Best PlacesLake City, GA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lake City, 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.
Lake City ranks 35,998th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on transit by a wide margin, and education levels rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Lake City
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.
Lake City's strengths and weaknesses
Where Lake City ranks high
- TransitBetter than 98% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 95% of towns
- BikingBetter than 95% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 92% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 89% of towns
Where Lake City ranks low
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 2% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 5% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 7% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 10% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 11% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Lake City
A household needs to earn about $48,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lake City home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $61,420, 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 Lake City's effective rate of 0.85%, 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 Lake City
Lake City runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Lake City.
Who works in Lake City, and how
Work in Lake City centers on other services and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Lake City
Lake City has more restaurants and bars per resident than 92% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Lake City and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Lake City, month by month
Lake City sees roughly 72 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 58, with lows near 35. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, October, and November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 58° | 45° | 35° |
| April | 77° | 64° | 52° |
| July | 92° | 81° | 72° |
| October | 79° | 66° | 56° |
Flying in and out of Lake City
Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta International sits about 5 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 51.5 million passengers in 2025, with 278 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Lake City
Schools across Lake City average a D+, better than 18% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Thurgood Marshall Elementary SchoolD− · 16% proficient
- Lake City Elementary SchoolD− · 14% proficient
Top middle schools
- Babb Middle SchoolD− · 18% proficient
- Morrow Middle SchoolD− · 16% proficient
Top high schools
- Martha Ellen Stilwell School For The Performing ArtsB− · 42% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lake City school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lake City 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 Lake City against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Lake City
Is Lake City a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lake City ranks 35,998th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on transit, cell coverage, and biking, and lowest on education levels 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 Lake City expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $180,891. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $61,420 median income, cost of living beats 31% of towns.
Is Lake City safe?
Lake City is safer than 11% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $492 per resident a year.
Compare Lake City with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lake City. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lake City 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.
Lake City detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lake City: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lake City: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lake City: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lake City: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lake City 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.