Best PlacesOlathe, KS Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Olathe, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages hide a wide spread here, so the area matters as much as the address. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Olathe ranks 31st of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. Paychecks stretch further here than almost anywhere else: the median household brings in $127,883, everyday costs sit below the national average, and a strong job market ranks near the top of the country. The main drawbacks are walkability, cell coverage, and transit.
The best neighborhoods in Olathe
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.
The best areas in Olathe
The parts of Olathe, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the city.
Arrowhead East & Arbor Creek Village
Incomes run higher, local pay stretches further, and more households have young kids.
Estates of Forest View, Woods at Southglen & Hunter's Creek Estates
More adults hold degrees and more residents vote.
Villas of St. Andrews
It is quieter.
Indian Trails Center, Walnut Point & Saddlewood Downs
Scores close to Villas of St. Andrews, except that tree cover is thinner here.
Wyncroft Meadows
Biking is better and streets are more walkable.
Rolling Ridge South
Homes cost less, though crime runs higher.
Millcreek Woods
Schools score lower.
Holly Green & Ridgeview Terrace
Health care is harder to reach and more homes sit empty.
Olathe shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 11% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Olathe's strengths and weaknesses
Olathe ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Few empty homes is the standout, in the top 2% of cities. Health care access and fast internet follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Walkability, cell coverage, and transit hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Olathe ranks high
- Low vacancyBetter than 98% of cities
- Healthcare accessBetter than 97% of cities
- Internet speedBetter than 96% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 95% of cities
- Local economyBetter than 95% of cities
Where Olathe ranks low
- WalkabilityBetter than only 16% of cities
- Cell coverageBetter than only 19% of cities
- TransitBetter than only 19% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than only 22% of cities
- Low property taxBetter than only 29% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Olathe
A household needs to earn about $110,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Olathe home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $127,883, 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 Olathe's effective rate of 1.16%, 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 Olathe
Olathe's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Olathe.
Who works in Olathe, and how
Work in Olathe centers on health care & social and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 22%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Olathe
Olathe has more parkland per resident than 90% of cities. That concentrates in some parts of Olathe and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Olathe, month by month
Olathe sees roughly 95 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 40, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 40° | 30° | 23° |
| April | 68° | 55° | 45° |
| July | 89° | 79° | 70° |
| October | 70° | 58° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Olathe
Kansas City International sits about 29 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 5.7 million passengers in 2025, with 104 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Olathe
Schools across Olathe average a C+, better than 46% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Prairie Creek ElementaryA+ · 81% proficient
- Morse ElementaryA+ · 76% proficient
- Timber Creek Elementary SchoolA+ · 74% proficient
Top middle schools
- Prairie Trail Middle SchoolB · 47% proficient
- Lexington Trails Middle SchoolB · 46% proficient
- Harmony MiddleB · 46% proficient
Top high schools
- Blue Valley Northwest HighB · 46% proficient
- De Soto High SchoolB · 46% proficient
- Blue Valley West HighB− · 44% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Olathe school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Olathe 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 Olathe against the other 444 cities.
Who Olathe suits
Families
Schools land around the 46th percentile and crime safety beats 88%.
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 94% of cities, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 22% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Olathe
Is Olathe a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Olathe ranks 31st of 445 cities. It scores highest on few empty homes, health care access, and fast internet, and lowest on walkability and cell coverage. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Olathe expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $400,061. The overall cost of living runs about 7% below the national average. Set against a $127,883 median income, cost of living beats 94% of cities.
Is Olathe safe?
Yes, Olathe is safer than 88% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $283 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Olathe?
July highs average about 89 degrees, and January highs near 40 with lows near 23. That works out to about 95 pleasant days a year, more than 45% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Olathe?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Arrowhead East & Arbor Creek Village, Estates of Forest View, Woods at Southglen & Hunter's Creek Estates, and Villas of St. Andrews. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Olathe good for families?
Schools beat 46% of cities, crime safety beats 88%, and childcare runs $996 a month.
Is Olathe good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 94% of cities, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 96% of cities. About 22% of workers already work from home.
Compare Olathe with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Olathe. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Olathe 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.
Olathe detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Olathe: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Olathe: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Olathe: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Olathe: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Olathe 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.