Best PlacesEllis Prairie, MO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Ellis Prairie, 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.
Ellis Prairie ranks 44,423rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on affordable childcare by a wide margin, and the cost of living against local pay is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Ellis 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.
Ellis Prairie's strengths and weaknesses
Where Ellis Prairie ranks high
- Cheap childcare$349 a month, better than 99% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 84% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 77% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 76% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 73% of towns
Where Ellis Prairie ranks low
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 3% of towns
- Household income$37,633 median, better than only 3% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 4% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 7% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 13% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Ellis Prairie
A household needs to earn about $32,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Ellis Prairie home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $37,633, 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 Ellis Prairie's effective rate of 0.44%, 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Ellis Prairie
Ellis Prairie 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 Ellis Prairie.
Who works in Ellis Prairie, and how
Work in Ellis Prairie centers on manufacturing and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 89%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Ellis Prairie
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Ellis Prairie.
What the weather is like in Ellis Prairie, month by month
Ellis Prairie sees roughly 95 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 32° | 23° |
| April | 70° | 55° | 43° |
| July | 89° | 76° | 65° |
| October | 71° | 56° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Ellis Prairie
The nearest airport, Waynesville-St Robert Regional Forney Field, is about 23 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is St Louis Lambert International, about 128 miles away.
The best schools in and around Ellis Prairie
Schools across Ellis Prairie average a C, better than 37% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Licking Elem.C+ · 37% proficient
- Success Elem.C+ · 37% proficient
- Houston Elem.C · 34% proficient
Top middle schools
- Houston MiddleD+ · 26% proficient
Top high schools
- Licking HighC · 33% proficient
- Houston HighC · 32% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Ellis Prairie school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Ellis 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 Ellis Prairie against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Ellis Prairie
Is Ellis Prairie a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Ellis Prairie ranks 44,423rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on affordable childcare, low property taxes, and tree cover, and lowest on the cost of living against local pay and low incomes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Ellis Prairie expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $128,804. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $37,633 median income, cost of living beats 3% of towns.
Is Ellis Prairie safe?
Ellis Prairie is safer than 54% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $353 per resident a year.
Compare Ellis Prairie with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Ellis Prairie. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Ellis 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.
Ellis Prairie detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Ellis Prairie: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Ellis Prairie: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Ellis Prairie: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Ellis Prairie: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Ellis 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.