Best Places64138, MO Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood inside ZIP code 64138, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

64138 ranks 23,534th of 33,110 U.S. zip codes on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on fast internet by a wide margin, and the schools rank lowest.

#23,534
of 33,110 zip codes
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 33,110 zip codes
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in 64138

Map of the best neighborhoods in the 64138 area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.

64138's strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%Fast internet
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare 64138 with other zip codes.

Where 64138 ranks high

  • Internet speedBetter than 97% of zip codes
  • TransitBetter than 84% of zip codes
  • BikingBetter than 80% of zip codes
  • Cell coverageBetter than 79% of zip codes
  • Disaster safetyBetter than 78% of zip codes

Where 64138 ranks low

  • School gradeD−, better than only 4% of zip codes
  • QuietBetter than only 12% of zip codes
  • Crime safetyBetter than only 13% of zip codes
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 20% of zip codes
  • Healthcare accessBetter than only 24% of zip codes

What it costs to buy a home in 64138

A household needs to earn about $51,000 a year to comfortably buy the median 64138 home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $66,286, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$51,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,182
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $187,142 home
Median rent
$1,190
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$954
Property tax$166
Homeowners insurance$62

Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses 64138's effective rate of 1.06%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.

Renting versus buying

At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in 64138

64138 runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
43
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
19%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.3
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1819%
18 to 3421%
35 to 4921%
50 to 6420%
65 and older19%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for 64138.


Who works in 64138, and how

Work in 64138 centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.

Work from home
11%
below the national average
Unemployment
3.5%
below the national average
Job growth
−1.4%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social15%
Retail trade13%
Manufacturing10%
Hospitality & food10%
Public administration7%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 83%
  • Work from home 11%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 6%

Life in 64138

64138 has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most zip codes and more parkland per resident than 86% of zip codes. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of 64138 and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
35
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 13.7 per 10,000 residents, more than 23% of zip codes
Coffee shops
7
about 2.7 per 10,000 residents, more than 52% of zip codes
Parkland
222 acres
about 8.7 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 86% of zip codes

What the weather is like in 64138, month by month

64138 sees roughly 94 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 41, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January41°31°24°
April68°56°46°
July89°80°71°
October70°59°50°

Flying in and out of 64138

Kansas City International sits about 26 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 5.7 million passengers in 2025, with 104 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
MCI
Kansas City International, about 26 miles
Airport size
Medium hub
40th-busiest in the US, 104 nonstop destinations
Average drive
37 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around 64138

Schools across 64138 average a D−, better than 4% of zip codes.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every 64138 school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


64138 measure by measure

Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare 64138 against the other 33,109 zip codes.


Who 64138 suits

Families

Schools land around the 4th percentile.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

Internet is fast and widely advertised and 11% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

The weather beats 59% of zip codes.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in 64138

Is 64138 a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, 64138 ranks 23,534th of 33,110 zip codes. It scores highest on fast internet, transit, and biking, and lowest on the schools and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is 64138 expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $187,142. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $66,286 median income, cost of living beats 50% of zip codes.

Is 64138 safe?

64138 is safer than 13% of zip codes. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $683 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in 64138?

July highs average about 89 degrees, and January highs near 41 with lows near 24. That works out to about 94 pleasant days a year, more than 59% of zip codes.

Is 64138 good for families?

Schools beat 4% of zip codes, crime safety beats 13%, and childcare runs $840 a month.


Compare 64138 with other zip codes


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to 64138. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in 64138 represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.

64138 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for 64138: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in 64138: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of 64138: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in 64138: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

64138 detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.