Best PlacesBay St. Louis, MS Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Bay St. Louis, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Bay St. Louis ranks 34,063rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Disaster risk pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on fast internet.
The best neighborhoods in Bay St. Louis
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.
Bay St. Louis' strengths and weaknesses
Where Bay St. Louis ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 89% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 87% of towns
- BikingBetter than 87% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 79% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 112 pleasant days a year, better than 76% of towns
Where Bay St. Louis ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 6% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 9% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 13% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 24% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Bay St. Louis
A household needs to earn about $63,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bay St. Louis home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $69,407, 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 Bay St. Louis' effective rate of 0.69%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Bay St. Louis
Bay St. Louis runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Bay St. Louis.
Who works in Bay St. Louis, and how
Work in Bay St. Louis centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 79%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Bay St. Louis
Bay St. Louis has more restaurants and bars per resident than 91% of towns and more parkland per resident than 88% of towns. The coast is about 6 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Bay St. Louis and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Bay St. Louis, month by month
Bay St. Louis sees roughly 112 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 62, with lows near 43. The comfortable stretch runs February through April and October through December.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 62° | 54° | 43° |
| April | 77° | 71° | 58° |
| July | 90° | 84° | 75° |
| October | 81° | 73° | 60° |
Flying in and out of Bay St. Louis
The nearest airport, Gulfport-Biloxi International, is about 20 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Louis Armstrong New Orleans International, about 57 miles away.
The best schools in and around Bay St. Louis
Schools across Bay St. Louis average a B, better than 69% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- East Hancock Elementary SchoolA · 66% proficient
- North Bay Elementary SchoolA− · 58% proficient
- South Hancock Elementary SchoolB− · 44% proficient
Top middle schools
- Hancock Middle SchoolA− · 54% proficient
- Bay Waveland Middle SchoolA− · 53% proficient
- Picayune Junior High SchoolB− · 42% proficient
Top high schools
- Hancock High SchoolB · 45% proficient
- Bay High SchoolB− · 45% proficient
- Picayune Memorial High SchoolB− · 42% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bay St. Louis school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bay St. Louis 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 Bay St. Louis against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Bay St. Louis
Is Bay St. Louis a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bay St. Louis ranks 34,063rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on fast internet, walkability, and biking, and lowest on disaster risk and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Bay St. Louis expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $244,654. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $69,407 median income, cost of living beats 46% of towns.
Is Bay St. Louis safe?
Bay St. Louis is safer than 34% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $211 per resident a year.
Compare Bay St. Louis with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bay St. Louis. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bay St. Louis 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.
Bay St. Louis detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bay St. Louis: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bay St. Louis: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bay St. Louis: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bay St. Louis: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bay St. Louis 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.