Best PlacesLehunt, KS Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lehunt, 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.
Lehunt ranks 21,117th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on affordable childcare by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Lehunt
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.
Lehunt's strengths and weaknesses
Where Lehunt ranks high
- Cheap childcare$467 a month, better than 96% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 95% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 89% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 80% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 72% of towns
Where Lehunt ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 9% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 15% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 16% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 17% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 23% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Lehunt
A household needs to earn about $60,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lehunt home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $81,474, 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 Lehunt's effective rate of 1.31%, 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 Lehunt
Lehunt runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Lehunt.
Who works in Lehunt, and how
Work in Lehunt centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 90%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Lehunt
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Lehunt.
What the weather is like in Lehunt, month by month
Lehunt sees roughly 99 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 47, with lows near 25. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 47° | 34° | 25° |
| April | 71° | 58° | 47° |
| July | 92° | 80° | 70° |
| October | 74° | 60° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Lehunt
The nearest airport, Joplin Regional, is about 69 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Kansas City International, about 150 miles away.
The best schools in and around Lehunt
Schools across Lehunt average a C−, better than 26% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Elk Valley ElementaryB · 48% proficient
- Jefferson SchoolB− · 42% proficient
Top middle schools
- Independence MiddleC− · 28% proficient
Top high schools
- Independence Sr HighC− · 28% proficient
- Neodesha HighD · 18% proficient
- Elk Valley High SchoolD− · 15% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lehunt school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lehunt 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 Lehunt against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Lehunt
Is Lehunt a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lehunt ranks 21,117th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on affordable childcare, state infrastructure, and an educated workforce, and lowest on air quality and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lehunt expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $213,793. The overall cost of living runs about 20% below the national average. Set against a $81,474 median income, cost of living beats 80% of towns.
Is Lehunt safe?
Yes, Lehunt is safer than 70% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $263 per resident a year.
Compare Lehunt with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lehunt. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lehunt 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.
Lehunt detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lehunt: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lehunt: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lehunt: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lehunt: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lehunt 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.