Best PlacesLakewood, CO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lakewood, 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.
Lakewood ranks 63rd of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on heat safety and good schools. The weaker spots are childcare costs, state finances, and air quality.
The best neighborhoods in Lakewood
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.
The best areas in Lakewood
The parts of Lakewood, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the city.
Green Mountain
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and more adults hold degrees.
Foothills & Glennon Heights
Crime runs lower, though transit reaches fewer jobs.
Belmar Park
More residents vote, though fewer households have young kids.
Applewood & Union Square
Prices have run up more.
South Alameda & Lasley
Streets are more walkable, though health care is harder to reach.
Bear Creek, Kendrick Lake & Carmody
Scores close to South Alameda & Lasley, except that it is noisier here.
Academy Park, Thraemoor & West Gate
Eiber, Morse Park & Creighton
More homes sit empty.
North Alameda
Biking is better, though health outcomes score lower.
Scores across Lakewood run from about the 30th to the 99th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Lakewood's strengths and weaknesses
Lakewood ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Heat safety, good schools, and low property taxes carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Childcare costs, state finances, and air quality hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Lakewood ranks high
- Heat safetyBetter than 97% of cities
- School gradeA−, better than 92% of cities
- Low property taxBetter than 91% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than 91% of cities
- BikingBetter than 89% of cities
Where Lakewood ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,770 a month, better than only 6% of cities
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 6% of cities
- Air qualityBetter than only 9% of cities
- Crime safetyBetter than only 29% of cities
- Cell coverageBetter than only 31% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Lakewood
A household needs to earn about $146,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lakewood home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $107,395, 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 Lakewood's effective rate of 0.51%, 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 Lakewood
Lakewood's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Lakewood.
Who works in Lakewood, and how
Work in Lakewood 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 71%
- Work from home 23%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Lakewood
Lakewood has more restaurants and bars per resident than 69% of cities and more parkland per resident than 91% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Lakewood and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Lakewood, month by month
Lakewood sees roughly 160 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 45, with lows near 25. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 45° | 34° | 25° |
| April | 63° | 49° | 38° |
| July | 89° | 75° | 62° |
| October | 67° | 53° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Lakewood
Denver International sits about 26 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 40.1 million passengers in 2025, with 250 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Lakewood
Schools across Lakewood average an A−, better than 92% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Dennison Elementary SchoolA+ · 86% proficient
- Devinny Elementary SchoolA+ · 74% proficient
- Rooney Ranch Elementary SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
Top middle schools
- Manning Options SchoolA · 65% proficient
- Dunstan Middle SchoolB− · 42% proficient
- Astravo Online Academy Middle SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
Top high schools
- D'evelyn Junior/senior High SchoolA · 73% proficient
- Dakota Ridge Senior High SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
- Lakewood High SchoolB · 49% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lakewood school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lakewood 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 Lakewood against the other 444 cities.
Who Lakewood suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 84% of cities and 23% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Lakewood
Is Lakewood a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lakewood ranks 63rd of 445 cities. It scores highest on heat safety, good schools, and low property taxes, and lowest on childcare costs and state finances. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lakewood expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $581,913. The overall cost of living runs about 1% above the national average. Set against a $107,395 median income, cost of living beats 84% of cities.
Is Lakewood safe?
Lakewood is safer than 29% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $647 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Lakewood?
July highs average about 89 degrees, and January highs near 45 with lows near 25. That works out to about 160 pleasant days a year, more than 76% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Lakewood?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Green Mountain, Foothills & Glennon Heights, and Belmar Park. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Lakewood good for families?
Schools beat 92% of cities, crime safety beats 29%, and childcare runs $1,770 a month.
Is Lakewood good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 84% of cities, though advertised internet speeds beat only 56% of cities. About 23% of workers already work from home.
Compare Lakewood with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lakewood. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lakewood 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.
Lakewood detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lakewood: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lakewood: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lakewood: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lakewood: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lakewood 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.