Best PlacesEstes, AR Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Estes, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Estes ranks 40,338th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. The schools pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on state finances.

#40,338
of 50,333 towns
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 50,333 towns
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Estes

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Estes area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Estes' strengths and weaknesses

Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Estes with other towns.

Where Estes ranks high

  • State fiscal healthBetter than 85% of towns
  • Local economyBetter than 79% of towns
  • Housing crash safetyBetter than 77% of towns
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 72% of towns
  • Low vacancyBetter than 70% of towns

Where Estes ranks low

  • School gradeD−, better than only 2% of towns
  • Air qualityBetter than only 4% of towns
  • BikingBetter than only 9% of towns
  • Voter turnoutBetter than only 9% of towns
  • Heat safetyBetter than only 11% of towns

What it costs to buy a home in Estes

A household needs to earn about $61,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Estes home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $63,000, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$61,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,435
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $236,800 home

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,207
Property tax$149
Homeowners insurance$79

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 Estes' effective rate of 0.75%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.


Who lives in Estes

Estes runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
56
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
27%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.3
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1815%
18 to 3412%
35 to 4919%
50 to 6426%
65 and older27%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Estes.


Who works in Estes, and how

Work in Estes centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
5%
below the national average
Unemployment
0.9%
below the national average
Job growth
+3.8%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social17%
Retail trade15%
Transportation & warehousing15%
Construction12%
Professional & technical7%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 89%
  • Work from home 5%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 6%

Life in Estes

The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Estes.


What the weather is like in Estes, month by month

Estes sees roughly 73 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 53, with lows near 33. The comfortable stretch runs March through May and October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January53°42°33°
April75°63°53°
July93°83°74°
October77°65°55°

Flying in and out of Estes

The nearest airport, Bill and Hillary Clinton Ntl/Adams Field, is about 10 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Memphis International, about 126 miles away.

Nearest airport
LIT
Bill and Hillary Clinton Ntl/Adams Field, about 10 miles
Airport size
Small hub
102nd-busiest in the US, 47 nonstop destinations
Average drive
15 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Estes

Schools across Estes average a D−, better than 2% of towns.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Estes school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Estes 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 Estes against the other 50,332 towns.


Common questions about living in Estes

Is Estes a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Estes ranks 40,338th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on state finances, a strong job market, and a stable housing market, and lowest on the schools and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Estes expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $236,800. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $63,000 median income, cost of living beats 39% of towns.

Is Estes safe?

Estes is safer than 32% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $533 per resident a year.


Compare Estes with other towns


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Estes. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Estes 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.

Estes detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Estes: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Estes: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Estes: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Estes: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Estes detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.