Best PlacesLeola, AR Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Leola, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Leola ranks 33,048th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Civic engagement pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on a stable housing market.

#33,048
of 50,333 towns
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 50,333 towns
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Leola

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Leola area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Leola's strengths and weaknesses

Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Leola with other towns.

Where Leola ranks high

  • Housing crash safetyBetter than 87% of towns
  • State fiscal healthBetter than 85% of towns
  • QuietBetter than 84% of towns
  • WalkabilityBetter than 83% of towns
  • Tree shadeBetter than 79% of towns

Where Leola ranks low

  • Voter turnoutBetter than only 2% of towns
  • Air qualityBetter than only 8% of towns
  • Big-city accessBetter than only 15% of towns
  • Heat safetyBetter than only 16% of towns
  • Local economyBetter than only 23% of towns

What it costs to buy a home in Leola

A household needs to earn about $28,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Leola home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $63,043, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$28,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$656
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $111,661 home
Median rent
$807
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$569
Property tax$49
Homeowners insurance$37

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 Leola's effective rate of 0.53%, 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 4 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Leola

Leola runs older than the country, and households here run larger than average.

Median age
45
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
21%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
3.3
above the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1819%
18 to 3419%
35 to 4920%
50 to 6422%
65 and older21%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Leola.


Who works in Leola, and how

Work in Leola centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.

Work from home
7%
below the national average
Unemployment
5.0%
about the national average
Job growth
−2.3%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Manufacturing23%
Health care & social14%
Agriculture & forestry12%
Construction10%
Retail trade10%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 92%
  • Work from home 7%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 2%

Life in Leola

The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Leola.


What the weather is like in Leola, month by month

Leola sees roughly 84 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 55, with lows near 33. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, September, and October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January55°42°33°
April76°63°52°
July92°81°72°
October78°63°51°

Flying in and out of Leola

The nearest airport, Memorial Field, is about 34 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Memphis International, about 161 miles away.

Nearest airport
HOT
Memorial Field, about 34 miles
Airport size
Nonprimary
4 nonstop destinations
Average drive
49 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Leola

Schools across Leola average a C+, better than 46% of towns.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Leola school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Leola 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 Leola against the other 50,332 towns.


Common questions about living in Leola

Is Leola a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Leola ranks 33,048th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on a stable housing market, state finances, and quiet, and lowest on civic engagement and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Leola expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $111,661. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $63,043 median income, cost of living beats 35% of towns.

Is Leola safe?

Leola is safer than 47% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $470 per resident a year.


Compare Leola with other towns


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Leola. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Leola 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.

Leola detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Leola: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Leola: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Leola: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Leola: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Leola detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.