Best PlacesCrystal City, MO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Crystal City, 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.
Crystal City ranks 26,127th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on walkability by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Crystal City
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.
Crystal City's strengths and weaknesses
Where Crystal City ranks high
- WalkabilityBetter than 95% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 90% of towns
- BikingBetter than 90% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 86% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 73% of towns
Where Crystal City ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 9% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 64 pleasant days a year, better than only 14% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 21% of towns
- Short commute32.2 minutes each way, better than only 23% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 28% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Crystal City
A household needs to earn about $47,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Crystal City home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $69,585, 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 Crystal City'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, 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 Crystal City
Crystal City 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 Crystal City.
Who works in Crystal City, and how
Work in Crystal City centers on health care & social and construction. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Crystal City
Crystal City has more restaurants and bars per resident than 89% of towns and more parkland per resident than 94% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Crystal City and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Crystal City, month by month
Crystal City sees roughly 64 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 42, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 42° | 33° | 26° |
| April | 70° | 57° | 46° |
| July | 90° | 80° | 70° |
| October | 72° | 59° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Crystal City
St Louis Lambert International sits about 36 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 7.5 million passengers in 2025, with 114 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Crystal City
Schools across Crystal City average a B−, better than 60% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Festus Elem.A+ · 73% proficient
- Crystal City Elem.B− · 40% proficient
- Telegraph IntermediateC+ · 36% proficient
Top middle schools
- Festus IntermediateA · 60% proficient
- Danby-rush Tower MiddleB+ · 47% proficient
Top high schools
- Jefferson High SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
- Festus Sr. HighB− · 42% proficient
- Crystal City HighC+ · 38% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Crystal City school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Crystal City 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 Crystal City against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Crystal City
Is Crystal City a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Crystal City ranks 26,127th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on walkability, fast internet, and biking, and lowest on noise and the weather. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Crystal City expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $181,031. The overall cost of living runs about 17% below the national average. Set against a $69,585 median income, cost of living beats 55% of towns.
Is Crystal City safe?
Crystal City is safer than 33% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $446 per resident a year.
Compare Crystal City with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Crystal City. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Crystal City 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.
Crystal City detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Crystal City: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Crystal City: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Crystal City: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Crystal City: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Crystal City 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.