Best PlacesLake Park, MN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lake Park, 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 Park ranks 15,091st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and empty homes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Lake Park
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 Park's strengths and weaknesses
Where Lake Park ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 95% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 93% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 150 pleasant days a year, better than 92% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 85% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 83% of towns
Where Lake Park ranks low
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 15% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 16% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 20% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 25% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Lake Park
A household needs to earn about $93,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lake Park home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $89,333; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Park's effective rate of 0.66%, 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 Park
Lake Park runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Lake Park.
Who works in Lake Park, and how
Work in Lake Park centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Lake Park
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Lake Park.
What the weather is like in Lake Park, month by month
Lake Park sees roughly 150 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 80 degrees. January highs sit near 20, with lows near 4. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 20° | 12° | 4° |
| April | 50° | 40° | 32° |
| July | 80° | 71° | 62° |
| October | 54° | 45° | 38° |
Flying in and out of Lake Park
The nearest airport, Hector International, is about 34 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 193 miles away.
The best schools in and around Lake Park
Schools across Lake Park average a B−, better than 59% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Viking Elementary SchoolA− · 58% proficient
- Ulen-hitterdal ElementaryB+ · 52% proficient
- Spring Prairie ElementaryB · 50% proficient
Top high schools
- Hawley SecondaryB+ · 58% proficient
- Lake Park Audubon SecondaryC+ · 40% proficient
- Ulen-hitterdal SecondaryC+ · 40% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lake Park school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lake Park 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 Park against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Lake Park
Is Lake Park a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lake Park ranks 15,091st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, state infrastructure, and the weather, and lowest on empty homes and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lake Park expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $361,567. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $89,333 median income, cost of living beats 70% of towns.
Is Lake Park safe?
Yes, Lake Park is safer than 72% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $243 per resident a year.
Compare Lake Park with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lake Park. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lake Park 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 Park detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lake Park: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lake Park: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lake Park: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lake Park: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lake Park 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.