Best PlacesHardy, MS Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Hardy, 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

Hardy ranks 43,382nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. The cost of living against local pay pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on affordable childcare.

#43,382
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 Hardy

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Hardy 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.

Hardy's strengths and weaknesses

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

Where Hardy ranks high

  • Cheap childcare$528 a month, better than 90% of towns
  • Local economyBetter than 88% of towns
  • Tree shadeBetter than 83% of towns
  • School gradeB+, better than 79% of towns
  • Low property taxBetter than 65% of towns

Where Hardy ranks low

  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 3% of towns
  • Household income$34,776 median, better than only 3% of towns
  • State infrastructureBetter than only 6% of towns
  • State fiscal healthBetter than only 13% of towns
  • Heat safetyBetter than only 13% of towns

What it costs to buy a home in Hardy

A household needs to earn about $28,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Hardy home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $34,776, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$28,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$644
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $108,519 home
Median rent
$763
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$553
Property tax$55
Homeowners insurance$36

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 Hardy's effective rate of 0.60%, 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 4 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Hardy

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

Median age
44
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
29%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.3
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1817%
18 to 3416%
35 to 4917%
50 to 6421%
65 and older29%

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


Who works in Hardy, and how

Work in Hardy centers on retail trade and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
3%
below the national average
Unemployment
0.0%
below the national average
Job growth
+6.9%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Retail trade25%
Manufacturing24%
Health care & social14%
Construction13%
Hospitality & food8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 96%
  • Work from home 3%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 1%

Life in Hardy

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


What the weather is like in Hardy, month by month

Hardy sees roughly 82 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 57, with lows near 37. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, October, and November.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January57°46°37°
April77°65°55°
July93°82°74°
October80°66°55°

Flying in and out of Hardy

The nearest airport, Tupelo Regional, is about 68 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Memphis International, about 81 miles away.

Nearest airport
TUP
Tupelo Regional, about 68 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
361st-busiest in the US, 3 nonstop destinations
Average drive
97 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Hardy

Schools across Hardy average a B+, better than 79% 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 Hardy school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Hardy 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 Hardy against the other 50,332 towns.


Common questions about living in Hardy

Is Hardy a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Hardy ranks 43,382nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on affordable childcare, a strong job market, 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 Hardy expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $108,519. The overall cost of living runs about 24% below the national average. Set against a $34,776 median income, cost of living beats 3% of towns.

Is Hardy safe?

Hardy is safer than 42% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $185 per resident a year.


Compare Hardy with other towns


Sources and methodology

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

Hardy detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

Hardy 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.