Best PlacesHightown, MS Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Hightown, 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

Hightown ranks 28,072nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on a stable housing market by a wide margin, and state infrastructure ranks lowest.

#28,072
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
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The best neighborhoods in Hightown

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Hightown area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
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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.

Hightown's strengths and weaknesses

Top 10%A stable housing market
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Hightown with other towns.

Where Hightown ranks high

  • Housing crash safetyBetter than 90% of towns
  • Cheap childcare$528 a month, better than 90% of towns
  • Short commute20.8 minutes each way, better than 85% of towns
  • Low property taxBetter than 84% of towns
  • Low vacancyBetter than 73% of towns

Where Hightown ranks low

  • State infrastructureBetter than only 6% of towns
  • Voter turnoutBetter than only 11% of towns
  • Educational attainmentBetter than only 12% of towns
  • State fiscal healthBetter than only 13% of towns
  • BikingBetter than only 15% of towns

What it costs to buy a home in Hightown

A household needs to earn about $32,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Hightown home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $66,132, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$32,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$737
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $127,086 home
Median rent
$681
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$648
Property tax$47
Homeowners insurance$42

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 Hightown's effective rate of 0.44%, 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.

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

Who lives in Hightown

Hightown runs younger than the country.

Median age
38
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
16%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.6
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1823%
18 to 3422%
35 to 4919%
50 to 6419%
65 and older16%

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


Who works in Hightown, and how

Work in Hightown centers on manufacturing and education. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.

Work from home
4%
below the national average
Unemployment
5.5%
above the national average
Job growth
−1.6%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Manufacturing20%
Education16%
Health care & social14%
Retail trade10%
Other services6%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 94%
  • Work from home 4%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 2%

Life in Hightown

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


What the weather is like in Hightown, month by month

Hightown sees roughly 80 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 52, with lows near 34. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, September, and October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January52°42°34°
April73°61°51°
July90°80°72°
October76°62°52°

Flying in and out of Hightown

The nearest airport, Tupelo Regional, is about 47 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Memphis International, about 79 miles away.

Nearest airport
TUP
Tupelo Regional, about 47 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
361st-busiest in the US, 3 nonstop destinations
Average drive
67 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Hightown

Schools across Hightown average a B−, better than 64% 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 Hightown school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Hightown 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 Hightown against the other 50,332 towns.


Common questions about living in Hightown

Is Hightown a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Hightown ranks 28,072nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on a stable housing market, affordable childcare, and short commutes, and lowest on state infrastructure and civic engagement. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Hightown expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $127,086. The overall cost of living runs about 22% below the national average. Set against a $66,132 median income, cost of living beats 52% of towns.

Is Hightown safe?

Yes, Hightown is safer than 68% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $141 per resident a year.


Compare Hightown with other towns


Sources and methodology

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

Hightown detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

Hightown 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.