Best PlacesCenter Square, IN Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Center Square, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Center Square ranks 13,211th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on a strong job market by a wide margin, and education levels rank lowest.

#13,211
of 50,333 towns
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 50,333 towns
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Center Square

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Center Square area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Center Square's strengths and weaknesses

Top 1%A strong job market
Top 5%Low crime
Top 10%Cheap car insurance
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Center Square with other towns.

Where Center Square ranks high

  • Local economyBetter than 99% of towns
  • Crime safetyBetter than 96% of towns
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than 91% of towns
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 83% of towns
  • Household income$97,417 median, better than 83% of towns

Where Center Square ranks low

  • Educational attainmentBetter than only 1% of towns
  • Nice weatherabout 52 pleasant days a year, better than only 2% of towns
  • Short commute35.4 minutes each way, better than only 13% of towns
  • Tree shadeBetter than only 14% of towns
  • School gradeD+, better than only 16% of towns

What it costs to buy a home in Center Square

A household needs to earn about $77,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Center Square home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $97,417, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$77,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,807
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $308,300 home

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,572
Property tax$132
Homeowners insurance$103

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 Center Square's effective rate of 0.52%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.


Who lives in Center Square

Center Square runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.

Median age
35
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
9%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
3.0
above the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1826%
18 to 3424%
35 to 4920%
50 to 6420%
65 and older9%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Center Square.


Who works in Center Square, and how

Work in Center Square centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
5%
below the national average
Unemployment
2.1%
below the national average
Job growth
+22.1%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social16%
Manufacturing15%
Hospitality & food11%
Construction10%
Utilities10%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 86%
  • Work from home 5%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 9%

Life in Center Square

The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Center Square.


What the weather is like in Center Square, month by month

Center Square sees roughly 52 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and August through October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January43°32°23°
April68°55°43°
July88°77°67°
October71°59°47°

Flying in and out of Center Square

Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International sits about 24 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 4.4 million passengers in 2025, with 99 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
CVG
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International, about 24 miles
Airport size
Medium hub
50th-busiest in the US, 99 nonstop destinations
Average drive
34 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Center Square

Schools across Center Square average a D+, better than 16% of towns.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Center Square school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Center Square 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 Center Square against the other 50,332 towns.


Common questions about living in Center Square

Is Center Square a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Center Square ranks 13,211th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on a strong job market, low crime, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on education levels and the weather. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Center Square expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $308,300. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $97,417 median income, cost of living beats 83% of towns.

Is Center Square safe?

Yes, Center Square is safer than 96% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $127 per resident a year.


Compare Center Square with other towns


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Center Square. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Center Square 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.

Center Square detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Center Square: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Center Square: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Center Square: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Center Square: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Center Square detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.