Best PlacesHappy, KY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Happy, 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.
Happy ranks 40,214th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Thin health care access pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on affordable childcare.
The best neighborhoods in Happy
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.
Happy's strengths and weaknesses
Where Happy ranks high
- Cheap childcare$545 a month, better than 88% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 87% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 73% of towns
- Short commute23.8 minutes each way, better than 70% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 69% of towns
Where Happy ranks low
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 2% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 6% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 7% of towns
- School gradeD+, better than only 11% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 16% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Happy
A household needs to earn about $22,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Happy home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $54,244, 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 Happy's effective rate of 0.64%, 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 Happy
Happy 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 Happy.
Who works in Happy, and how
Work in Happy centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 96%
- Work from home 1%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Happy
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Happy.
What the weather is like in Happy, month by month
Happy sees roughly 85 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 46, with lows near 30. The comfortable stretch runs April through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 46° | 37° | 30° |
| April | 70° | 57° | 47° |
| July | 86° | 75° | 67° |
| October | 71° | 58° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Happy
The nearest airport, Tri-Cities, is about 63 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International, about 154 miles away.
The best schools in and around Happy
Schools across Happy average a D+, better than 11% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Robert W Combs Elementary SchoolD · 20% proficient
Top high schools
- Perry County Central High SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Happy school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Happy 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 Happy against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Happy
Is Happy a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Happy ranks 40,214th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on affordable childcare, a strong job market, and a stable housing market, and lowest on thin health care access and health outcomes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Happy expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $86,500. The overall cost of living runs about 17% below the national average. Set against a $54,244 median income, cost of living beats 20% of towns.
Is Happy safe?
Happy is safer than 48% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $274 per resident a year.
Compare Happy with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Happy. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Happy 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.
Happy detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Happy: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Happy: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Happy: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Happy: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Happy 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.