Best PlacesLee Vining, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lee Vining, 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.
Lee Vining ranks 28,713th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on short commutes by a wide margin, and the weather ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Lee Vining
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.
Lee Vining's strengths and weaknesses
Where Lee Vining ranks high
- Short commute5.6 minutes each way, better than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of towns
- QuietBetter than 97% of towns
- Household income$121,330 median, better than 93% of towns
- TransitBetter than 93% of towns
Where Lee Vining ranks low
- Nice weatherabout 50 pleasant days a year, better than only 1% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,436 a month, better than only 5% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 5% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Lee Vining
A household needs to earn about $98,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lee Vining home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $121,330, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
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 Lee Vining's effective rate of 0.89%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Lee Vining
Lee Vining runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Lee Vining.
Who works in Lee Vining, and how
Work in Lee Vining centers on education and other services. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 25%
- Work from home 47%
- Transit, walk, or bike 28%
Life in Lee Vining
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Lee Vining.
What the weather is like in Lee Vining, month by month
Lee Vining sees roughly 50 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 15. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 28° | 15° |
| April | 59° | 44° | 28° |
| July | 85° | 68° | 46° |
| October | 66° | 46° | 28° |
Flying in and out of Lee Vining
The nearest airport, Mammoth Yosemite, is about 30 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Sacramento International, about 142 miles away.
The best schools in and around Lee Vining
Schools across Lee Vining average a B−, better than 61% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Lee Vining ElementaryB · 47% proficient
- Summerville ElementaryC · 31% proficient
- Tenaya ElementaryD− · 15% proficient
Top high schools
- Lee Vining HighC+ · 37% proficient
- Don Pedro HighD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lee Vining school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lee Vining 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 Lee Vining against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Lee Vining
Is Lee Vining a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lee Vining ranks 28,713th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on short commutes, an educated workforce, and quiet, and lowest on the weather and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lee Vining expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $369,800. The overall cost of living runs about 34% above the national average. Set against a $121,330 median income, cost of living beats 54% of towns.
Is Lee Vining safe?
Lee Vining is safer than 4% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $804 per resident a year.
Compare Lee Vining with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lee Vining. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lee Vining 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.
Lee Vining detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lee Vining: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lee Vining: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lee Vining: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lee Vining: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lee Vining 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.