Best PlacesReserve, KS Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Reserve, 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.
Reserve ranks 19,412th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on affordable childcare by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Reserve
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.
Reserve's strengths and weaknesses
Where Reserve ranks high
- Cheap childcare$467 a month, better than 96% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 95% of towns
- Short commute19.4 minutes each way, better than 90% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 84% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 83% of towns
Where Reserve ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 23% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 23% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 26% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 28% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 29% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Reserve
A household needs to earn about $53,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Reserve home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $80,313, 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 Reserve's effective rate of 0.65%, 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 Reserve
Reserve runs younger than the country, though it still carries a larger-than-average share of residents over 65, 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 Reserve.
Who works in Reserve, and how
Work in Reserve centers on manufacturing and agriculture & forestry. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Reserve
Reserve has more restaurants and bars per resident than 99% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Reserve and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Reserve, month by month
Reserve sees roughly 95 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 37, with lows near 19. The comfortable stretch runs May and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 37° | 27° | 19° |
| April | 68° | 54° | 42° |
| July | 88° | 77° | 67° |
| October | 69° | 56° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Reserve
Kansas City International sits about 65 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 Reserve
Schools across Reserve average a C, better than 31% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Hiawatha ElemC− · 28% proficient
Top middle schools
- Hiawatha Middle SchoolC · 35% proficient
Top high schools
- Hiawatha Sr HighC− · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Reserve school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Reserve 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 Reserve against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Reserve
Is Reserve a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Reserve ranks 19,412th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on affordable childcare, state infrastructure, and short commutes, and lowest on taxes and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Reserve expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $207,300. The overall cost of living runs about 20% below the national average. Set against a $80,313 median income, cost of living beats 84% of towns.
Is Reserve safe?
Reserve is safer than 45% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $332 per resident a year.
Compare Reserve with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Reserve. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Reserve 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.
Reserve detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Reserve: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Reserve: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Reserve: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Reserve: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Reserve 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.