Best PlacesDes Peres, MO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Des Peres, 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.
Des Peres ranks 1,255th 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 Des Peres
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.
Des Peres' strengths and weaknesses
Where Des Peres ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 99% of towns
- Household income$196,531 median, better than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 95% of towns
Where Des Peres ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 4% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 64 pleasant days a year, better than only 14% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,131 a month, better than only 15% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 20% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 20% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Des Peres
A household needs to earn about $167,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Des Peres home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $196,531, 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 Des Peres' effective rate of 1.00%, 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 Des Peres
Des Peres runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Des Peres.
Who works in Des Peres, and how
Work in Des Peres centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 22%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Des Peres
Des Peres has more restaurants and bars per resident than 93% of towns and more parkland per resident than 95% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Des Peres and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Des Peres, month by month
Des Peres sees roughly 64 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 33° | 24° |
| April | 72° | 58° | 46° |
| July | 93° | 81° | 71° |
| October | 74° | 61° | 50° |
Flying in and out of Des Peres
St Louis Lambert International sits about 11 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 Des Peres
Schools across Des Peres average an A−, better than 84% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Mason Ridge Elem.A · 65% proficient
- Westchester Elem.A− · 61% proficient
- Barretts Elem.A− · 60% proficient
Top middle schools
- North Kirkwood MiddleA · 63% proficient
- West MiddleA · 59% proficient
- Nipher MiddleA− · 57% proficient
Top high schools
- Kirkwood Sr. HighA · 71% proficient
- West HighA− · 62% proficient
- Rockwood Summit Sr. HighB · 50% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Des Peres school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Des Peres 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 Des Peres against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Des Peres
Is Des Peres a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Des Peres ranks 1,255th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on what local pay buys, high incomes, and an educated workforce, 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 Des Peres expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $619,813. The overall cost of living runs about 1% below the national average. Set against a $196,531 median income, cost of living beats 100% of towns.
Is Des Peres safe?
Des Peres is safer than 20% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $515 per resident a year.
Compare Des Peres with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Des Peres. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Des Peres 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.
Des Peres detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Des Peres: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Des Peres: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Des Peres: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Des Peres: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Des Peres 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.