Best PlacesPeculiar, MO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Peculiar, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Peculiar ranks 9,999th 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 Peculiar
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.
Peculiar's strengths and weaknesses
Where Peculiar ranks high
- Cheap childcare$388 a month, better than 99% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 94% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 90% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 88% of towns
- Household income$102,497 median, better than 86% of towns
Where Peculiar ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 11% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 24% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 27% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 35% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 41% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Peculiar
A household needs to earn about $79,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Peculiar home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $102,497, 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 Peculiar's effective rate of 0.84%, 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.
Who lives in Peculiar
Peculiar's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Peculiar.
Who works in Peculiar, and how
Work in Peculiar centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 19%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Peculiar
Peculiar has more parkland per resident than 93% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Peculiar and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Peculiar, month by month
Peculiar sees roughly 92 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 25. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 32° | 25° |
| April | 70° | 56° | 46° |
| July | 91° | 79° | 69° |
| October | 71° | 58° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Peculiar
Kansas City International sits about 42 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 5.7 million passengers in 2025, with 104 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Peculiar
Schools across Peculiar average a B−, better than 58% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Stonegate Elem.B · 50% proficient
- Pleasant Hill Elem.B · 49% proficient
- Bridle Ridge ElementaryB− · 42% proficient
Top middle schools
- Pleasant Hill IntermediateB · 44% proficient
- Raymore-peculiar South MiddleB− · 41% proficient
- Harrisonville MiddleB− · 41% proficient
Top high schools
- Raymore-peculiar Sr. HighB− · 43% proficient
- Harrisonville HighB− · 42% proficient
- Pleasant Hill HighC · 33% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Peculiar school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Peculiar 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 Peculiar against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Peculiar
Is Peculiar a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Peculiar ranks 9,999th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on affordable childcare, civic engagement, and cell coverage, and lowest on noise and car insurance costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Peculiar expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $301,038. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $102,497 median income, cost of living beats 88% of towns.
Is Peculiar safe?
Peculiar is safer than 54% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $373 per resident a year.
Compare Peculiar with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Peculiar. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Peculiar 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.
Peculiar detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Peculiar: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Peculiar: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Peculiar: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Peculiar: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Peculiar 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.