Best PlacesLuzerne, IA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Luzerne, 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.
Luzerne ranks 12,496th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on few empty homes by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Luzerne
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.
Luzerne's strengths and weaknesses
Where Luzerne ranks high
- Low vacancyBetter than 98% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 94% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 94% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 94% of towns
- School gradeA, better than 90% of towns
Where Luzerne ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 1% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 11% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 25% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 28% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Luzerne
A household needs to earn about $97,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Luzerne home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $94,286; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Luzerne's effective rate of 1.04%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Luzerne
Luzerne runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Luzerne.
Who works in Luzerne, and how
Work in Luzerne centers on education and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 75%
- Work from home 23%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Luzerne
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Luzerne.
What the weather is like in Luzerne, month by month
Luzerne sees roughly 97 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 31, with lows near 16. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31° | 23° | 16° |
| April | 63° | 50° | 40° |
| July | 87° | 75° | 65° |
| October | 66° | 53° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Luzerne
The nearest airport, The Eastern Iowa, is about 25 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Eppley Airfield, about 196 miles away.
The best schools in and around Luzerne
Schools across Luzerne average an A, better than 90% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Keystone Elementary SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Longfellow Elementary SchoolA− · 60% proficient
Top middle schools
- Norway Elementary SchoolA · 65% proficient
Top high schools
- Benton Community Senior High SchoolA · 69% proficient
- Belle Plaine Jr/sr High SchoolA− · 63% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Luzerne school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Luzerne 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 Luzerne against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Luzerne
Is Luzerne a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Luzerne ranks 12,496th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on few empty homes, an educated workforce, and state finances, and lowest on noise and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Luzerne expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $359,400. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $94,286 median income, cost of living beats 85% of towns.
Is Luzerne safe?
Yes, Luzerne is safer than 84% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $190 per resident a year.
Compare Luzerne with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Luzerne. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Luzerne 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.
Luzerne detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Luzerne: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Luzerne: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Luzerne: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Luzerne: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Luzerne 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.