Best PlacesLake Vanare, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lake Vanare, 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 Vanare ranks 13,550th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Lake Vanare
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 Vanare's strengths and weaknesses
Where Lake Vanare ranks high
- School gradeA, better than 94% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 93% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 91% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 91% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 89% of towns
Where Lake Vanare ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,317 a month, better than only 8% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 9% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 63 pleasant days a year, better than only 13% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 13% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Lake Vanare
A household needs to earn about $79,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lake Vanare home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $77,626; 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 Vanare's effective rate of 1.28%, 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 5 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 Vanare
Lake Vanare 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 Vanare.
Who works in Lake Vanare, and how
Work in Lake Vanare centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Lake Vanare
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Lake Vanare.
What the weather is like in Lake Vanare, month by month
Lake Vanare sees roughly 63 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 14. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 24° | 14° |
| April | 59° | 46° | 33° |
| July | 85° | 71° | 58° |
| October | 63° | 51° | 39° |
Flying in and out of Lake Vanare
The nearest airport, Albany International, is about 42 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bradley International, about 112 miles away.
The best schools in and around Lake Vanare
Schools across Lake Vanare average an A, better than 94% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Lake George Elementary SchoolA · 70% proficient
- Queensbury Elementary SchoolA · 65% proficient
- Stuart M Townsend Elementary SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
Top middle schools
- William H Barton Intermediate SchoolA+ · 72% proficient
Top high schools
- Queensbury Senior High SchoolA+ · 87% proficient
- Lake George Junior-senior High SchoolA · 75% proficient
- Hadley-luzerne Junior-senior High SchoolA · 70% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lake Vanare school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lake Vanare 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 Vanare against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Lake Vanare
Is Lake Vanare a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lake Vanare ranks 13,550th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, clean air, and health care access, and lowest on childcare costs and car insurance costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lake Vanare expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $284,813. The overall cost of living runs about 1% below the national average. Set against a $77,626 median income, cost of living beats 51% of towns.
Is Lake Vanare safe?
Yes, Lake Vanare is safer than 91% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $186 per resident a year.
Compare Lake Vanare with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lake Vanare. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lake Vanare 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 Vanare detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lake Vanare: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lake Vanare: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lake Vanare: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lake Vanare: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lake Vanare 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.