Best PlacesLakeside, MT Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lakeside, 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.
Lakeside ranks 10,408th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Lakeside
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.
Lakeside's strengths and weaknesses
Where Lakeside ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 95% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 94% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 93% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 92% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 89% of towns
Where Lakeside ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,050 a month, better than only 22% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 27% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Lakeside
A household needs to earn about $202,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lakeside home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $87,023, 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 Lakeside's effective rate of 0.58%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Lakeside
Lakeside 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 Lakeside.
Who works in Lakeside, and how
Work in Lakeside centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 68%
- Work from home 20%
- Transit, walk, or bike 12%
Life in Lakeside
Lakeside has more restaurants and bars per resident than 90% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Lakeside and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Lakeside, month by month
Lakeside sees roughly 94 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 33, with lows near 16. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 33° | 25° | 16° |
| April | 58° | 43° | 28° |
| July | 87° | 68° | 47° |
| October | 58° | 42° | 29° |
Flying in and out of Lakeside
The nearest airport, Glacier Park International, is about 20 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Boise Air Trml/Gowen Field, about 322 miles away.
The best schools in and around Lakeside
Schools across Lakeside average a B, better than 65% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Lillian Peterson SchoolB · 50% proficient
- Lakeside Elementary SchoolB · 50% proficient
- Kila SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
Top middle schools
- Kalispell Middle SchoolA− · 56% proficient
- Somers Middle SchoolA− · 54% proficient
- Kila 7-8B− · 40% proficient
Top high schools
- Flathead High SchoolC · 33% proficient
- Polson High SchoolC− · 28% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lakeside school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lakeside 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 Lakeside against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Lakeside
Is Lakeside a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lakeside ranks 10,408th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, civic engagement, and an educated workforce, and lowest on an overheated housing market and distance from a big city. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lakeside expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $798,600. The overall cost of living runs about 2% above the national average. Set against a $87,023 median income, cost of living beats 64% of towns.
Is Lakeside safe?
Yes, Lakeside is safer than 57% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $366 per resident a year.
Compare Lakeside with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lakeside. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lakeside 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.
Lakeside detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lakeside: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lakeside: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lakeside: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lakeside: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lakeside 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.