Best PlacesLetha, ID Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Letha, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Letha ranks 12,172nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state finances by a wide margin, and tree cover ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Letha
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.
Letha's strengths and weaknesses
Where Letha ranks high
- State fiscal healthBetter than 98% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 97% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 97% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 95% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 93% of towns
Where Letha ranks low
- Tree shadeBetter than only 6% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 13% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 13% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 15% of towns
- Short commute31.8 minutes each way, better than only 25% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Letha
A household needs to earn about $117,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Letha home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $76,973, 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 Letha's effective rate of 0.33%, 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 Letha
Letha runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Letha.
Who works in Letha, and how
Work in Letha centers on construction and agriculture & forestry. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 90%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Letha
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Letha.
What the weather is like in Letha, month by month
Letha sees roughly 95 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 96 degrees. January highs sit near 42, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, August, and September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 42° | 32° | 23° |
| April | 67° | 51° | 36° |
| July | 96° | 78° | 58° |
| October | 68° | 51° | 37° |
Flying in and out of Letha
Boise Air Trml/Gowen Field sits about 31 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 2.6 million passengers in 2025, with 59 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Letha
Schools across Letha average a B, better than 64% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- New Plymouth ElementaryA− · 56% proficient
- Middleton Heights ElementaryB+ · 51% proficient
- Purple Sage ElementaryB− · 44% proficient
Top middle schools
- New Plymouth Middle SchoolA− · 58% proficient
- Middleton Middle SchoolB+ · 49% proficient
- Emmett Middle SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
Top high schools
- Emmett High SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
- Middleton High SchoolB · 49% proficient
- New Plymouth High SchoolC+ · 40% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Letha school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Letha 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 Letha against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Letha
Is Letha a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Letha ranks 12,172nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on state finances, low crime, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on tree cover and internet speeds. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Letha expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $479,840. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $76,973 median income, cost of living beats 41% of towns.
Is Letha safe?
Yes, Letha is safer than 97% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $158 per resident a year.
Compare Letha with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Letha. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Letha 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.
Letha detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Letha: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Letha: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Letha: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Letha: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Letha 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.