Best PlacesCarter Lake, IA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Carter Lake, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Carter Lake ranks 10,566th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on biking by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Carter Lake
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.
Carter Lake's strengths and weaknesses
Where Carter Lake ranks high
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 98% of towns
- TransitBetter than 95% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 94% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 94% of towns
Where Carter Lake ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 10% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 10% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 15% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 22% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 25% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Carter Lake
A household needs to earn about $50,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Carter Lake home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $87,141, 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 Carter Lake's effective rate of 1.53%, 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 4 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Carter Lake
Carter Lake's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Carter Lake.
Who works in Carter Lake, and how
Work in Carter Lake centers on manufacturing and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Carter Lake
Carter Lake has more restaurants and bars per resident than 98% of towns and more parkland per resident than 99% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Carter Lake and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Carter Lake, month by month
Carter Lake sees roughly 88 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 15. The comfortable stretch runs May and September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36° | 25° | 15° |
| April | 68° | 52° | 39° |
| July | 90° | 78° | 67° |
| October | 70° | 54° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Carter Lake
Eppley Airfield sits about 1 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 2.6 million passengers in 2025, with 73 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Carter Lake
Schools across Carter Lake average a B−, better than 59% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Carter Lake Elementary SchoolC · 32% proficient
Top middle schools
- Woodrow Wilson Middle SchoolB+ · 51% proficient
Top high schools
- Thomas Jefferson High SchoolB− · 45% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Carter Lake school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Carter Lake 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 Carter Lake against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Carter Lake
Is Carter Lake a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Carter Lake ranks 10,566th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on biking, cell coverage, and transit, and lowest on property taxes and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Carter Lake expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $173,361. The overall cost of living runs about 19% below the national average. Set against a $87,141 median income, cost of living beats 83% of towns.
Is Carter Lake safe?
Carter Lake is safer than 48% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $311 per resident a year.
Compare Carter Lake with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Carter Lake. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Carter Lake 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.
Carter Lake detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Carter Lake: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Carter Lake: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Carter Lake: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Carter Lake: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Carter Lake 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.