Best PlacesLiberal, KS Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Liberal, 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.
Liberal ranks 36,591st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cell coverage by a wide margin, and education levels rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Liberal
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.
Liberal's strengths and weaknesses
Where Liberal ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 99% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 98% of towns
- Short commute14.4 minutes each way, better than 98% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 95% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 94% of towns
Where Liberal ranks low
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 1% of towns
- School gradeD−, better than only 2% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 3% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 4% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Liberal
A household needs to earn about $38,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Liberal home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $67,898, 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 Liberal's effective rate of 1.63%, 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 Liberal
Liberal runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Liberal.
Who works in Liberal, and how
Work in Liberal centers on manufacturing and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 91%
- Work from home 5%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Liberal
Liberal has more restaurants and bars per resident than 82% of towns and more parkland per resident than 88% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Liberal and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Liberal, month by month
Liberal sees roughly 119 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 96 degrees. January highs sit near 51, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 51° | 33° | 20° |
| April | 74° | 55° | 39° |
| July | 96° | 80° | 66° |
| October | 76° | 57° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Liberal
The nearest airport, Liberal Mid-America Regional, is about 2 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Denver International, about 281 miles away.
The best schools in and around Liberal
Schools across Liberal average a D−, better than 2% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Hugoton ElemB · 50% proficient
- Sublette ElemB− · 40% proficient
- Meade ElemC+ · 38% proficient
Top middle schools
- Sublette MiddleD− · 17% proficient
- Hugoton MiddleF · 12% proficient
- Eisenhower Middle SchoolF · 11% proficient
Top high schools
- Meade HighC− · 27% proficient
- Sublette HighD− · 14% proficient
- Hugoton HighD− · 14% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Liberal school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Liberal 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 Liberal against the other 50,332 towns.
Who Liberal suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 5% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Liberal
Is Liberal a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Liberal ranks 36,591st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cell coverage, walkability, and short commutes, and lowest on education levels and the schools. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Liberal expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $131,259. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $67,898 median income, cost of living beats 46% of towns.
Is Liberal safe?
Liberal is safer than 8% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $654 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Liberal?
July highs average about 96 degrees, and January highs near 51 with lows near 20. That works out to about 119 pleasant days a year, more than 80% of towns.
Is Liberal good for families?
Schools beat 2% of towns, crime safety beats 8%, and childcare runs $796 a month.
Compare Liberal with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Liberal. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Liberal 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.
Liberal detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Liberal: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Liberal: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Liberal: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Liberal: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Liberal 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.