Best Places65041, MO Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood inside ZIP code 65041, 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

65041 ranks 22,347th of 33,110 U.S. zip codes on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on affordable childcare by a wide margin, and summer heat is the weak spot.

#22,347
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 65041

Map of the best neighborhoods in the 65041 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.

65041's strengths and weaknesses

Top 10%Affordable childcare
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare 65041 with other zip codes.

Where 65041 ranks high

  • Cheap childcare$491 a month, better than 95% of zip codes
  • Disaster safetyBetter than 79% of zip codes
  • TransitBetter than 76% of zip codes
  • State fiscal healthBetter than 74% of zip codes
  • Healthcare accessBetter than 73% of zip codes

Where 65041 ranks low

  • Heat safetyBetter than only 21% of zip codes
  • Crime safetyBetter than only 21% of zip codes
  • Low vacancyBetter than only 24% of zip codes
  • Health outlookBetter than only 24% of zip codes
  • Cell coverageBetter than only 28% of zip codes

What it costs to buy a home in 65041

A household needs to earn about $59,000 a year to comfortably buy the median 65041 home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $72,104, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$59,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,375
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $228,641 home
Median rent
$805
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,166
Property tax$133
Homeowners insurance$76

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 65041's effective rate of 0.70%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.

Renting versus buying

At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. 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 65041

65041 runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
49
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
25%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.4
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1820%
18 to 3417%
35 to 4918%
50 to 6420%
65 and older25%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for 65041.


Who works in 65041, and how

Work in 65041 centers on manufacturing and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.

Work from home
10%
below the national average
Unemployment
3.2%
below the national average
Job growth
−2.3%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Manufacturing16%
Retail trade14%
Health care & social11%
Construction10%
Finance & insurance7%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 88%
  • Work from home 10%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 3%

Life in 65041

65041 has more restaurants and bars per resident than 91% of zip codes. That concentrates in some parts of 65041 and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
70
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 129.6 per 10,000 residents, more than 91% of zip codes

What the weather is like in 65041, month by month

65041 sees roughly 85 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 42, with lows near 25. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, and August through October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January42°32°25°
April69°56°46°
July89°78°69°
October71°58°48°

Flying in and out of 65041

The nearest airport, Columbia Regional, is about 42 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is St Louis Lambert International, about 59 miles away.

Nearest airport
COU
Columbia Regional, about 42 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
219th-busiest in the US, 12 nonstop destinations
Average drive
60 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around 65041

Schools across 65041 average a B−, better than 53% 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 65041 school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


65041 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 65041 against the other 33,109 zip codes.


Common questions about living in 65041

Is 65041 a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, 65041 ranks 22,347th of 33,110 zip codes. It scores highest on affordable childcare, low disaster risk, and transit, and lowest on summer heat and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is 65041 expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $228,641. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $72,104 median income, cost of living beats 58% of zip codes.

Is 65041 safe?

65041 is safer than 21% of zip codes. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $539 per resident a year.


Compare 65041 with other zip codes


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to 65041. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in 65041 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.

65041 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for 65041: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in 65041: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of 65041: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in 65041: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

65041 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.