Best PlacesOsage Beach, MO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Osage Beach, 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.
Osage Beach ranks 35,443rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on affordable childcare by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Osage Beach
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.
Osage Beach's strengths and weaknesses
Where Osage Beach ranks high
- Cheap childcare$441 a month, better than 97% of towns
- Short commute20.1 minutes each way, better than 87% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 85% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 84% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 82% of towns
Where Osage Beach ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 7% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 16% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 20% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Osage Beach
A household needs to earn about $92,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Osage Beach home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $70,164, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Osage Beach's effective rate of 0.46%, 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 Osage Beach
Osage Beach 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 Osage Beach.
Who works in Osage Beach, and how
Work in Osage Beach centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Osage Beach
Osage Beach has more restaurants and bars per resident than 96% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Osage Beach and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Osage Beach, month by month
Osage Beach 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 Osage Beach
The nearest airport, Waynesville-St Robert Regional Forney Field, is about 40 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is St Louis Lambert International, about 131 miles away.
The best schools in and around Osage Beach
Schools across Osage Beach average a B−, better than 61% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Osage Beach ElementaryB · 45% proficient
- Osage Upper Elem.B− · 41% proficient
Top middle schools
- Oak Ridge IntermediateB+ · 49% proficient
- Osage MiddleB− · 41% proficient
Top high schools
- Osage HighB− · 45% proficient
- Camdenton HighB− · 42% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Osage Beach school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Osage Beach 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 Osage Beach against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Osage Beach
Is Osage Beach a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Osage Beach ranks 35,443rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on affordable childcare, short commutes, and cell coverage, and lowest on noise and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Osage Beach expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $367,280. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $70,164 median income, cost of living beats 43% of towns.
Is Osage Beach safe?
Osage Beach is safer than 8% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $735 per resident a year.
Compare Osage Beach with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Osage Beach. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Osage Beach 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.
Osage Beach detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Osage Beach: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Osage Beach: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Osage Beach: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Osage Beach: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Osage Beach 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.