Best PlacesWaldron, MO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Waldron, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Waldron ranks 5,250th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on what local pay buys by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Waldron
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.
Waldron's strengths and weaknesses
Where Waldron ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 97% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 96% of towns
- Household income$133,351 median, better than 96% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 96% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 95% of towns
Where Waldron ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 2% of towns
- Short commute32.0 minutes each way, better than only 24% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 28% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 37% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 41% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Waldron
A household needs to earn about $134,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Waldron home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $133,351; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Waldron's effective rate of 0.82%, 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 Waldron
Waldron runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Waldron.
Who works in Waldron, and how
Work in Waldron centers on professional & technical and public administration. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 70%
- Work from home 29%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Waldron
Waldron has more restaurants and bars per resident than 99% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Waldron and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Waldron, month by month
Waldron sees roughly 82 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 42, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 42° | 30° | 20° |
| April | 69° | 55° | 42° |
| July | 90° | 79° | 68° |
| October | 72° | 58° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Waldron
Kansas City International sits about 6 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 Waldron
Schools across Waldron average a B+, better than 78% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Hawthorn Elem.A · 65% proficient
- Lansing Elementary SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
Top middle schools
- Lakeview MiddleB+ · 48% proficient
Top high schools
- Park Hill South HighA− · 67% proficient
- Lansing High 9-12C · 33% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Waldron school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Waldron 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 Waldron against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Waldron
Is Waldron a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Waldron ranks 5,250th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on what local pay buys, a strong job market, and high incomes, and lowest on noise and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Waldron expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $510,800. The overall cost of living runs about 9% below the national average. Set against a $133,351 median income, cost of living beats 97% of towns.
Is Waldron safe?
Waldron is safer than 37% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $418 per resident a year.
Compare Waldron with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Waldron. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Waldron 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.
Waldron detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Waldron: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Waldron: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Waldron: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Waldron: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Waldron 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.