Best PlacesLay, CO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lay, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Lay ranks 46,380th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low property taxes by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Lay
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.
Lay's strengths and weaknesses
Where Lay ranks high
- Low property taxBetter than 94% of towns
- QuietBetter than 94% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 88% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 122 pleasant days a year, better than 81% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 64% of towns
Where Lay ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 1% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 3% of towns
- Short commute41.2 minutes each way, better than only 4% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 5% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 7% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Lay
A household needs to earn about $85,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lay home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $57,750, 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 Lay's effective rate of 0.32%, 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 Lay
Lay 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 Lay.
Who works in Lay, and how
Work in Lay centers on health care & social and agriculture & forestry. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 74%
- Work from home 25%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Lay
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Lay.
What the weather is like in Lay, month by month
Lay sees roughly 122 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 31, with lows near 2. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31° | 16° | 2° |
| April | 61° | 43° | 25° |
| July | 92° | 70° | 47° |
| October | 64° | 43° | 26° |
Flying in and out of Lay
The nearest airport, Yampa Valley, is about 32 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Denver International, about 173 miles away.
The best schools in and around Lay
Schools across Lay average a D, better than 10% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Sandrock ElementaryF · 10% proficient
Top middle schools
- Craig Middle SchoolD · 22% proficient
Top high schools
- Moffat County High SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lay school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lay 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 Lay against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Lay
Is Lay a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lay ranks 46,380th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low property taxes, quiet, and heat safety, and lowest on air quality and biking. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lay expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $347,581. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $57,750 median income, cost of living beats 30% of towns.
Is Lay safe?
Lay is safer than 19% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $650 per resident a year.
Compare Lay with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lay. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lay 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.
Lay detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lay: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lay: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lay: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lay: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lay 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.