Best PlacesKaiser, MO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Kaiser, 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.
Kaiser ranks 43,688th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on affordable childcare by a wide margin, and the cost of living against local pay is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Kaiser
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.
Kaiser's strengths and weaknesses
Where Kaiser ranks high
- Cheap childcare$412 a month, better than 98% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 80% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 75% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 73% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 61% of towns
Where Kaiser ranks low
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 9% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 10% of towns
- Household income$48,970 median, better than only 11% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 19% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 20% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Kaiser
A household needs to earn about $46,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Kaiser home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $48,970, 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 Kaiser's effective rate of 0.52%, 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 Kaiser
Kaiser runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Kaiser.
Who works in Kaiser, and how
Work in Kaiser centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Kaiser
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Kaiser.
What the weather is like in Kaiser, month by month
Kaiser sees roughly 74 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 25. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 33° | 25° |
| April | 70° | 57° | 46° |
| July | 89° | 78° | 68° |
| October | 71° | 58° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Kaiser
The nearest airport, Waynesville-St Robert Regional Forney Field, is about 37 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is St Louis Lambert International, about 125 miles away.
The best schools in and around Kaiser
Schools across Kaiser average a B−, better than 56% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Osage Beach ElementaryB · 45% proficient
- Osage Upper Elem.B− · 41% proficient
- Miller Co. Elem.C · 33% proficient
Top middle schools
- Osage MiddleB− · 41% proficient
Top high schools
- Osage HighB− · 45% proficient
- Tuscumbia HighD · 20% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Kaiser school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Kaiser 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 Kaiser against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Kaiser
Is Kaiser a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Kaiser ranks 43,688th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on affordable childcare, tree cover, and low property taxes, and lowest on the cost of living against local pay and education levels. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Kaiser expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $183,635. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $48,970 median income, cost of living beats 9% of towns.
Is Kaiser safe?
Kaiser is safer than 36% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $438 per resident a year.
Compare Kaiser with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Kaiser. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Kaiser 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.
Kaiser detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Kaiser: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Kaiser: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Kaiser: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Kaiser: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Kaiser 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.