Best PlacesLake Lotawana, MO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lake Lotawana, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Lake Lotawana ranks 3,069th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on what local pay buys by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Lake Lotawana
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 Lotawana's strengths and weaknesses
Where Lake Lotawana ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 99% of towns
- Household income$154,538 median, better than 98% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 95% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 94% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 92% of towns
Where Lake Lotawana ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 20% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 25% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 26% of towns
- Short commute31.1 minutes each way, better than only 28% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 30% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Lake Lotawana
A household needs to earn about $150,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lake Lotawana home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $154,538, 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 Lotawana's effective rate of 1.01%, 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 Lake Lotawana
Lake Lotawana runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Lake Lotawana.
Who works in Lake Lotawana, and how
Work in Lake Lotawana centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 74%
- Work from home 24%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Lake Lotawana
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Lake Lotawana.
What the weather is like in Lake Lotawana, month by month
Lake Lotawana sees roughly 94 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 41, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 41° | 31° | 24° |
| April | 68° | 56° | 46° |
| July | 89° | 80° | 71° |
| October | 70° | 59° | 50° |
Flying in and out of Lake Lotawana
Kansas City International sits about 36 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 Lotawana
Schools across Lake Lotawana average a B, better than 70% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Woodland Elem.A− · 56% proficient
- Mason Elem.A− · 56% proficient
- Highland Park Elem.B+ · 51% proficient
Top middle schools
- Bernard C. Campbell MiddleB · 44% proficient
- Pleasant Lea MiddleB · 44% proficient
Top high schools
- Lee's Summit North HighB · 49% proficient
- Lee's Summit Sr. HighB− · 41% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lake Lotawana school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lake Lotawana 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 Lotawana against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Lake Lotawana
Is Lake Lotawana a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lake Lotawana ranks 3,069th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on what local pay buys, high incomes, and health care access, and lowest on noise and empty homes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lake Lotawana expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $558,536. The overall cost of living runs about 5% below the national average. Set against a $154,538 median income, cost of living beats 99% of towns.
Is Lake Lotawana safe?
Yes, Lake Lotawana is safer than 72% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $282 per resident a year.
Compare Lake Lotawana with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lake Lotawana. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lake Lotawana 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 Lotawana detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lake Lotawana: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lake Lotawana: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lake Lotawana: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lake Lotawana: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lake Lotawana 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.