Best PlacesCape Girardeau, MO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Cape Girardeau metro, 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.
Photo by Nyttend, via commons
Cape Girardeau ranks 328th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on the weather and internet speeds. It does better on affordable childcare, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Cape Girardeau metro
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.
Cape Girardeau's strengths and weaknesses
Cape Girardeau ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. Affordable childcare is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. A stable housing market and low property taxes follow.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: the weather, internet speeds, and biking all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Cape Girardeau ranks high
- Cheap childcare$475 a month, better than 99% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 81% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than 74% of metro areas
- Short commute21.4 minutes each way, better than 72% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than 63% of metro areas
Where Cape Girardeau ranks low
- Nice weatherabout 61 pleasant days a year, better than only 6% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than only 9% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than only 11% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than only 12% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than only 13% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Cape Girardeau
A household needs to earn about $55,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Cape Girardeau home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $69,443, 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 Cape Girardeau's effective rate of 0.63%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Cape Girardeau
Cape Girardeau's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Cape Girardeau.
Who works in Cape Girardeau, and how
Work in Cape Girardeau centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Cape Girardeau
Cape Girardeau has more restaurants and bars per resident than 91% of metro areas and more parkland per resident than 90% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Cape Girardeau and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Cape Girardeau growing, and who is moving in?
Cape Girardeau has grown about 2% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from St Louis, MO.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Cape Girardeau go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Cape Girardeau, month by month
Cape Girardeau sees roughly 61 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 28. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 36° | 28° |
| April | 70° | 58° | 48° |
| July | 90° | 79° | 71° |
| October | 74° | 60° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Cape Girardeau
The nearest airport, Cape Girardeau Regional, is about 7 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is St Louis Lambert International, about 108 miles away.
The best schools in and around Cape Girardeau
Schools across Cape Girardeau average a C+, better than 35% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Kelso Elem.A− · 58% proficient
- West Lane Elem.B+ · 55% proficient
- Blanchard Elem.B · 50% proficient
Top middle schools
- Russell Hawkins Jr. HighB · 45% proficient
- Jackson MiddleB · 43% proficient
- Scott City MiddleB− · 39% proficient
Top high schools
- Oran High SchoolA− · 62% proficient
- Jackson Sr. HighB · 50% proficient
- Scott City HighC+ · 37% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Cape Girardeau school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Cape Girardeau 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 Cape Girardeau against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Cape Girardeau suits
Common questions about living in Cape Girardeau
Is Cape Girardeau a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Cape Girardeau ranks 328th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on affordable childcare, a stable housing market, and low property taxes, and lowest on the weather and internet speeds. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Cape Girardeau expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $213,832. The overall cost of living runs about 21% below the national average. Set against a $69,443 median income, cost of living beats 48% of metro areas.
Is Cape Girardeau safe?
Cape Girardeau is safer than 27% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $478 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Cape Girardeau?
July highs average about 90 degrees, and January highs near 44 with lows near 28. That works out to about 61 pleasant days a year, more than 6% of metro areas.
Is Cape Girardeau good for families?
Schools beat 35% of metro areas, crime safety beats 27%, and childcare runs $475 a month.
Is Cape Girardeau good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 48% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 9% of metro areas. About 9% of workers already work from home.
Compare Cape Girardeau with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Cape Girardeau. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Cape Girardeau 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.
Cape Girardeau detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Cape Girardeau: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Cape Girardeau: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Cape Girardeau: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Cape Girardeau: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Cape Girardeau 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.