Best PlacesLydia, MN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lydia, 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.
Lydia ranks 1,067th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on what local pay buys by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Lydia
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's strengths and weaknesses
Where Lydia ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 99% of towns
- Household income$144,404 median, better than 97% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 96% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 95% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 93% of towns
Where Lydia ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,682 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 18% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 20% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 39% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 41% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Lydia
A household needs to earn about $161,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lydia home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $144,404; 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's effective rate of 0.84%, 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 Lydia
Lydia runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Lydia.
Who works in Lydia, and how
Work in Lydia centers on retail trade and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 72%
- Work from home 26%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Lydia
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Lydia.
What the weather is like in Lydia, month by month
Lydia sees roughly 132 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 25, with lows near 10. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 25° | 17° | 10° |
| April | 55° | 44° | 35° |
| July | 83° | 72° | 62° |
| October | 59° | 49° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Lydia
Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain sits about 22 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 17.5 million passengers in 2025, with 195 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Lydia
Schools across Lydia average a B+, better than 79% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- La Ola Del Lago At GrainwoodA− · 62% proficient
- Falcon RidgeB+ · 55% proficient
- Jordan ElementaryB+ · 53% proficient
Top middle schools
- Jordan MiddleA− · 54% proficient
- New Prague Middle SchoolA− · 52% proficient
- Prior Lake-savage Middle SchoolB · 44% proficient
Top high schools
- New Prague Senior HighA− · 66% proficient
- Prior Lake High SchoolA− · 62% proficient
- Jordan High SchoolB · 48% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lydia school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lydia 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 against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Lydia
Is Lydia a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lydia ranks 1,067th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on what local pay buys, high incomes, and few empty homes, and lowest on childcare costs and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lydia expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $612,118. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $144,404 median income, cost of living beats 99% of towns.
Is Lydia safe?
Yes, Lydia is safer than 81% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $218 per resident a year.
Compare Lydia with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lydia. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lydia 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 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lydia: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lydia: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lydia: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lydia: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lydia 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.