Best PlacesMountain Home, AR Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Mountain Home, 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.
Mountain Home ranks 1,845th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on affordable childcare by a wide margin, and low incomes rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Mountain Home
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.
Mountain Home's strengths and weaknesses
Where Mountain Home ranks high
- Cheap childcare$481 a month, better than 99% of cities
- Short commute16.4 minutes each way, better than 97% of cities
- Low property taxBetter than 93% of cities
- State fiscal healthBetter than 92% of cities
- Air qualityBetter than 82% of cities
Where Mountain Home ranks low
- Household income$49,988 median, better than only 1% of cities
- Health outlookBetter than only 1% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than only 2% of cities
- Internet speedBetter than only 3% of cities
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 6% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Mountain Home
A household needs to earn about $47,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Mountain Home home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $49,988, 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 Mountain Home's effective rate of 0.49%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Mountain Home
Mountain Home 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 Mountain Home.
Who works in Mountain Home, and how
Work in Mountain Home centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 90%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Mountain Home
Mountain Home has more restaurants and bars per resident than 80% of cities and more parkland per resident than 81% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Mountain Home and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Mountain Home, month by month
Mountain Home sees roughly 79 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 47, with lows near 29. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 47° | 37° | 29° |
| April | 71° | 59° | 48° |
| July | 90° | 79° | 70° |
| October | 73° | 61° | 51° |
Flying in and out of Mountain Home
The nearest airport, Boone County, is about 44 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Memphis International, about 162 miles away.
The best schools in and around Mountain Home
Schools across Mountain Home average a B, better than 56% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Hackler Intermediate SchoolB · 47% proficient
- Viola Elementary SchoolB · 47% proficient
- Amanda Gist Elementary SchoolB · 45% proficient
Top middle schools
- Pinkston Middle SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
Top high schools
- Gainesville HighB− · 45% proficient
- Bakersfield HighC+ · 40% proficient
- Mtn Home High Career AcademicsC+ · 37% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Mountain Home school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Mountain Home 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 Mountain Home against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Mountain Home suits
Common questions about living in Mountain Home
Is Mountain Home a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Mountain Home ranks 1,845th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on affordable childcare, short commutes, and low property taxes, and lowest on low incomes and health outcomes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Mountain Home expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $187,847. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $49,988 median income, cost of living beats 6% of cities.
Is Mountain Home safe?
Yes, Mountain Home is safer than 59% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $423 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Mountain Home?
July highs average about 90 degrees, and January highs near 47 with lows near 29. That works out to about 79 pleasant days a year, more than 42% of cities.
Is Mountain Home good for families?
Schools beat 56% of cities, crime safety beats 59%, and childcare runs $481 a month.
Compare Mountain Home with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Mountain Home. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Mountain Home 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.
Mountain Home detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Mountain Home: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Mountain Home: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Mountain Home: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Mountain Home: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Mountain Home 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.