Best PlacesLostine, OR Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lostine, 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.
Lostine ranks 25,640th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores best on short commutes, and disaster risk is the weak spot.
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The best neighborhoods in Lostine
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.
Lostine's strengths and weaknesses
Where Lostine ranks high
- Short commute19.6 minutes each way, better than 89% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 89% of towns
- TransitBetter than 89% of towns
- QuietBetter than 80% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 76% of towns
Where Lostine ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 12% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 6% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 34% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 12% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Lostine
A household needs to earn about $111,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lostine home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $72,013, so buying stretches a typical household.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.7% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-08-20 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 Lostine's effective rate of 0.47%, 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 Lostine
Lostine runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Lostine.
Who works in Lostine, and how
Work in Lostine centers on agriculture & forestry and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 66%
- Work from home 26%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Lostine
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Lostine.
What the weather is like in Lostine, month by month
Lostine sees roughly 100 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 40, with lows near 25. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 40° | 33° | 25° |
| April | 62° | 47° | 33° |
| July | 91° | 72° | 51° |
| October | 64° | 49° | 35° |
Flying in and out of Lostine
The nearest airport, Walla Walla Regional, is about 61 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Boise Air Trml/Gowen Field, about 143 miles away.
The best schools in and around Lostine
Schools across Lostine average a B, better than 64% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Enterprise Elementary SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
- Wallowa Elementary SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
Top high schools
- Enterprise High SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
- Wallowa High SchoolC · 34% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lostine school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lostine 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 Lostine against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Lostine
Is Lostine a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lostine ranks 25,640th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on short commutes, clean air, and transit, and lowest on disaster risk and distance from a big city. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lostine expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $441,142. The overall cost of living runs about 1% below the national average. Set against a $72,013 median income, cost of living beats 34% of towns.
Is Lostine safe?
Lostine is safer than 44% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $409 per resident a year.
Compare Lostine with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lostine. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lostine 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.
Lostine detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lostine: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lostine: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lostine: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lostine: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lostine 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.