Best PlacesLake Lure, NC Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lake Lure, 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.
Lake Lure ranks 18,444th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Lake Lure
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 Lure's strengths and weaknesses
Where Lake Lure ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 97% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 91% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 89% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 87% of towns
Where Lake Lure ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Short commute34.1 minutes each way, better than only 16% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 24% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 34% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Lake Lure
A household needs to earn about $117,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lake Lure home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $66,496, 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 Lure's effective rate of 0.57%, 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 Lure
Lake Lure 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 Lake Lure.
Who works in Lake Lure, and how
Work in Lake Lure centers on health care & social and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 77%
- Work from home 19%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Lake Lure
Lake Lure has more restaurants and bars per resident than 94% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Lake Lure and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Lake Lure, month by month
Lake Lure sees roughly 88 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 51, with lows near 31. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 51° | 40° | 31° |
| April | 72° | 59° | 48° |
| July | 88° | 77° | 68° |
| October | 73° | 61° | 50° |
Flying in and out of Lake Lure
The nearest airport, Asheville Regional, is about 20 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Charlotte/Douglas International, about 71 miles away.
The best schools in and around Lake Lure
Schools across Lake Lure average a B+, better than 85% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Black Mountain PrimaryB+ · 55% proficient
- Pinnacle Elementary SchoolC · 35% proficient
Top middle schools
- Owen MiddleB+ · 51% proficient
- R-s Middle SchoolB+ · 50% proficient
Top high schools
- Rutherford Early College High SchoolA+ · 93% proficient
- Middle CollegeB · 50% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lake Lure school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lake Lure 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 Lure against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Lake Lure
Is Lake Lure a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lake Lure ranks 18,444th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, tree cover, and state finances, and lowest on an overheated housing market 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 Lure expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $463,250. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $66,496 median income, cost of living beats 57% of towns.
Is Lake Lure safe?
Lake Lure is safer than 34% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $390 per resident a year.
Compare Lake Lure with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lake Lure. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lake Lure 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 Lure detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lake Lure: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lake Lure: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lake Lure: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lake Lure: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lake Lure 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.