Best PlacesValley Park, MO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Valley Park, 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.
Valley Park ranks 16,041st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on few empty homes by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Valley Park
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.
Valley Park's strengths and weaknesses
Where Valley Park ranks high
- Low vacancyBetter than 98% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 94% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 92% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 89% of towns
- BikingBetter than 84% of towns
Where Valley Park ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,131 a month, better than only 15% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 18% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 20% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 70 pleasant days a year, better than only 25% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Valley Park
A household needs to earn about $78,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Valley Park home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $86,009, 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 Valley Park's effective rate of 1.23%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Valley Park
Valley Park's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Valley Park.
Who works in Valley Park, and how
Work in Valley Park centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Valley Park
Valley Park has more restaurants and bars per resident than 87% of towns and more parkland per resident than 99% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Valley Park and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Valley Park, month by month
Valley Park sees roughly 70 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 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 | 70° | 57° | 45° |
| July | 90° | 79° | 69° |
| October | 71° | 58° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Valley Park
St Louis Lambert International sits about 15 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 7.5 million passengers in 2025, with 114 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Valley Park
Schools across Valley Park average a B−, better than 55% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Barretts Elem.A− · 60% proficient
- Stanton Elem.A− · 57% proficient
- Uthoff Valley Elem.B · 49% proficient
Top middle schools
- Southwest MiddleB+ · 50% proficient
- South MiddleB · 45% proficient
- Rockwood South MiddleB · 45% proficient
Top high schools
- Rockwood Summit Sr. HighB · 50% proficient
- South HighC+ · 40% proficient
- Valley Park Sr. HighC+ · 40% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Valley Park school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Valley Park 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 Valley Park against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Valley Park
Is Valley Park a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Valley Park ranks 16,041st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on few empty homes, an educated workforce, and population health, and lowest on noise and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Valley Park expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $283,495. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $86,009 median income, cost of living beats 83% of towns.
Is Valley Park safe?
Valley Park is safer than 42% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $387 per resident a year.
Compare Valley Park with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Valley Park. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Valley Park 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.
Valley Park detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Valley Park: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Valley Park: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Valley Park: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Valley Park: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Valley Park 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.