Best PlacesLydia Mills, SC Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lydia Mills, 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.
Lydia Mills ranks 47,420th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Low incomes pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on low property taxes.
The best neighborhoods in Lydia Mills
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.
Lydia Mills' strengths and weaknesses
Where Lydia Mills ranks high
- Low property taxBetter than 90% of towns
- Cheap childcare$552 a month, better than 87% of towns
- Short commute22.8 minutes each way, better than 76% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 71% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 66% of towns
Where Lydia Mills ranks low
- Household income$42,168 median, better than only 3% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 5% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 6% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 7% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Lydia Mills
A household needs to earn about $44,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lydia Mills home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $42,168; 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 Lydia Mills' effective rate of 0.38%, 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Lydia Mills
Lydia Mills 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 Lydia Mills.
Who works in Lydia Mills, and how
Work in Lydia Mills centers on manufacturing and education. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 95%
- Work from home 2%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Lydia Mills
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Lydia Mills.
What the weather is like in Lydia Mills, month by month
Lydia Mills sees roughly 89 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 53, with lows near 35. The comfortable stretch runs March through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 53° | 43° | 35° |
| April | 74° | 61° | 50° |
| July | 90° | 79° | 70° |
| October | 75° | 62° | 52° |
Flying in and out of Lydia Mills
The nearest airport, Greenville Spartanburg International, is about 34 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Charlotte/Douglas International, about 74 miles away.
The best schools in and around Lydia Mills
Schools across Lydia Mills average a C+, better than 44% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Eastside ElementaryC · 35% proficient
- Clinton ElementaryC− · 30% proficient
- E. B. Morse ElementaryD · 20% proficient
Top middle schools
- Clinton MiddleC · 35% proficient
- Sanders MiddleF · 10% proficient
Top high schools
- Clinton HighB+ · 54% proficient
- Laurens District 55 HighC+ · 39% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lydia Mills school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lydia Mills 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 Lydia Mills against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Lydia Mills
Is Lydia Mills a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lydia Mills ranks 47,420th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low property taxes, affordable childcare, and short commutes, and lowest on low incomes and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lydia Mills expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $179,387. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $42,168 median income, cost of living beats 6% of towns.
Is Lydia Mills safe?
Lydia Mills is safer than 5% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $829 per resident a year.
Compare Lydia Mills with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lydia Mills. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lydia Mills 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.
Lydia Mills detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lydia Mills: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lydia Mills: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lydia Mills: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lydia Mills: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lydia Mills 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.