Best PlacesDardenne Prairie, MO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Dardenne Prairie, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Dardenne Prairie ranks 1,966th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on what local pay buys by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Dardenne Prairie
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.
Dardenne Prairie's strengths and weaknesses
Where Dardenne Prairie ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 98% of towns
- Household income$138,883 median, better than 96% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 95% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 95% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 95% of towns
Where Dardenne Prairie ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 3% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 20% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 70 pleasant days a year, better than only 25% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 27% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 29% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Dardenne Prairie
A household needs to earn about $111,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Dardenne Prairie home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $138,883, 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 Dardenne Prairie's effective rate of 1.06%, 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 Dardenne Prairie
Dardenne Prairie'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 Dardenne Prairie.
Who works in Dardenne Prairie, and how
Work in Dardenne Prairie centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Dardenne Prairie
Dardenne Prairie has more parkland per resident than 96% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Dardenne Prairie and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Dardenne Prairie, month by month
Dardenne Prairie sees roughly 70 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 42, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 42° | 32° | 24° |
| April | 70° | 57° | 45° |
| July | 90° | 79° | 69° |
| October | 71° | 58° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Dardenne Prairie
St Louis Lambert International sits about 20 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 Dardenne Prairie
Schools across Dardenne Prairie average an A−, better than 84% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- John Weldon Elem.A · 64% proficient
- Twin Chimneys Elem.A · 63% proficient
- Pheasant Point Elem.A · 62% proficient
Top middle schools
- Francis Howell MiddleA · 63% proficient
- Ft. Zuwmalt West MiddleA · 62% proficient
- Ft. Zumwalt South MiddleA− · 55% proficient
Top high schools
- Ft. Zumwalt West HighA− · 63% proficient
- Francis Howell HighB+ · 56% proficient
- Liberty High SchoolB+ · 54% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Dardenne Prairie school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Dardenne Prairie 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 Dardenne Prairie against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Dardenne Prairie
Is Dardenne Prairie a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Dardenne Prairie ranks 1,966th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on what local pay buys, high incomes, and fast internet, and lowest on noise and car insurance costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Dardenne Prairie expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $410,945. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $138,883 median income, cost of living beats 98% of towns.
Is Dardenne Prairie safe?
Yes, Dardenne Prairie is safer than 68% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $283 per resident a year.
Compare Dardenne Prairie with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Dardenne Prairie. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Dardenne Prairie 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.
Dardenne Prairie detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Dardenne Prairie: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Dardenne Prairie: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Dardenne Prairie: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Dardenne Prairie: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Dardenne Prairie 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.