Best PlacesSunrise Beach, MO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Sunrise Beach, 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.
Sunrise Beach ranks 29,125th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on affordable childcare by a wide margin, and empty homes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Sunrise Beach
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.
Sunrise Beach's strengths and weaknesses
Where Sunrise Beach ranks high
- Cheap childcare$441 a month, better than 97% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 96% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 94% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 87% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 84% of towns
Where Sunrise Beach ranks low
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 15% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 20% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 22% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 27% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Sunrise Beach
A household needs to earn about $98,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Sunrise Beach home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $64,687, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Sunrise Beach's effective rate of 0.41%, 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 Sunrise Beach
Sunrise Beach 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 Sunrise Beach.
Who works in Sunrise Beach, and how
Work in Sunrise Beach centers on retail trade and construction. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 69%
- Work from home 22%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Sunrise Beach
Sunrise Beach has more restaurants and bars per resident than 85% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Sunrise Beach and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Sunrise Beach, month by month
Sunrise Beach sees roughly 76 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 25. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 33° | 25° |
| April | 70° | 57° | 46° |
| July | 89° | 78° | 68° |
| October | 71° | 58° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Sunrise Beach
The nearest airport, Waynesville-St Robert Regional Forney Field, is about 44 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Kansas City International, about 132 miles away.
The best schools in and around Sunrise Beach
Schools across Sunrise Beach average a B−, better than 60% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Osage Beach ElementaryB · 45% proficient
- Osage Upper Elem.B− · 41% proficient
- Hurricane Deck ElementaryB− · 40% proficient
Top middle schools
- Oak Ridge IntermediateB+ · 49% proficient
- Camdenton MiddleB · 47% proficient
- Osage MiddleB− · 41% proficient
Top high schools
- Osage HighB− · 45% proficient
- Camdenton HighB− · 42% proficient
- Morgan Co. HighC− · 27% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Sunrise Beach school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Sunrise Beach 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 Sunrise Beach against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Sunrise Beach
Is Sunrise Beach a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Sunrise Beach ranks 29,125th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on affordable childcare, health care access, and civic engagement, and lowest on empty homes and summer heat. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Sunrise Beach expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $394,006. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $64,687 median income, cost of living beats 34% of towns.
Is Sunrise Beach safe?
Sunrise Beach is safer than 48% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $361 per resident a year.
Compare Sunrise Beach with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Sunrise Beach. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Sunrise Beach 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.
Sunrise Beach detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Sunrise Beach: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Sunrise Beach: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Sunrise Beach: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Sunrise Beach: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Sunrise Beach 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.