, plus the reserve study and the last three years of minutes, before you write.
Getting around
Transit Score is 51 — the highest in this midtown set, and not by accident. The KC Streetcar's Main Street extension opened October 24, 2025: 3.5 miles, 16 stops, downtown to UMKC, fare-free. Main Street is Union Hill's western edge.
Walk Score is 76, and that 76 is restaurants, not errands. Dinner, coffee, the WWI Museum and the Liberty Memorial lawn are all on foot. A full grocery store is not — that trip is by car, like the rest of the city.
Noise is a real feature of the built environment here. Two hospitals means sirens, and it means medical helicopters overhead. Sit outside on the hill for an hour before you decide how that lands for you.
The money
Zillow's home-value index for Union Hill was $398,190 in May 2026, up 0.6% year over year — the priciest and the flattest of the five midtown neighborhoods in this set. Read it as an index, not a median: it blends a 2003 townhome and an 1885 brick survivor, and those do not trade alike.
Taxes: Jackson County, Kansas City, Missouri — a 19% assessment ratio against 83.882 mills, a statutory 1.594% of market value. Add the KCMO 1% earnings tax on everything you earn, whether or not you work inside the city. Walking to work does not exempt you from it.
Schools
The district serving Union Hill is Kansas City Public Schools (District 33). Note the general rule for this metro: school district boundaries do not follow city or neighborhood lines. Run the specific street address through the district's own boundary locator rather than relying on a neighborhood name.
The housing and the streets
- Attached housing. Most of what trades here is townhome or condo — brick, three stories, ground-floor garage, sometimes a roof deck.
- A 16-block district with a Walk Score of 76 and a Transit Score of 51 — the highest transit score in this dossier set.
- Five minutes to downtown, seven to the Plaza, and walking distance to Crown Center and Hospital Hill.
- Hillside topography and skyline exposure: many units face north over the downtown ridge.
- The KC Streetcar's Main Street extension runs along the district's western edge — 16 stops, fare-free.
What to know before you write an offer
- There are almost no yards, workshop garages, or boat-capable driveways in this housing stock. The lots are small and largely built out.
- A large share of the stock is attached and therefore governed by an HOA. Dues are a material monthly line item; we could not source a typical figure for the district, so get the actual number for the actual building — plus the reserve study and three years of minutes — before writing an offer.
- Walk Score 76 here is restaurants, not errands. There is no full grocery store, hardware store, or pharmacy inside the district; those trips are by car.
- The district sits between two hospitals, an interstate, and Main Street. Sirens are routine and medical helicopters overfly the hill. Spend an hour outdoors on the hillside before deciding how you feel about the ambient noise.
- Buildings from the 1990s–2000s redevelopment wave are now hitting 25-year roof, HVAC, and envelope cycles — a common trigger for special assessments in attached stock.
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