Best PlacesLake Lafayette, MO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lake Lafayette, 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 Lafayette ranks 33,635th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. A weak job market pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on affordable childcare.
The best neighborhoods in Lake Lafayette
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 Lafayette's strengths and weaknesses
Where Lake Lafayette ranks high
- Cheap childcare$537 a month, better than 88% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 80% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 80% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 73% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 73% of towns
Where Lake Lafayette ranks low
- Local economyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Short commute37.8 minutes each way, better than only 8% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 22% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 25% of towns
- Household income$61,250 median, better than only 30% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Lake Lafayette
A household needs to earn about $85,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lake Lafayette home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $61,250, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Lafayette's effective rate of 0.56%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Lake Lafayette
Lake Lafayette runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Lake Lafayette.
Who works in Lake Lafayette, and how
Work in Lake Lafayette centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Lake Lafayette
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Lake Lafayette.
What the weather is like in Lake Lafayette, month by month
Lake Lafayette sees roughly 95 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 Lake Lafayette
Kansas City International sits about 47 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 Lake Lafayette
Schools across Lake Lafayette average a C+, better than 45% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Odessa Upper ElementaryC+ · 36% proficient
Top middle schools
- Odessa MiddleB− · 41% proficient
Top high schools
- Odessa HighC · 32% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lake Lafayette school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lake Lafayette 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 Lafayette against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Lake Lafayette
Is Lake Lafayette a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lake Lafayette ranks 33,635th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on affordable childcare, low crime, and low disaster risk, and lowest on a weak job market and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lake Lafayette expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $336,200. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $61,250 median income, cost of living beats 22% of towns.
Is Lake Lafayette safe?
Yes, Lake Lafayette is safer than 80% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $260 per resident a year.
Compare Lake Lafayette with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lake Lafayette. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lake Lafayette 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 Lafayette detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lake Lafayette: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lake Lafayette: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lake Lafayette: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lake Lafayette: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lake Lafayette 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.