Best PlacesSugar Creek, MO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Sugar Creek, 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.
Sugar Creek ranks 40,334th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on biking by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Sugar Creek
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.
Sugar Creek's strengths and weaknesses
Where Sugar Creek ranks high
- BikingBetter than 92% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 90% of towns
- TransitBetter than 89% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 88% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 87% of towns
Where Sugar Creek ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 2% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 17% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 18% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Sugar Creek
A household needs to earn about $38,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Sugar Creek home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $66,871, 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 Sugar Creek's effective rate of 1.02%, 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 Sugar Creek
Sugar Creek'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 Sugar Creek.
Who works in Sugar Creek, and how
Work in Sugar Creek centers on retail trade and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 91%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Sugar Creek
Sugar Creek has more parkland per resident than 98% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Sugar Creek and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Sugar Creek, month by month
Sugar Creek sees roughly 107 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 41, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 41° | 31° | 24° |
| April | 69° | 57° | 47° |
| July | 91° | 81° | 72° |
| October | 71° | 59° | 50° |
Flying in and out of Sugar Creek
Kansas City International sits about 20 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 Sugar Creek
Schools across Sugar Creek average a C−, better than 20% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Epic ElementaryA+ · 85% proficient
- Mill Creek Elem.C+ · 38% proficient
- Indian Trails Elem.C+ · 38% proficient
Top middle schools
- Liberty Middle SchoolB · 44% proficient
- Fire Prairie MiddleC− · 27% proficient
- Bingham MiddleD+ · 27% proficient
Top high schools
- Liberty HighB+ · 51% proficient
- Fort Osage HighC+ · 36% proficient
- William Chrisman HighC · 31% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Sugar Creek school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Sugar Creek 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 Sugar Creek against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Sugar Creek
Is Sugar Creek a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Sugar Creek ranks 40,334th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on biking, fast internet, and transit, and lowest on noise and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Sugar Creek expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $141,564. The overall cost of living runs about 17% below the national average. Set against a $66,871 median income, cost of living beats 48% of towns.
Is Sugar Creek safe?
Sugar Creek is safer than 4% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $888 per resident a year.
Compare Sugar Creek with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Sugar Creek. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Sugar Creek 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.
Sugar Creek detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Sugar Creek: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Sugar Creek: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Sugar Creek: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Sugar Creek: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Sugar Creek 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.