Best PlacesLyells, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lyells, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Lyells ranks 37,697th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Long commutes pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on big-city access.
The best neighborhoods in Lyells
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.
Lyells' strengths and weaknesses
Where Lyells ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 88% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 87% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 86% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 78% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 69% of towns
Where Lyells ranks low
- Short commute45.4 minutes each way, better than only 2% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 14% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 16% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 16% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Lyells
A household needs to earn about $60,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lyells home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $62,653, 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 Lyells' effective rate of 0.49%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Lyells
Lyells 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 Lyells.
Who works in Lyells, and how
Work in Lyells centers on construction and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 22%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Lyells
The coast is about 19 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Lyells, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Lyells, month by month
Lyells sees roughly 71 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 30. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 48° | 38° | 30° |
| April | 71° | 58° | 47° |
| July | 90° | 79° | 70° |
| October | 72° | 61° | 51° |
Flying in and out of Lyells
Richmond International sits about 47 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 2.5 million passengers in 2025, with 72 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Lyells
Schools across Lyells average a B, better than 66% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Richmond County ElementaryB− · 42% proficient
- Cople ElementaryC+ · 38% proficient
Top middle schools
- Montross MiddleB · 45% proficient
Top high schools
- Rappahannock HighB+ · 57% proficient
- Westmoreland HighB+ · 52% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lyells school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lyells 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 Lyells against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Lyells
Is Lyells a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lyells ranks 37,697th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on big-city access, cheap car insurance, and a strong job market, and lowest on long commutes and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lyells expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $240,930. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $62,653 median income, cost of living beats 26% of towns.
Is Lyells safe?
Lyells is safer than 14% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $498 per resident a year.
Compare Lyells with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lyells. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lyells 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.
Lyells detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lyells: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lyells: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lyells: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lyells: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lyells 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.