Best PlacesLares Municipio, PR Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in Lares Municipio, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Lares Municipio is unranked among counties under the default weighting. It scores highest on low property taxes by a wide margin, and state infrastructure ranks lowest.


The best neighborhoods in Lares Municipio

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Lares Municipio area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Lares Municipio's strengths and weaknesses

Top 1%Low property taxes
Top 1%Affordable childcare
Top 10%Clean air
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Lares Municipio with other counties.

Where Lares Municipio ranks high

  • Low property taxBetter than 99% of counties
  • Cheap childcare$384 a month, better than 99% of counties
  • Air qualityBetter than 93% of counties
  • Big-city accessBetter than 88% of counties
  • Housing crash safetyBetter than 58% of counties

Where Lares Municipio ranks low

  • State infrastructureBetter than only 1% of counties
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of counties
  • Disaster safetyBetter than only 1% of counties
  • Household income$18,866 median, better than only 1% of counties
  • Educational attainmentBetter than only 2% of counties

What it costs to buy a home in Lares Municipio

A household needs to earn about $26,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lares Municipio home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $18,866, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$26,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$595
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $109,159 home
Median rent
$510
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$557
Property tax$2
Homeowners insurance$36

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 Lares Municipio's effective rate of 0.03%, 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Lares Municipio

Lares Municipio runs older than the country.

Median age
46
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
24%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.6
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1816%
18 to 3421%
35 to 4920%
50 to 6420%
65 and older24%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Lares Municipio.


Who works in Lares Municipio, and how

Work in Lares Municipio centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment runs well above the national rate.

Work from home
2%
below the national average
Unemployment
9.4%
above the national average

Largest industries

Health care & social15%
Retail trade13%
Manufacturing10%
Hospitality & food9%
Education9%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 92%
  • Work from home 2%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 6%

Life in Lares Municipio

The coast is about 28 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Lares Municipio, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
119
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 42.3 per 10,000 residents, more than 42% of counties
Coffee shops
20
about 7.1 per 10,000 residents, more than 68% of counties
To the coast
28 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

Is Lares Municipio growing, and who is moving in?

Lares Municipio has lost about 21% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Arecibo, PR.

Population growth
-21%
over the decade, vs about 6% nationally
Population
24,276
down from 30,644
Population by year. Source: U.S. Census Population Estimates Program.

Where new residents come from

Arecibo, PR65 / yr
New York, NY33 / yr
Philadelphia, PA22 / yr
Fairfield County, CT17 / yr
San Juan, PR17 / yr

Where people leaving Lares Municipio go

San Juan, PR217 / yr
Cleveland, OH160 / yr
York, PA135 / yr
Arecibo, PR114 / yr
Pittsburgh, PA93 / yr

Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.


What the weather is like in Lares Municipio, month by month

Lares Municipio sees roughly 61 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 82, with lows near 70. No month averages between 55 and 75 degrees.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January82°77°70°
April83°79°72°
July88°83°76°
October87°81°74°

Flying in and out of Lares Municipio

The nearest airport, Eugenio Maria De Hostos, is about 18 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Luis Munoz Marin International, about 58 miles away.

Nearest airport
MAZ
Eugenio Maria De Hostos, about 18 miles
Airport size
Nonprimary
1 nonstop destinations
Average drive
26 min
from the area, with no traffic

Lares Municipio 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 Lares Municipio against counties nationally.


Who Lares Municipio suits

Families

Weigh schools and safety yourself on the map to find the right areas.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

2% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in Lares Municipio

Is Lares Municipio a good place to live?

It scores highest on low property taxes, affordable childcare, and clean air, and lowest on state infrastructure and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Lares Municipio expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $109,159. Set against a $18,866 median income, cost of living beats 50% of counties.

Is Lares Municipio safe?

Lares Municipio is safer than 3% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $742 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Lares Municipio?

July highs average about 88 degrees, and January highs near 82 with lows near 70. That works out to about 61 pleasant days a year, more than 8% of counties.



Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lares Municipio. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lares Municipio 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.

Lares Municipio detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Lares Municipio: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Lares Municipio: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Lares Municipio: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Lares Municipio: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Lares Municipio detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
  3. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  4. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  5. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  6. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  7. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  8. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  9. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  10. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  11. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  12. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  13. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.