Best PlacesSuccess, MO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Success, 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.
Success ranks 35,116th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on population health by a wide margin, and civic engagement ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Success
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.
Success' strengths and weaknesses
Where Success ranks high
- Health outlookBetter than 99% of towns
- Short commute9.7 minutes each way, better than 99% of towns
- Cheap childcare$448 a month, better than 97% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 86% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 73% of towns
Where Success ranks low
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 1% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 56 pleasant days a year, better than only 3% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 7% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 9% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 13% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Success
A household needs to earn about $34,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Success home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $56,431, 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 Success' effective rate of 0.59%, 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 3 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Success
Success runs younger 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 Success.
Who works in Success, and how
Work in Success centers on retail trade and public administration. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 18%
- Work from home 41%
- Transit, walk, or bike 41%
Life in Success
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Success.
What the weather is like in Success, month by month
Success sees roughly 56 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 34° | 26° |
| April | 70° | 57° | 46° |
| July | 89° | 78° | 69° |
| October | 71° | 58° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Success
The nearest airport, Waynesville-St Robert Regional Forney Field, is about 2 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is St Louis Lambert International, about 119 miles away.
The best schools in and around Success
Schools across Success average a B, better than 66% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Wood Elem.B · 50% proficient
- Plato Elem.B− · 42% proficient
- Licking Elem.C+ · 37% proficient
Top middle schools
- 6th Grade CenterB · 44% proficient
- Houston MiddleD+ · 26% proficient
Top high schools
- Waynesville Sr. HighB− · 45% proficient
- Mountain Grove HighC+ · 37% proficient
- Licking HighC · 33% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Success school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Success 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 Success against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Success
Is Success a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Success ranks 35,116th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on population health, short commutes, and affordable childcare, and lowest on civic engagement and the weather. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Success expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $133,847. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $56,431 median income, cost of living beats 17% of towns.
Is Success safe?
Success is safer than 16% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $571 per resident a year.
Compare Success with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Success. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Success 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.
Success detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Success: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Success: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Success: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Success: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Success 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.