Vacancy tax
An annual tax on homes that sit empty, set high enough — often two to five percent of value a year — that letting a house stay dark stops being free. Vancouver brought one in in 2017 and thousands of empty units moved onto the rental market within a couple of years. Because it taxes the vacancy and not the owner's home state, it dodges the legal challenges a flat "non-residents can't buy" rule would invite.
The catch: Kansas cities got home rule in 1961, but property taxation stays state-controlled — a true vacancy tax most likely needs the legislature first.
Vacant-property licensing
The Kansas-friendly cousin of the vacancy tax. Instead of a new tax, the city makes any home empty past a set period — say ninety days — carry an annual "vacant property" license, with fees and code-enforcement inspections attached. Same pressure on the wallet, framed as licensing rather than taxation, which is likelier to hold up here.
The catch: More bureaucratic to run, and harder to enforce evenly, than a straight tax.
Right of first refusal
When an outside owner goes to sell, locals — or a community land trust — get first crack at the property, sometimes at a set discount. It works on the moment of transfer rather than on ownership itself, so it sidesteps most of the constitutional trouble the blunter rules run into.
The catch: Only bites if a funded local buyer is standing ready the day the right is triggered.
Long-term rental rules
Caps or limits on short-term vacation letting push absentee-held houses toward year-round tenants. Less profitable to hold as a vacation rental, and more roofs over the people who actually work in the county.
The catch: Lives or dies on enforcement — monitoring listings, answering complaints.
Proving a house is empty
Every tool above depends on this one question, and it's the messy part. The answer that works is several signals read together: an owner declaration with penalties for lying, utility-consumption records, and physical inspection. No single signal holds up — someone can keep a place "occupied" just enough to game any one metric — so the programs that function stack them.
The catch: Enforcement costs real money, which is the main reason more places never start.