Best PlacesLester, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lester, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Lester ranks 29,067th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on high incomes by a wide margin, and cell coverage ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Lester
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.
Lester's strengths and weaknesses
Where Lester ranks high
- Household income$114,881 median, better than 92% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 90% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 87% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 86% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 84% of towns
Where Lester ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,727 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- Short commute45.0 minutes each way, better than only 2% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 3% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 7% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Lester
A household needs to earn about $195,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lester home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $114,881, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Lester's effective rate of 0.76%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Lester
Lester runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Lester.
Who works in Lester, and how
Work in Lester centers on construction and professional & technical. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 79%
- Work from home 19%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Lester
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Lester.
What the weather is like in Lester, month by month
Lester sees roughly 71 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 72 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs July and August.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 28° | 24° |
| April | 48° | 38° | 31° |
| July | 72° | 59° | 49° |
| October | 51° | 43° | 37° |
Flying in and out of Lester
Seattle-Tacoma International sits about 44 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 25.4 million passengers in 2025, with 172 nonstop destinations.
Lester 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 Lester against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Lester
Is Lester a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lester ranks 29,067th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on high incomes, population health, and big-city access, and lowest on cell coverage and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lester expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $751,412. The overall cost of living runs about 18% above the national average. Set against a $114,881 median income, cost of living beats 78% of towns.
Is Lester safe?
Lester is safer than 7% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $998 per resident a year.
Compare Lester with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lester. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lester 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.
Lester detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lester: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lester: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lester: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lester: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lester 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.