Best PlacesCouch, MO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Couch, 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.
Couch ranks 48,549th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on affordable childcare by a wide margin, and cell coverage ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Couch
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.
Couch's strengths and weaknesses
Where Couch ranks high
- Cheap childcare$340 a month, better than 99% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 85% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 81% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 76% of towns
- QuietBetter than 74% of towns
Where Couch ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 3% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 8% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 9% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Couch
A household needs to earn about $47,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Couch home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $47,992, 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 Couch's effective rate of 0.47%, 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.
Who lives in Couch
Couch runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Couch.
Who works in Couch, and how
Work in Couch centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 17%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Couch
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Couch.
What the weather is like in Couch, month by month
Couch sees roughly 72 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 47, with lows near 31. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 47° | 38° | 31° |
| April | 72° | 60° | 50° |
| July | 91° | 81° | 73° |
| October | 76° | 62° | 51° |
Flying in and out of Couch
The nearest airport, Waynesville-St Robert Regional Forney Field, is about 92 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Memphis International, about 130 miles away.
The best schools in and around Couch
Schools across Couch average a D+, better than 19% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Alton ElementaryC · 32% proficient
- Couch Elem.C− · 28% proficient
Top high schools
- Alton HighD · 23% proficient
- Couch HighD · 23% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Couch school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Couch 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 Couch against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Couch
Is Couch a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Couch ranks 48,549th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on affordable childcare, a strong job market, and low property taxes, and lowest on cell coverage and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Couch expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $189,300. The overall cost of living runs about 20% below the national average. Set against a $47,992 median income, cost of living beats 13% of towns.
Is Couch safe?
Couch is safer than 6% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $759 per resident a year.
Compare Couch with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Couch. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Couch 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.
Couch detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Couch: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Couch: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Couch: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Couch: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Couch 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.