Best PlacesLetts, IA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Letts, 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.
Letts ranks 5,173rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low crime by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Letts
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.
Letts' strengths and weaknesses
Where Letts ranks high
- Crime safetyBetter than 95% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 94% of towns
- School gradeA−, better than 88% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 84% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 84% of towns
Where Letts ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 25% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 26% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 29% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 30% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 38% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Letts
A household needs to earn about $52,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Letts home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $95,912, 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 Letts' effective rate of 1.10%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Letts
Letts runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Letts.
Who works in Letts, and how
Work in Letts centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 93%
- Work from home 5%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Letts
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Letts.
What the weather is like in Letts, month by month
Letts sees roughly 91 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 33, with lows near 18. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, August, and September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 33° | 25° | 18° |
| April | 63° | 51° | 41° |
| July | 86° | 76° | 66° |
| October | 66° | 54° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Letts
The nearest airport, Quad Cities International, is about 39 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Chicago O'Hare International, about 178 miles away.
The best schools in and around Letts
Schools across Letts average an A−, better than 88% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Louisa-muscatine ElementaryA · 65% proficient
- Roundy Elementary SchoolA · 62% proficient
- Mckinley Elementary SchoolB · 50% proficient
Top middle schools
- West Liberty Middle SchoolA · 62% proficient
- Columbus Community Junior High SchoolA− · 55% proficient
- Susan Clark Junior HighA− · 53% proficient
Top high schools
- Louisa-muscatine Jr/sr High SchoolA · 70% proficient
- Muscatine High SchoolB+ · 58% proficient
- West Liberty High SchoolB · 47% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Letts school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Letts 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 Letts against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Letts
Is Letts a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Letts ranks 5,173rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low crime, state finances, and good schools, and lowest on property taxes and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Letts expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $190,398. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $95,912 median income, cost of living beats 84% of towns.
Is Letts safe?
Yes, Letts is safer than 95% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $153 per resident a year.
Compare Letts with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Letts. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Letts 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.
Letts detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Letts: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Letts: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Letts: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Letts: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Letts 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.