Best PlacesTea, SD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Tea, 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.
Tea ranks 699th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cell coverage by a wide margin, and tree cover ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Tea
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.
Tea's strengths and weaknesses
Where Tea ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 99% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 98% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 98% of towns
- School gradeA, better than 97% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 96% of towns
Where Tea ranks low
- Tree shadeBetter than only 9% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 11% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 16% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 25% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 28% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Tea
A household needs to earn about $106,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Tea home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $119,138, 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 Tea's effective rate of 1.28%, 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 Tea
Tea runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Tea.
Who works in Tea, and how
Work in Tea centers on health care & social and finance & insurance. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 79%
- Work from home 20%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Tea
Tea has more parkland per resident than 91% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Tea and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Tea, month by month
Tea sees roughly 106 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 31, with lows near 9. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31° | 19° | 9° |
| April | 62° | 47° | 34° |
| July | 88° | 75° | 62° |
| October | 65° | 50° | 38° |
Flying in and out of Tea
The nearest airport, Joe Foss Field, is about 10 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Eppley Airfield, about 156 miles away.
The best schools in and around Tea
Schools across Tea average an A, better than 97% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- West Lyon Elementary SchoolA+ · 78% proficient
- Freedom Elementary - 06B+ · 55% proficient
- Tea Area Legacy Elementary - 01B · 50% proficient
Top middle schools
- West Lyon Junior High SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Harrisburg North Middle School - 08B+ · 51% proficient
- Harrisburg South Middle School - 03B · 45% proficient
Top high schools
- West Lyon High SchoolA+ · 86% proficient
- Tea Area High School - 03A− · 60% proficient
- Harrisburg High School - 01B · 50% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Tea school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Tea 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 Tea against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Tea
Is Tea a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Tea ranks 699th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cell coverage, population health, and low taxes, and lowest on tree cover and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Tea expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $382,111. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $119,138 median income, cost of living beats 96% of towns.
Is Tea safe?
Yes, Tea is safer than 90% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $205 per resident a year.
Compare Tea with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Tea. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Tea 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.
Tea detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Tea: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Tea: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Tea: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Tea: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Tea 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.