Best PlacesBrandon, OH Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Brandon, 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.
Brandon ranks 3,491st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cheap car insurance by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Brandon
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.
Brandon's strengths and weaknesses
Where Brandon ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 96% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 94% of towns
- Household income$104,550 median, better than 87% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 86% of towns
- School gradeA−, better than 85% of towns
Where Brandon ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,232 a month, better than only 13% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 25% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 26% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 27% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Brandon
A household needs to earn about $88,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Brandon home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $104,550, 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 Brandon's effective rate of 1.10%, 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 Brandon
Brandon runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Brandon.
Who works in Brandon, and how
Work in Brandon centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Brandon
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Brandon.
What the weather is like in Brandon, month by month
Brandon sees roughly 82 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36° | 29° | 23° |
| April | 62° | 51° | 42° |
| July | 84° | 73° | 64° |
| October | 66° | 55° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Brandon
John Glenn Columbus International sits about 29 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 4.4 million passengers in 2025, with 94 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Brandon
Schools across Brandon average an A−, better than 85% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Twin Oak Elementary SchoolA · 65% proficient
- Northridge ElementaryA− · 60% proficient
- Columbia Elementary SchoolA− · 60% proficient
Top middle schools
- Mount Vernon Middle SchoolA · 60% proficient
- Northridge Middle SchoolA− · 53% proficient
- Utica Middle SchoolB+ · 51% proficient
Top high schools
- Mount Vernon High SchoolA− · 61% proficient
- Northridge High SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Utica High SchoolB− · 43% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Brandon school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Brandon 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 Brandon against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Brandon
Is Brandon a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Brandon ranks 3,491st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, what local pay buys, and high incomes, and lowest on childcare costs and walkability. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Brandon expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $322,932. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $104,550 median income, cost of living beats 94% of towns.
Is Brandon safe?
Yes, Brandon is safer than 79% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $204 per resident a year.
Compare Brandon with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Brandon. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Brandon 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.
Brandon detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Brandon: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Brandon: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Brandon: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Brandon: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Brandon 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.