Best PlacesWoodruff, MO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Woodruff, 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.
Woodruff ranks 8,400th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Woodruff
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.
Woodruff's strengths and weaknesses
Where Woodruff ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 94% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 94% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 92% of towns
- Household income$111,004 median, better than 90% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 88% of towns
Where Woodruff ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 9% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 28% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 32% of towns
- Short commute30.0 minutes each way, better than only 33% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Woodruff
A household needs to earn about $106,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Woodruff home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $111,004, 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 Woodruff's effective rate of 0.77%, 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 Woodruff
Woodruff runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Woodruff.
Who works in Woodruff, and how
Work in Woodruff centers on education and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 0%
Life in Woodruff
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Woodruff.
What the weather is like in Woodruff, month by month
Woodruff 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 Woodruff
Kansas City International sits about 10 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 Woodruff
Schools across Woodruff average a B, better than 70% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Central Elem.A− · 57% proficient
- Donald D. Siegrist Elem.B+ · 52% proficient
- North Platte IntermediateB− · 40% proficient
Top middle schools
- Platte City MiddleA− · 55% proficient
Top high schools
- Platte County HighB · 50% proficient
- West Platte HighB · 50% proficient
- North Platte HighC+ · 38% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Woodruff school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Woodruff 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 Woodruff against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Woodruff
Is Woodruff a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Woodruff ranks 8,400th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, few empty homes, and what local pay buys, and lowest on noise and walkability. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Woodruff expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $407,257. The overall cost of living runs about 9% below the national average. Set against a $111,004 median income, cost of living beats 92% of towns.
Is Woodruff safe?
Yes, Woodruff is safer than 56% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $338 per resident a year.
Compare Woodruff with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Woodruff. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Woodruff 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.
Woodruff detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Woodruff: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Woodruff: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Woodruff: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Woodruff: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Woodruff 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.