Best PlacesLemmon, SD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lemmon, 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.
Lemmon ranks 15,254th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on walkability by a wide margin, and tree cover ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Lemmon
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.
Lemmon's strengths and weaknesses
Where Lemmon ranks high
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of towns
- Short commute11.1 minutes each way, better than 99% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 98% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 97% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 90% of towns
Where Lemmon ranks low
- Tree shadeBetter than only 2% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 10% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 21% of towns
- Household income$57,539 median, better than only 23% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Lemmon
A household needs to earn about $28,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lemmon home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $57,539, 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 Lemmon's effective rate of 0.97%, 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 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Lemmon
Lemmon 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 Lemmon.
Who works in Lemmon, and how
Work in Lemmon centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Lemmon
Lemmon has more parkland per resident than 99% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Lemmon and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Lemmon, month by month
Lemmon sees roughly 142 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 31, with lows near 7. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31° | 18° | 7° |
| April | 58° | 41° | 26° |
| July | 89° | 71° | 54° |
| October | 61° | 44° | 29° |
Flying in and out of Lemmon
The nearest airport, Dickinson/Theodore Roosevelt Regional, is about 67 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Denver International, about 438 miles away.
The best schools in and around Lemmon
Schools across Lemmon average a B−, better than 66% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Little Powder ElementaryA+ · 75% proficient
- Lemmon Elementary - 02B− · 40% proficient
- Bison Elementary - 02D+ · 25% proficient
Top middle schools
- Bison Jr. High - 04D · 21% proficient
- Lemmon Jr. High - 06D · 21% proficient
Top high schools
- Lemmon High School - 01A · 75% proficient
- Bison High School - 01A · 75% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lemmon school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lemmon 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 Lemmon against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Lemmon
Is Lemmon a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lemmon ranks 15,254th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on walkability, short commutes, and low taxes, and lowest on tree cover 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 Lemmon expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $104,600. The overall cost of living runs about 25% below the national average. Set against a $57,539 median income, cost of living beats 45% of towns.
Is Lemmon safe?
Lemmon is safer than 21% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $488 per resident a year.
Compare Lemmon with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lemmon. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lemmon 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.
Lemmon detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lemmon: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lemmon: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lemmon: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lemmon: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lemmon 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.