Best PlacesLa Garita, CO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around La Garita, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
La Garita ranks 20,374th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on heat safety by a wide margin, and the schools rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in La Garita
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.
La Garita's strengths and weaknesses
Where La Garita ranks high
- Heat safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 178 pleasant days a year, better than 98% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 97% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 88% of towns
- QuietBetter than 85% of towns
Where La Garita ranks low
- School gradeD−, better than only 4% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 4% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 7% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 18% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in La Garita
A household needs to earn about $77,000 a year to comfortably buy the median La Garita home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $92,830, 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 La Garita's effective rate of 0.54%, 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 La Garita
La Garita runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for La Garita.
Who works in La Garita, and how
Work in La Garita centers on agriculture & forestry and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in La Garita
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across La Garita.
What the weather is like in La Garita, month by month
La Garita sees roughly 178 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 11. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 22° | 11° |
| April | 59° | 43° | 29° |
| July | 82° | 66° | 51° |
| October | 62° | 46° | 32° |
Flying in and out of La Garita
The nearest airport, San Luis Valley Regional/Bergman Field, is about 32 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Denver International, about 164 miles away.
The best schools in and around La Garita
Schools across La Garita average a D−, better than 4% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Haskin Elementary SchoolD · 18% proficient
- Del Norte Elementary SchoolD− · 16% proficient
Top middle schools
- Skoglund Middle SchoolF · 6% proficient
Top high schools
- Del Norte High Jr./sr. High SchoolD− · 15% proficient
- Center High SchoolD− · 14% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every La Garita school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
La Garita 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 La Garita against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in La Garita
Is La Garita a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, La Garita ranks 20,374th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on heat safety, the weather, and clean air, and lowest on the schools and thin health care access. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is La Garita expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $305,641. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $92,830 median income, cost of living beats 84% of towns.
Is La Garita safe?
La Garita is safer than 6% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $942 per resident a year.
Compare La Garita with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to La Garita. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in La Garita 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.
La Garita detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for La Garita: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in La Garita: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of La Garita: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in La Garita: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
La Garita 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.