Best PlacesWichita, KS Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Wichita metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by StarksWinter, CC BY-SA 4.0, via commons
Wichita ranks 275th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on the schools and distance from a big city. It does better on cell coverage, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Wichita metro
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.
The best areas in Wichita
The towns and districts of the Wichita metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Maize, Hesston & Halstead
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and crime runs lower.
Derby, Mulvane & Rose Hill
More residents vote, though biking is worse.
Goddard
Fewer homes sit empty and schools score higher.
Andover & Augusta
More adults hold degrees, though homes cost more.
El Dorado & Bel Aire
Prices have run up less, though streets are more car-dependent.
Wellington, Clearwater & Cheney
It is quieter, though transit reaches fewer jobs.
Newton, Park City & Valley Center
Scores close to Wellington, Clearwater & Cheney, except that fewer households have young kids here.
Haysville
Health care is harder to reach and health outcomes score lower.
Downtown Wichita
Wichita shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 1% of the country and others in the top 2%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Wichita's strengths and weaknesses
Wichita lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Cell coverage, state infrastructure, and short commutes carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. The schools, distance from a big city, and tree cover hold the score down. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Wichita ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 91% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than 91% of metro areas
- Short commute20.0 minutes each way, better than 86% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than 81% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$708 a month, better than 78% of metro areas
Where Wichita ranks low
- School gradeD+, better than only 6% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than only 11% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than only 12% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than only 13% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 17% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Wichita
A household needs to earn about $58,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Wichita home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $79,604, 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 Wichita's effective rate of 1.22%, 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 Wichita
Wichita runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Wichita.
Who works in Wichita, and how
Work in Wichita centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Wichita
Wichita has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas. That concentrates in some parts of Wichita and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Wichita growing, and who is moving in?
Wichita has grown about 4% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Kansas City, MO.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Wichita go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Wichita, month by month
Wichita sees roughly 89 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 95 degrees. January highs sit near 47, with lows near 22. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 47° | 33° | 22° |
| April | 73° | 57° | 44° |
| July | 95° | 82° | 69° |
| October | 76° | 60° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Wichita
The nearest airport, Wichita Dwight D Eisenhower Ntl, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Kansas City International, about 180 miles away.
The best schools in and around Wichita
Schools across Wichita average a D+, better than 6% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Wheatland ElementaryA+ · 78% proficient
- Robert M. Martin ElementaryA+ · 73% proficient
- Cheney ElemA · 72% proficient
Top middle schools
- Andover Middle SchoolB+ · 48% proficient
- Discovery Intermediate SchoolB · 45% proficient
- Dwight D. Eisenhower Middle SchoolB · 44% proficient
Top high schools
- Andover HighB− · 45% proficient
- Maize South High SchoolB− · 43% proficient
- Hesston HighB− · 42% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Wichita school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Wichita 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 Wichita against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Wichita suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 76% of metro areas, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 8% already work from home.
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Wichita
Is Wichita a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Wichita ranks 275th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on cell coverage, state infrastructure, and short commutes, and lowest on the schools and distance from a big city. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Wichita expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $210,401. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $79,604 median income, cost of living beats 76% of metro areas.
Is Wichita safe?
Wichita is safer than 18% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $463 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Wichita?
July highs average about 95 degrees, and January highs near 47 with lows near 22. That works out to about 89 pleasant days a year, more than 51% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Wichita?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Maize, Hesston & Halstead, Derby, Mulvane & Rose Hill, and Goddard. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Wichita good for families?
Schools beat 6% of metro areas, crime safety beats 18%, and childcare runs $708 a month.
Is Wichita good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 76% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 81% of metro areas. About 8% of workers already work from home.
Compare Wichita with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Wichita. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Wichita 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.
Wichita detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Wichita: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Wichita: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Wichita: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Wichita: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Wichita 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.