Best PlacesWildwood, MO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Wildwood, 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.
Wildwood ranks 1,486th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on what local pay buys by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Wildwood
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.
Wildwood's strengths and weaknesses
Where Wildwood ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 99% of towns
- Household income$175,665 median, better than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 98% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 97% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 96% of towns
Where Wildwood ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,131 a month, better than only 15% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 17% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 20% 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 Wildwood
A household needs to earn about $155,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Wildwood home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $175,665, 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 Wildwood's effective rate of 1.19%, 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 Wildwood
Wildwood runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Wildwood.
Who works in Wildwood, and how
Work in Wildwood centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 72%
- Work from home 26%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Wildwood
Wildwood has more parkland per resident than 82% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Wildwood and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Wildwood, month by month
Wildwood 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 Wildwood
St Louis Lambert International sits about 18 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 Wildwood
Schools across Wildwood average an A−, better than 86% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Chesterfield Elem.A+ · 74% proficient
- Wild Horse Elem.A · 70% proficient
- Ridge Meadows Elem.A · 63% proficient
Top middle schools
- Rockwood Valley MiddleA · 64% proficient
- Crestview MiddleA · 64% proficient
- Wildwood MiddleA · 62% proficient
Top high schools
- Marquette Sr. HighA− · 62% proficient
- Lafayette Sr. HighA− · 59% proficient
- Eureka Sr. HighB · 50% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Wildwood school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Wildwood 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 Wildwood against the other 50,332 towns.
Who Wildwood suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 100% of towns, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 26% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Wildwood
Is Wildwood a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Wildwood ranks 1,486th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on what local pay buys, high incomes, and an educated workforce, and lowest on childcare costs and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Wildwood expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $561,027. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $175,665 median income, cost of living beats 100% of towns.
Is Wildwood safe?
Wildwood is safer than 45% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $372 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Wildwood?
July highs average about 90 degrees, and January highs near 42 with lows near 24. That works out to about 70 pleasant days a year, more than 25% of towns.
Is Wildwood good for families?
Schools beat 86% of towns, crime safety beats 45%, and childcare runs $1,131 a month.
Compare Wildwood with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Wildwood. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Wildwood 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.
Wildwood detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Wildwood: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Wildwood: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Wildwood: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Wildwood: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Wildwood 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.