Best PlacesDayton, OH Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Dayton metro, 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.
Photo by Robert Barber from Bedford, Indiana, USA, CC BY 2.0, via commons
Dayton ranks 145th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on cheap car insurance and cell coverage. The weaker spots are the weather, property taxes, and childcare costs.
The best neighborhoods in the Dayton 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 Dayton
The towns and districts of the Dayton 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.
Kettering & Centerville
More adults hold degrees, local pay stretches further, and incomes run higher.
Xenia & Bellbrook
Crime runs lower and schools score higher.
Huber Heights
Fewer homes sit empty and prices have run up less.
Fairborn, Beavercreek & Riverside
Fewer residents vote.
Piqua, Englewood & Clayton
It is quieter, though biking is worse.
Troy, Vandalia & Tipp City
Miamisburg, West Carrollton & Germantown
Advertised internet is slower.
Downtown Dayton
Streets are more walkable, though health care is harder to reach.
Trotwood & New Lebanon
Homes cost less, though health outcomes score lower.
Dayton 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.
Dayton's strengths and weaknesses
Dayton lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Cheap car insurance, cell coverage, and low disaster risk carry most of that.
The one real hole is the weather, near the bottom of the country. Property taxes and childcare costs also cost it ground. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Dayton ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 94% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than 88% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than 88% of metro areas
- School gradeB+, better than 84% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than 78% of metro areas
Where Dayton ranks low
- Nice weatherabout 59 pleasant days a year, better than only 2% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than only 10% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$1,205 a month, better than only 20% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than only 21% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than only 30% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Dayton
A household needs to earn about $61,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Dayton home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $81,802, 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 Dayton's effective rate of 1.56%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Dayton
Dayton's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Dayton.
Who works in Dayton, and how
Work in Dayton 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 82%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Dayton
Dayton has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and more parkland per resident than 81% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Dayton and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Dayton growing, and who is moving in?
Dayton has grown about 3% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Cincinnati, OH.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Dayton go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Dayton, month by month
Dayton sees roughly 59 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 40, with lows near 22. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 40° | 31° | 22° |
| April | 67° | 53° | 40° |
| July | 87° | 76° | 65° |
| October | 70° | 57° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Dayton
The nearest airport, James M Cox Dayton International, is about 12 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International, about 54 miles away.
The best schools in and around Dayton
Schools across Dayton average a B+, better than 84% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Harman Elementary SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
- Newton Elementary SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Main Elementary SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
Top middle schools
- Oakwood Junior High SchoolA+ · 89% proficient
- Springboro Junior High SchoolA+ · 82% proficient
- Bellbrook Middle SchoolA+ · 82% proficient
Top high schools
- Oakwood High SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Dayton Regional Stem SchoolA+ · 82% proficient
- Springboro High SchoolA · 79% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Dayton school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Dayton 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 Dayton against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Dayton suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 12% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Dayton
Is Dayton a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Dayton ranks 145th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, cell coverage, and low disaster risk, and lowest on the weather and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Dayton expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $213,082. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $81,802 median income, cost of living beats 62% of metro areas.
Is Dayton safe?
Dayton is safer than 37% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $343 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Dayton?
July highs average about 87 degrees, and January highs near 40 with lows near 22. That works out to about 59 pleasant days a year, more than 2% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Dayton?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Kettering & Centerville, Xenia & Bellbrook, and Huber Heights. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Dayton good for families?
Schools beat 84% of metro areas, crime safety beats 37%, and childcare runs $1,205 a month.
Is Dayton good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 62% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 67% of metro areas. About 12% of workers already work from home.
Compare Dayton with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Dayton. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Dayton 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.
Dayton detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Dayton: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Dayton: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Dayton: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Dayton: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Dayton 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.