Best PlacesLees Summit, MO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lees Summit, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Costs and crime read low across the board, which puts the choice down to which part suits you. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Lees Summit ranks 65th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It earns the spot by being affordable and steady rather than flashy: everyday costs run well below the national average, and crime is low. The trade is walkability: the nearest large city and its jobs, flights, and culture are a drive away.
The best neighborhoods in Lees Summit
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 Lees Summit
The parts of Lees Summit, 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.
Southwestern Lees Summit
Incomes run higher, local pay stretches further, and it is quieter.
Northern Lees Summit
Fewer households have young kids and crime runs higher.
Northwestern Lees Summit
Scores across Lees Summit run from about the 19th to the 97th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Lees Summit's strengths and weaknesses
Lees Summit ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Health care access is the standout, in the top 3% of cities. A stable housing market and civic engagement follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Walkability, transit, and biking hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Lees Summit ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 97% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 97% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than 96% of cities
- Internet speedBetter than 96% of cities
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 92% of cities
Where Lees Summit ranks low
- WalkabilityBetter than only 9% of cities
- TransitBetter than only 16% of cities
- BikingBetter than only 17% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than only 21% of cities
- Cell coverageBetter than only 23% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Lees Summit
A household needs to earn about $96,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lees Summit home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $112,148, 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 Lees Summit's effective rate of 1.19%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Lees Summit
Lees Summit's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Lees Summit.
Who works in Lees Summit, and how
Work in Lees Summit centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 77%
- Work from home 20%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Lees Summit
Lees Summit has more restaurants and bars per resident than 72% of cities and more parkland per resident than 82% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Lees Summit and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Lees Summit, month by month
Lees Summit sees roughly 94 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 41, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 41° | 31° | 24° |
| April | 68° | 56° | 46° |
| July | 89° | 80° | 71° |
| October | 70° | 59° | 50° |
Flying in and out of Lees Summit
Kansas City International sits about 32 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 Lees Summit
Schools across Lees Summit average a B, better than 78% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Voy Spears Jr. Elem.A+ · 74% proficient
- Chapel Lakes Elem.A+ · 73% proficient
- Cedar Creek Elem.A · 65% proficient
Top middle schools
- Delta Woods MiddleA · 64% proficient
- Summit Lakes MiddleA− · 54% proficient
- Moreland Ridge MiddleB+ · 51% proficient
Top high schools
- Lee's Summit West HighB+ · 56% proficient
- Blue Springs South HighB+ · 55% proficient
- Blue Springs HighB+ · 55% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lees Summit school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lees Summit 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 Lees Summit against the other 444 cities.
Who Lees Summit suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 92% of cities, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 20% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Lees Summit
Is Lees Summit a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lees Summit ranks 65th of 445 cities. It scores highest on health care access, a stable housing market, and civic engagement, and lowest on walkability and transit. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lees Summit expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $349,073. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $112,148 median income, cost of living beats 92% of cities.
Is Lees Summit safe?
Yes, Lees Summit is safer than 83% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $322 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Lees Summit?
July highs average about 89 degrees, and January highs near 41 with lows near 24. That works out to about 94 pleasant days a year, more than 44% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Lees Summit?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Southwestern Lees Summit, Northern Lees Summit, and Northwestern Lees Summit. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Lees Summit good for families?
Schools beat 78% of cities, crime safety beats 83%, and childcare runs $829 a month.
Is Lees Summit good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 92% of cities, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 96% of cities. About 20% of workers already work from home.
Compare Lees Summit with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lees Summit. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lees Summit 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.
Lees Summit detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lees Summit: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lees Summit: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lees Summit: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lees Summit: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lees Summit 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.