Pros and Cons of Living in Missouri

Missouri's tradeoffs center on genuinely below-national-average housing costs and a reasonably competitive overall tax structure, set against a real, multi-part hazard profile (tornado, river flood, and New Madrid earthquake risk), a currently rising homeowners-insurance trend, and a statewide violent crime rate this record does not soften.

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Pros: affordable housing, a competitive tax code, and a genuinely diversified economy

Missouri's statewide housing costs run genuinely below comparable national figures -- Zillow's $268,423 average home value and Redfin's $299,064 median sale price (both 2026) sit well under national norms and are rising at a moderate, not runaway, pace. The Tax Foundation's 2026 State Tax Competitiveness Index ranks Missouri a real 12th nationally, with property tax sitting right at the national median (0.89% effective rate, #23 of 51) rather than a high-tax outlier. The economy is genuinely diversified: St. Louis's manufacturing/aerospace/biotech base (Anheuser-Busch, Boeing, Bayer's North American crop-science headquarters), Kansas City's health-tech and consumer-brand base (Cerner/Oracle Health, Hallmark), and a substantial statewide agricultural sector anchored in the Bootheel.

Cons: a real multi-part hazard profile, rising insurance, and an elevated crime rate

Missouri carries real, disclosed risk across three genuinely distinct hazard types -- elevated tornado risk (120 tornadoes in 2025, 3rd-most nationally), serious Mississippi/Missouri River flood risk, and the geographically concentrated New Madrid Seismic Zone earthquake risk in the Bootheel -- rather than one generic 'severe weather' label. Homeowners insurance reflects that profile and is currently, measurably rising (a real projected 7% increase across 2026 alone, to $3,345, following a 9% rise in 2025). Missouri's statewide violent crime rate (462 per 100,000, 2024 FBI data) runs a real 28.7% above the national average, ranking 8th-highest among states, driven substantially by St. Louis's and Kansas City's urban cores.

A tax structure that is competitive overall but carries one real, disclosed weak point

Missouri's low 4.225% base state sales tax rate is genuinely misleading on its own -- a real, substantial local add-on layer across 762 jurisdictions pushes the average combined rate to 8.44% statewide and as high as 12.238% in parts of St. Louis, which the Tax Foundation's own 2026 Index specifically flags as Missouri's weakest tax component even within an otherwise solid 12th-place overall ranking.

The honest bottom line

Missouri rewards movers prioritizing genuine housing affordability and a reasonably competitive overall tax code who are willing to budget for its real, multi-part hazard risk, currently rising insurance costs, and an elevated statewide crime rate concentrated in its two largest metros' urban cores -- rather than expecting an unqualified low-cost, low-risk story that the honest data does not support on the risk and safety side.

Key takeaways

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Last reviewed: 2026-08-27. Independent research; not financial, tax, or legal advice -- confirm current figures with a local professional before making a decision.