Best PlacesAthens, MS Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Athens, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Athens ranks 37,103rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on tree cover by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Athens
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.
Athens' strengths and weaknesses
Where Athens ranks high
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 93% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 90% of towns
- Cheap childcare$532 a month, better than 89% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 82% of towns
Where Athens ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 1% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 6% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 10% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 11% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 13% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Athens
A household needs to earn about $44,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Athens home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $63,684, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
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 Athens' effective rate of 0.58%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Athens
Athens runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Athens.
Who works in Athens, and how
Work in Athens centers on manufacturing and construction. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Athens
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Athens.
What the weather is like in Athens, month by month
Athens sees roughly 71 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 55, with lows near 34. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 55° | 43° | 34° |
| April | 76° | 62° | 51° |
| July | 93° | 81° | 72° |
| October | 79° | 64° | 53° |
Flying in and out of Athens
The nearest airport, Golden Triangle Regional, is about 32 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Memphis International, about 119 miles away.
The best schools in and around Athens
Schools across Athens average a B, better than 69% of towns.
Top high schools
- Smithville High SchoolA− · 51% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Athens school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Athens 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 Athens against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Athens
Is Athens a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Athens ranks 37,103rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on tree cover, fast internet, and low crime, and lowest on noise and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Athens expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $175,252. The overall cost of living runs about 21% below the national average. Set against a $63,684 median income, cost of living beats 49% of towns.
Is Athens safe?
Yes, Athens is safer than 90% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $112 per resident a year.
Compare Athens with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Athens. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Athens 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.
Athens detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Athens: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Athens: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Athens: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Athens: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Athens detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- 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.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.