Best PlacesSpruce, MO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Spruce, 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.
Spruce ranks 26,231st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on affordable childcare by a wide margin, and the weather ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Spruce
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.
Spruce's strengths and weaknesses
Where Spruce ranks high
- Cheap childcare$412 a month, better than 98% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 87% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 80% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 80% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 79% of towns
Where Spruce ranks low
- Nice weatherabout 55 pleasant days a year, better than only 2% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 10% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 13% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 27% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Spruce
A household needs to earn about $68,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Spruce home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $87,604, 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 Spruce's effective rate of 0.53%, 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 Spruce
Spruce 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 Spruce.
Who works in Spruce, and how
Work in Spruce centers on manufacturing and agriculture & forestry. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 9%
Life in Spruce
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Spruce.
What the weather is like in Spruce, month by month
Spruce sees roughly 55 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 42, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 42° | 32° | 24° |
| April | 68° | 56° | 45° |
| July | 89° | 78° | 69° |
| October | 71° | 58° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Spruce
Kansas City International sits about 78 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 Spruce
Schools across Spruce average a C, better than 31% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Hudson Elem.A · 65% proficient
- Ballard Elem.C+ · 39% proficient
- Butler Elem.C · 32% proficient
Top high schools
- Butler HighC · 31% proficient
- Ballard HighD · 21% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Spruce school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Spruce 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 Spruce against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Spruce
Is Spruce a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Spruce ranks 26,231st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on affordable childcare, a strong job market, and civic engagement, and lowest on the weather and biking. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Spruce expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $268,500. The overall cost of living runs about 15% below the national average. Set against a $87,604 median income, cost of living beats 80% of towns.
Is Spruce safe?
Spruce is safer than 29% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $452 per resident a year.
Compare Spruce with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Spruce. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Spruce 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.
Spruce detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Spruce: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Spruce: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Spruce: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Spruce: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Spruce 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.