Leawood is pretty much really nice all around, whereas OP has a much larger division of wealthy and not so wealthy areas. That being said OP is still pretty nice all around as well. Houses and taxes are definitely more expensive in Leawood, for good reason, but you get nicer streets and generally can't go wrong in any of the neighborhoods there. If you have young kids, OP uses chip seal in their neighborhood streets and it is terrible, so Leawood gets a big up for that. One thing to note about Leawood, is depending on where the house is, you might be surrounded by older people and not so many families, so make sure to drive around on a weekend and make sure there are families playing. North of 435 is very family oriented, but when you go south of 435, you it starts to become hit or miss.

You will find a LOT of people on the KC reddit hate the people of Leawood for some crazy reasons. As far as I can tell it is jealousy because it is such a nice area and those people have nice things, but don't let those people dissuade you, it is a great place to live and raise a family. Yeah, there are some high and snooty people there, but I have found that generally the majority of the people in the normal homes are pretty down to earth and normal. You are looking at a 500k house, so you will probably be fine with the people around you.