Best PlacesForest Hill, MS Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Forest Hill, 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.
Forest Hill ranks 25,539th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. State infrastructure pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on an educated workforce.
The best neighborhoods in Forest Hill
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.
Forest Hill's strengths and weaknesses
Where Forest Hill ranks high
- Educational attainmentBetter than 90% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 87% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 87% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 81% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 75% of towns
Where Forest Hill ranks low
- State infrastructureBetter than only 6% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 8% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 13% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 22% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 22% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Forest Hill
A household needs to earn about $50,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Forest Hill home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $66,620, 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 Forest Hill's effective rate of 0.77%, 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 Forest Hill
Forest Hill 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 Forest Hill.
Who works in Forest Hill, and how
Work in Forest Hill centers on health care & social and construction. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Forest Hill
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Forest Hill.
What the weather is like in Forest Hill, month by month
Forest Hill sees roughly 86 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 59, with lows near 37. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, October, and November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 59° | 47° | 37° |
| April | 77° | 65° | 54° |
| July | 92° | 81° | 73° |
| October | 80° | 66° | 55° |
Flying in and out of Forest Hill
The nearest airport, Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International, is about 15 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Louis Armstrong New Orleans International, about 158 miles away.
The best schools in and around Forest Hill
Schools across Forest Hill average a C, better than 34% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Raymond Elementary SchoolC+ · 39% proficient
Top middle schools
- Carver Middle SchoolB · 47% proficient
- Byram Middle SchoolC · 33% proficient
Top high schools
- Raymond High SchoolC · 32% proficient
- Terry High SchoolC− · 28% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Forest Hill school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Forest Hill 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 Forest Hill against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Forest Hill
Is Forest Hill a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Forest Hill ranks 25,539th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on an educated workforce, a stable housing market, and fast internet, and lowest on state infrastructure and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Forest Hill expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $192,604. The overall cost of living runs about 25% below the national average. Set against a $66,620 median income, cost of living beats 66% of towns.
Is Forest Hill safe?
Forest Hill is safer than 22% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $242 per resident a year.
Compare Forest Hill with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Forest Hill. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Forest Hill 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.
Forest Hill detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Forest Hill: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Forest Hill: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Forest Hill: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Forest Hill: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Forest Hill 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.