Best PlacesLafayette County, MO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Lafayette County, 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.
Lafayette County ranks 1,559th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. Noise pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on low disaster risk.
The best neighborhoods in Lafayette County
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.
The best areas in Lafayette County
The parts of Lafayette County, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the county.
Odessa & Bates City
Fewer homes sit empty, incomes run higher, and crime runs lower.
Higginsville
Streets are more walkable, though fewer households have young kids.
Concordia
Commutes are shorter, though local pay stretches less far.
Lexington
Tree cover is thicker, though it is noisier.
Scores across Lafayette County run from about the 3rd to the 76th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Lafayette County's strengths and weaknesses
Where Lafayette County ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 87% of counties
- Cheap childcare$537 a month, better than 85% of counties
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 83% of counties
- Household income$83,048 median, better than 80% of counties
- Voter turnoutBetter than 76% of counties
Where Lafayette County ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 6% of counties
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 25% of counties
- Internet speedBetter than only 34% of counties
- TransitBetter than only 35% of counties
- Crime safetyBetter than only 36% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Lafayette County
A household needs to earn about $59,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lafayette County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $83,048, 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 Lafayette County's effective rate of 0.70%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Lafayette County
Lafayette County'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 Lafayette County.
Who works in Lafayette County, and how
Work in Lafayette County centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Lafayette County
Lafayette County has more parkland per resident than 79% of counties. That concentrates in some parts of Lafayette County and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Lafayette County growing, and who is moving in?
Lafayette County has grown about 3% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from the rest of the Kansas City, MO metro.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Lafayette County go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Lafayette County, month by month
Lafayette County sees roughly 79 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 41, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 41° | 31° | 24° |
| April | 67° | 54° | 44° |
| July | 87° | 77° | 68° |
| October | 70° | 58° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Lafayette County
Kansas City International sits about 50 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 Lafayette County
Schools across Lafayette County average a C, better than 36% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Oak Grove Elem.B− · 40% proficient
- Sunrise Elem.C+ · 37% proficient
- Concordia Elem.C+ · 37% proficient
Top middle schools
- Odessa MiddleB− · 41% proficient
- Oak Grove MiddleB− · 40% proficient
- Richmond MiddleC+ · 36% proficient
Top high schools
- Concordia HighB− · 42% proficient
- Lafayette Co. HighC+ · 37% proficient
- Santa Fe HighC+ · 37% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lafayette County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lafayette County 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 Lafayette County against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Lafayette County suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 83% of counties and 10% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Lafayette County
Is Lafayette County a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lafayette County ranks 1,559th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on low disaster risk, affordable childcare, and what local pay buys, and lowest on noise and car insurance costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lafayette County expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $226,964. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $83,048 median income, cost of living beats 83% of counties.
Is Lafayette County safe?
Lafayette County is safer than 36% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $458 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Lafayette County?
July highs average about 87 degrees, and January highs near 41 with lows near 24. That works out to about 79 pleasant days a year, more than 37% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Lafayette County?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Odessa & Bates City, Higginsville, and Concordia. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Compare Lafayette County with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lafayette County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lafayette County 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.
Lafayette County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lafayette County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lafayette County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lafayette County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lafayette County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lafayette County 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.