Best PlacesBlaze, KY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Blaze, 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.
Blaze ranks 39,401st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. A weak job market pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on affordable childcare.
The best neighborhoods in Blaze
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.
Blaze's strengths and weaknesses
Where Blaze ranks high
- Cheap childcare$545 a month, better than 88% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 79% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 79% of towns
- QuietBetter than 74% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 72% of towns
Where Blaze ranks low
- Local economyBetter than only 4% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 8% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 9% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 10% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Blaze
A household needs to earn about $27,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Blaze home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $57,577, 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 Blaze's effective rate of 0.73%, 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 Blaze
Blaze runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Blaze.
Who works in Blaze, and how
Work in Blaze centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Blaze
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Blaze.
What the weather is like in Blaze, month by month
Blaze sees roughly 73 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 47, with lows near 27. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 47° | 36° | 27° |
| April | 72° | 58° | 46° |
| July | 87° | 76° | 67° |
| October | 73° | 60° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Blaze
The nearest airport, Tri-State/Milton J Ferguson Field, is about 49 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International, about 100 miles away.
The best schools in and around Blaze
Schools across Blaze average a D+, better than 10% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Clearfield Elementary SchoolD+ · 22% proficient
- Wrigley Elementary SchoolD · 19% proficient
Top middle schools
- Rowan County Middle SchoolC · 33% proficient
- Morgan County Middle SchoolD · 20% proficient
Top high schools
- Rowan County Senior High SchoolC− · 30% proficient
- Morgan County High SchoolC− · 27% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Blaze school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Blaze 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 Blaze against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Blaze
Is Blaze a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Blaze ranks 39,401st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on affordable childcare, fast internet, and clean air, and lowest on a weak job market 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 Blaze expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $103,042. The overall cost of living runs about 22% below the national average. Set against a $57,577 median income, cost of living beats 60% of towns.
Is Blaze safe?
Yes, Blaze is safer than 72% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $226 per resident a year.
Compare Blaze with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Blaze. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Blaze 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.
Blaze detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Blaze: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Blaze: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Blaze: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Blaze: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Blaze 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.