Best PlacesFair Grove, MO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Fair Grove, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Costs and crime both read low, and the nearest big city is a drive away. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Fair Grove ranks 18,009th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. The weather pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on civic engagement.
The best neighborhoods in Fair Grove
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.
Fair Grove's strengths and weaknesses
Where Fair Grove ranks high
- Voter turnoutBetter than 86% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 86% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 80% of towns
- Cheap childcare$609 a month, better than 78% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 78% of towns
Where Fair Grove ranks low
- Nice weatherabout 61 pleasant days a year, better than only 10% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 27% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 28% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 30% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 31% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Fair Grove
A household needs to earn about $70,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Fair Grove home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $79,388, 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 Fair Grove's effective rate of 0.68%, 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 Fair Grove
Fair Grove'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 Fair Grove.
Who works in Fair Grove, and how
Work in Fair Grove centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Fair Grove
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Fair Grove.
What the weather is like in Fair Grove, month by month
Fair Grove sees roughly 61 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 47, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 47° | 34° | 23° |
| April | 71° | 57° | 44° |
| July | 92° | 79° | 69° |
| October | 74° | 59° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Fair Grove
The nearest airport, Springfield-Branson Ntl, is about 16 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Kansas City International, about 156 miles away.
The best schools in and around Fair Grove
Schools across Fair Grove average a B−, better than 58% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Strafford Elem.B+ · 55% proficient
- Fair Grove Elem.B · 50% proficient
- Daniel Webster Elem.C · 34% proficient
Top middle schools
- Fair Grove MiddleB · 47% proficient
- Strafford MiddleB · 47% proficient
- Buffalo MiddleC · 33% proficient
Top high schools
- Strafford HighB · 48% proficient
- Fair Grove HighB− · 45% proficient
- Marshfield HighC+ · 37% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Fair Grove school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Fair Grove 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 Fair Grove against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Fair Grove
Is Fair Grove a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Fair Grove ranks 18,009th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on civic engagement, low crime, and few empty homes, and lowest on the weather and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Fair Grove expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $272,477. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $79,388 median income, cost of living beats 71% of towns.
Is Fair Grove safe?
Yes, Fair Grove is safer than 86% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $230 per resident a year.
Compare Fair Grove with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Fair Grove. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Fair Grove 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.
Fair Grove detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Fair Grove: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Fair Grove: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Fair Grove: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Fair Grove: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Fair Grove 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.