Best PlacesDawn, OH Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Dawn, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Dawn ranks 17,318th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cheap car insurance by a wide margin, and the cost of living against local pay is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Dawn
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.
Dawn's strengths and weaknesses
Where Dawn ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- School gradeA, better than 94% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 91% of towns
- Short commute20.8 minutes each way, better than 85% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 82% of towns
Where Dawn ranks low
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 24% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 26% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 27% of towns
- Household income$60,041 median, better than only 27% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 28% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Dawn
A household needs to earn about $57,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Dawn home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $60,041, 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 Dawn's effective rate of 0.77%, 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 Dawn
Dawn runs younger than the country, though it still carries a larger-than-average share of residents over 65.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Dawn.
Who works in Dawn, and how
Work in Dawn centers on manufacturing and transportation & warehousing. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 92%
- Work from home 3%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Dawn
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Dawn.
What the weather is like in Dawn, month by month
Dawn sees roughly 83 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 35° | 28° | 23° |
| April | 61° | 50° | 41° |
| July | 83° | 73° | 64° |
| October | 66° | 55° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Dawn
The nearest airport, James M Cox Dayton International, is about 29 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International, about 81 miles away.
The best schools in and around Dawn
Schools across Dawn average an A, better than 94% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Versailles Elementary SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
- Ansonia Elementary SchoolA · 68% proficient
- Greenville Elementary SchoolA− · 56% proficient
Top middle schools
- Versailles Middle SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Ansonia Middle SchoolA+ · 72% proficient
- Greenville Middle SchoolB+ · 50% proficient
Top high schools
- Versailles High SchoolA+ · 82% proficient
- Ansonia High SchoolA− · 63% proficient
- Greenville Senior High SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Dawn school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Dawn 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 Dawn against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Dawn
Is Dawn a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Dawn ranks 17,318th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, good schools, and heat safety, and lowest on the cost of living against local pay and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Dawn expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $217,599. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $60,041 median income, cost of living beats 24% of towns.
Is Dawn safe?
Yes, Dawn is safer than 61% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $236 per resident a year.
Compare Dawn with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Dawn. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Dawn 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.
Dawn detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Dawn: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Dawn: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Dawn: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Dawn: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Dawn 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.