Best PlacesEast Cape Girardeau, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around East Cape Girardeau, 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.
East Cape Girardeau ranks 50,290th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on fast internet by a wide margin, and a weak job market ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in East Cape Girardeau
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.
East Cape Girardeau's strengths and weaknesses
Where East Cape Girardeau ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 97% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 85% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 77% of towns
- BikingBetter than 75% of towns
- Short commute23.4 minutes each way, better than 72% of towns
Where East Cape Girardeau ranks low
- Local economyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- School gradeF, better than only 1% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in East Cape Girardeau
A household needs to earn about $17,000 a year to comfortably buy the median East Cape Girardeau home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $43,889, 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 East Cape Girardeau's effective rate of 1.08%, 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 2 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in East Cape Girardeau
East Cape Girardeau runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for East Cape Girardeau.
Who works in East Cape Girardeau, and how
Work in East Cape Girardeau centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 89%
- Work from home 4%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in East Cape Girardeau
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across East Cape Girardeau.
What the weather is like in East Cape Girardeau, month by month
East 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 East Cape Girardeau
The nearest airport, Cape Girardeau Regional, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is St Louis Lambert International, about 111 miles away.
The best schools in and around East Cape Girardeau
Schools across East Cape Girardeau average an F, better than 1% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Shawnee Elementary SchoolF · 8% proficient
Top middle schools
- Shawnee Jr High SchoolF · 11% proficient
Top high schools
- Shawnee High SchoolF · 10% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every East Cape Girardeau school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
East 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 East Cape Girardeau against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in East Cape Girardeau
Is East Cape Girardeau a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, East Cape Girardeau ranks 50,290th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on fast internet, cell coverage, and state infrastructure, and lowest on a weak job market and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is East Cape Girardeau expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $60,800. The overall cost of living runs about 29% below the national average. Set against a $43,889 median income, cost of living beats 15% of towns.
Is East Cape Girardeau safe?
East Cape Girardeau is safer than 1% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $827 per resident a year.
Compare East Cape Girardeau with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to East Cape Girardeau. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in East 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.
East Cape Girardeau detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for East Cape Girardeau: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in East Cape Girardeau: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of East Cape Girardeau: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in East Cape Girardeau: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
East 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.
- 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.