Best PlacesSteele, KY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Steele, 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.
Steele ranks 47,991st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on tree cover by a wide margin, and health outcomes rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Steele
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.
Steele's strengths and weaknesses
Where Steele ranks high
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 94% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 91% of towns
- Cheap childcare$545 a month, better than 88% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 78% of towns
Where Steele ranks low
- Health outlookBetter than only 1% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 2% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 3% of towns
- Household income$32,602 median, better than only 3% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 6% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Steele
A household needs to earn about $14,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Steele home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $32,602, 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 Steele's effective rate of 0.54%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Steele
Steele 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 Steele.
Who works in Steele, and how
Work in Steele centers on transportation & warehousing and mining & oil & gas. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 93%
- Work from home 5%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Steele
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Steele.
What the weather is like in Steele, month by month
Steele sees roughly 85 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 46, with lows near 27. The comfortable stretch runs April through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 46° | 35° | 27° |
| April | 71° | 57° | 46° |
| July | 86° | 75° | 66° |
| October | 72° | 59° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Steele
The nearest airport, Raleigh County Memorial, is about 65 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Charlotte/Douglas International, about 167 miles away.
The best schools in and around Steele
Schools across Steele average a D, better than 10% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Feds Creek Elementary SchoolD+ · 23% proficient
Top high schools
- East Ridge High SchoolD · 18% proficient
- Phelps High SchoolD− · 14% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Steele school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Steele 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 Steele against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Steele
Is Steele a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Steele ranks 47,991st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on tree cover, a stable housing market, and civic engagement, and lowest on health outcomes and thin health care access. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Steele expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $54,600. The overall cost of living runs about 20% below the national average. Set against a $32,602 median income, cost of living beats 3% of towns.
Is Steele safe?
Steele is safer than 51% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $266 per resident a year.
Compare Steele with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Steele. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Steele 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.
Steele detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Steele: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Steele: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Steele: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Steele: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Steele 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.