Best PlacesProsperity, MO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Prosperity, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Prosperity ranks 25,151st 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 Prosperity
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.
Prosperity's strengths and weaknesses
Where Prosperity ranks high
- Cheap childcare$381 a month, better than 99% of towns
- Short commute18.1 minutes each way, better than 93% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 90% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 78% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 73% of towns
Where Prosperity ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 8% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 14% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 15% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 17% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Prosperity
A household needs to earn about $76,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Prosperity home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $71,101; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Prosperity's effective rate of 0.77%, 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 Prosperity
Prosperity runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Prosperity.
Who works in Prosperity, and how
Work in Prosperity centers on construction and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Prosperity
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Prosperity.
What the weather is like in Prosperity, month by month
Prosperity sees roughly 75 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 47, with lows near 27. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 47° | 35° | 27° |
| April | 71° | 58° | 48° |
| July | 92° | 81° | 71° |
| October | 73° | 61° | 51° |
Flying in and out of Prosperity
The nearest airport, Joplin Regional, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Kansas City International, about 151 miles away.
The best schools in and around Prosperity
Schools across Prosperity average a C+, better than 47% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Pleasant Valley Elem.A · 70% proficient
- Carterville Elem.B · 50% proficient
- Carthage Intermediate CenterC · 33% proficient
Top middle schools
- Webb City Jr. HighB · 47% proficient
Top high schools
- Webb City HighB− · 44% proficient
- Carthage High SchoolC+ · 39% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Prosperity school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Prosperity 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 Prosperity against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Prosperity
Is Prosperity a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Prosperity ranks 25,151st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on affordable childcare, short commutes, and a strong job market, and lowest on noise and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Prosperity expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $290,200. The overall cost of living runs about 21% below the national average. Set against a $71,101 median income, cost of living beats 63% of towns.
Is Prosperity safe?
Yes, Prosperity is safer than 78% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $259 per resident a year.
Compare Prosperity with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Prosperity. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Prosperity 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.
Prosperity detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Prosperity: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Prosperity: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Prosperity: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Prosperity: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Prosperity 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.