Best PlacesBrilliant, OH Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Brilliant, 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.
Brilliant ranks 39,985th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cell coverage by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Brilliant
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.
Brilliant's strengths and weaknesses
Where Brilliant ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 98% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 96% of towns
- TransitBetter than 95% of towns
- BikingBetter than 91% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 83% of towns
Where Brilliant ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 3% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 7% of towns
- Household income$45,201 median, better than only 8% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,273 a month, better than only 11% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 12% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Brilliant
A household needs to earn about $21,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Brilliant home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $45,201, 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 Brilliant's effective rate of 0.86%, 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 4 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Brilliant
Brilliant 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 Brilliant.
Who works in Brilliant, and how
Work in Brilliant centers on retail trade and hospitality & food. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Brilliant
Brilliant has more restaurants and bars per resident than 95% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Brilliant and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Brilliant, month by month
Brilliant sees roughly 70 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 40, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 40° | 31° | 23° |
| April | 66° | 53° | 41° |
| July | 86° | 74° | 64° |
| October | 69° | 57° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Brilliant
Pittsburgh International sits about 26 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 4.8 million passengers in 2025, with 104 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Brilliant
Schools across Brilliant average a B−, better than 60% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Buckeye North Elementary SchoolA− · 57% proficient
Top middle schools
- Buckeye Local Junior HighB+ · 48% proficient
Top high schools
- Buckeye Local High SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Brilliant school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Brilliant 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 Brilliant against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Brilliant
Is Brilliant a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Brilliant ranks 39,985th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cell coverage, cheap car insurance, and transit, and lowest on noise and health outcomes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Brilliant expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $78,251. The overall cost of living runs about 22% below the national average. Set against a $45,201 median income, cost of living beats 12% of towns.
Is Brilliant safe?
Brilliant is safer than 16% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $417 per resident a year.
Compare Brilliant with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Brilliant. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Brilliant 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.
Brilliant detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Brilliant: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Brilliant: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Brilliant: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Brilliant: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Brilliant 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.