Best PlacesCleveland, OH Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Cleveland metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Erik Drost, CC BY 2.0, via commons
Cleveland ranks 169th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on property taxes and crime. It does better on low disaster risk, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Cleveland metro
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.
The best areas in Cleveland
The towns and districts of the Cleveland metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Solon, Chagrin Falls & Bedford
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and more adults hold degrees.
Beachwood, Warrensville Heights & University Heights
Schools score higher, though homes cost more.
Elyria, Medina & Brunswick
Crime runs lower and fewer homes sit empty.
Lorain, Westlake & Lakewood
Scores close to Elyria, Medina & Brunswick, except that biking is better here.
Parma, Wadsworth & North Royalton
Prices have run up less, though streets are more car-dependent.
Mentor, Euclid & Painesville
Tree cover is thicker.
Downtown Cleveland
Transit reaches more jobs, though fewer residents vote.
Cleveland Heights & East Cleveland
Health care is harder to reach and health outcomes score lower.
Cleveland shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 1% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Cleveland's strengths and weaknesses
Cleveland lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Low disaster risk, cheap car insurance, and transit carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Property taxes, crime, and childcare costs hold the score down. Cost swings more from one part of Cleveland to another than it does between Cleveland and its neighbors, which the map below shows.
Where Cleveland ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 93% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 91% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than 87% of metro areas
- WalkabilityBetter than 85% of metro areas
- School gradeB, better than 79% of metro areas
Where Cleveland ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 7% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than only 10% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$1,259 a month, better than only 18% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than only 23% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than only 25% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Cleveland
A household needs to earn about $67,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Cleveland home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $82,827, 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 Cleveland's effective rate of 1.64%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Cleveland
Cleveland 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 Cleveland.
Who works in Cleveland, and how
Work in Cleveland centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 79%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Cleveland
Cleveland has more parkland per resident than 65% of metro areas. That concentrates in some parts of Cleveland and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Cleveland growing, and who is moving in?
Cleveland has held roughly flat in population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Akron, OH.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Cleveland go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Cleveland, month by month
Cleveland sees roughly 76 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 39, with lows near 25. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 39° | 31° | 25° |
| April | 60° | 50° | 41° |
| July | 84° | 76° | 69° |
| October | 68° | 59° | 51° |
Flying in and out of Cleveland
Cleveland-Hopkins International sits about 10 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 4.9 million passengers in 2025, with 72 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Cleveland
Schools across Cleveland average a B, better than 79% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Parkside Elementary SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
- Dorothy E Lewis Elementary SchoolA+ · 97% proficient
- Grace L Roxbury Elementary SchoolA+ · 94% proficient
Top middle schools
- Orchard Middle SchoolA+ · 93% proficient
- School Of InnovationA+ · 92% proficient
- Chagrin Falls Intermediate Elementary SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
Top high schools
- Kenston High SchoolA+ · 87% proficient
- Rocky River High SchoolA+ · 87% proficient
- Chagrin Falls High SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Cleveland school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Cleveland 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 Cleveland against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Cleveland suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 78% of metro areas, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 14% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Cleveland
Is Cleveland a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Cleveland ranks 169th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on low disaster risk, cheap car insurance, and transit, and lowest on property taxes and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Cleveland expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $231,589. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $82,827 median income, cost of living beats 78% of metro areas.
Is Cleveland safe?
Cleveland is safer than 10% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $447 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Cleveland?
July highs average about 84 degrees, and January highs near 39 with lows near 25. That works out to about 76 pleasant days a year, more than 34% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Cleveland?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Solon, Chagrin Falls & Bedford, Beachwood, Warrensville Heights & University Heights, and Elyria, Medina & Brunswick. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Cleveland good for families?
Schools beat 79% of metro areas, crime safety beats 10%, and childcare runs $1,259 a month.
Is Cleveland good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 78% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 62% of metro areas. About 14% of workers already work from home.
Compare Cleveland with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Cleveland. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Cleveland 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.
Cleveland detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Cleveland: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Cleveland: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Cleveland: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Cleveland: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Cleveland 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.