Best PlacesLeawood, KS Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Leawood, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Leawood ranks 60th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and cell coverage ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Leawood
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.
Leawood's strengths and weaknesses
Where Leawood ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of cities
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 99% of cities
- Educational attainmentBetter than 98% of cities
- Household income$178,429 median, better than 97% of cities
- Internet speedBetter than 95% of cities
Where Leawood ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 19% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than only 26% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than only 28% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 31% of cities
- Low property taxBetter than only 36% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Leawood
A household needs to earn about $184,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Leawood home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $178,429; 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 Leawood's effective rate of 1.10%, 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 Leawood
Leawood runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Leawood.
Who works in Leawood, and how
Work in Leawood centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 70%
- Work from home 28%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Leawood
Leawood has more restaurants and bars per resident than 91% of cities and more parkland per resident than 83% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Leawood and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Leawood, month by month
Leawood sees roughly 98 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 40, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 40° | 30° | 23° |
| April | 68° | 55° | 45° |
| July | 89° | 79° | 70° |
| October | 70° | 58° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Leawood
Kansas City International sits about 27 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 5.7 million passengers in 2025, with 104 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Leawood
Schools across Leawood average a B, better than 68% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Corinth ElemA+ · 81% proficient
- Brookwood ElemA · 65% proficient
- Prairie Star ElementaryA · 65% proficient
Top middle schools
- Indian Hills MiddleB · 46% proficient
- Leawood MiddleB− · 42% proficient
- Overland Trail MiddleB− · 40% proficient
Top high schools
- Blue Valley HighB · 48% proficient
- Shawnee Mission East HighB · 47% proficient
- Blue Valley North HighB · 46% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Leawood school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Leawood 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 Leawood against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Leawood suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 99% of cities, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 28% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 59% of cities, health care access beats 100%, and it is quieter than 71%.
Common questions about living in Leawood
Is Leawood a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Leawood ranks 60th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on health care access, what local pay buys, and an educated workforce, and lowest on cell coverage 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 Leawood expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $676,071. The overall cost of living runs about 2% below the national average. Set against a $178,429 median income, cost of living beats 99% of cities.
Is Leawood safe?
Yes, Leawood is safer than 58% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $304 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Leawood?
July highs average about 89 degrees, and January highs near 40 with lows near 23. That works out to about 98 pleasant days a year, more than 59% of cities.
Is Leawood good for families?
Schools beat 68% of cities, crime safety beats 58%, and childcare runs $996 a month.
Compare Leawood with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Leawood. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Leawood 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.
Leawood detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Leawood: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Leawood: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Leawood: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Leawood: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Leawood 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.