Best PlacesLithia, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lithia, 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.
Lithia ranks 4,228th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low crime by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Lithia
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.
Lithia's strengths and weaknesses
Where Lithia ranks high
- Crime safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- School gradeA+, better than 98% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 91% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 88% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 87% of towns
Where Lithia ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 7% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 13% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 16% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 65 pleasant days a year, better than only 17% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Lithia
A household needs to earn about $91,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lithia home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $98,317, 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 Lithia's effective rate of 0.64%, 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 Lithia
Lithia runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Lithia.
Who works in Lithia, and how
Work in Lithia centers on retail trade and public administration. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Lithia
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Lithia.
What the weather is like in Lithia, month by month
Lithia sees roughly 65 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 28. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49° | 38° | 28° |
| April | 74° | 59° | 46° |
| July | 91° | 79° | 68° |
| October | 74° | 61° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Lithia
The nearest airport, Roanoke/Blacksburg Regional (Woodrum Field), is about 15 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Raleigh-Durham International, about 123 miles away.
The best schools in and around Lithia
Schools across Lithia average an A+, better than 98% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Troutville ElementaryA · 68% proficient
- Buchanan ElementaryA · 68% proficient
- Montvale ElementaryB+ · 55% proficient
Top middle schools
- Central Academy MiddleA+ · 78% proficient
- Read Mountain MiddleA+ · 76% proficient
- Liberty MiddleA− · 55% proficient
Top high schools
- James River HighA+ · 86% proficient
- Lord Botetourt HighA+ · 85% proficient
- Liberty HighB+ · 53% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lithia school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lithia 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 Lithia against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Lithia
Is Lithia a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lithia ranks 4,228th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low crime, good schools, and low disaster risk, and lowest on noise and a weak job market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lithia expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $355,700. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $98,317 median income, cost of living beats 88% of towns.
Is Lithia safe?
Yes, Lithia is safer than 100% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $102 per resident a year.
Compare Lithia with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lithia. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lithia 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.
Lithia detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lithia: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lithia: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lithia: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lithia: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lithia 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.