Best PlacesVan Lear, KY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Van Lear, 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.
Van Lear ranks 41,116th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on short commutes by a wide margin, and car insurance costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Van Lear
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.
Van Lear's strengths and weaknesses
Where Van Lear ranks high
- Short commute18.4 minutes each way, better than 92% of towns
- Cheap childcare$545 a month, better than 88% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 79% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 79% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 78% of towns
Where Van Lear ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 8% of towns
- Household income$46,002 median, better than only 8% of towns
- School gradeD+, better than only 14% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 14% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 17% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Van Lear
A household needs to earn about $39,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Van Lear home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $46,002, 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 Van Lear's effective rate of 0.78%, 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Van Lear
Van Lear 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 Van Lear.
Who works in Van Lear, and how
Work in Van Lear centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 93%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Van Lear
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Van Lear.
What the weather is like in Van Lear, month by month
Van Lear sees roughly 71 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 47, with lows near 28. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 47° | 36° | 28° |
| April | 72° | 58° | 46° |
| July | 88° | 76° | 66° |
| October | 73° | 60° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Van Lear
The nearest airport, Tri-State/Milton J Ferguson Field, is about 43 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International, about 137 miles away.
The best schools in and around Van Lear
Schools across Van Lear average a D+, better than 14% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Porter Elementary SchoolD · 20% proficient
- Central Elementary SchoolD · 20% proficient
Top middle schools
- Johnson County Middle SchoolC · 31% proficient
- James D. Adams Middle SchoolD · 20% proficient
Top high schools
- Johnson Central High SchoolD · 20% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Van Lear school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Van Lear 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 Van Lear against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Van Lear
Is Van Lear a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Van Lear ranks 41,116th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on short commutes, affordable childcare, and fast internet, and lowest on car insurance costs and low incomes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Van Lear expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $151,514. The overall cost of living runs about 24% below the national average. Set against a $46,002 median income, cost of living beats 17% of towns.
Is Van Lear safe?
Van Lear is safer than 54% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $263 per resident a year.
Compare Van Lear with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Van Lear. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Van Lear 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.
Van Lear detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Van Lear: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Van Lear: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Van Lear: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Van Lear: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Van Lear 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.