Best PlacesFairlawn, OH Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Fairlawn, 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.
Fairlawn ranks 1,398th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Fairlawn
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.
Fairlawn's strengths and weaknesses
Where Fairlawn ranks high
- School gradeA+, better than 98% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 97% of towns
- TransitBetter than 96% of towns
- BikingBetter than 96% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 94% of towns
Where Fairlawn ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 6% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,273 a month, better than only 11% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 17% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 23% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 28% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Fairlawn
A household needs to earn about $90,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Fairlawn home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $113,855, 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 Fairlawn's effective rate of 1.27%, 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 Fairlawn
Fairlawn 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 Fairlawn.
Who works in Fairlawn, and how
Work in Fairlawn centers on education and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 75%
- Work from home 23%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Fairlawn
Fairlawn has more restaurants and bars per resident than 93% of towns and more parkland per resident than 98% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Fairlawn and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Fairlawn, month by month
Fairlawn sees roughly 101 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 39, 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 | 39° | 30° | 22° |
| April | 65° | 52° | 40° |
| July | 88° | 76° | 64° |
| October | 69° | 57° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Fairlawn
The nearest airport, Akron-Canton Regional, is about 17 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Cleveland-Hopkins International, about 23 miles away.
The best schools in and around Fairlawn
Schools across Fairlawn average an A+, better than 98% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Herberich Primary Elementary SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Fort Island Primary Elementary SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
- Judith A Resnik Community Learning CenterB · 47% proficient
Top middle schools
- Revere Middle SchoolA+ · 81% proficient
- Copley-fairlawn Middle SchoolA+ · 76% proficient
- National Inventors Hall Of Fame School Center For StemB+ · 49% proficient
Top high schools
- Revere High SchoolA+ · 84% proficient
- Copley High SchoolA · 75% proficient
- Akron Stem High SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Fairlawn school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Fairlawn 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 Fairlawn against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Fairlawn
Is Fairlawn a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Fairlawn ranks 1,398th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, an educated workforce, and transit, and lowest on noise and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Fairlawn expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $322,909. The overall cost of living runs about 7% below the national average. Set against a $113,855 median income, cost of living beats 94% of towns.
Is Fairlawn safe?
Fairlawn is safer than 23% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $420 per resident a year.
Compare Fairlawn with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Fairlawn. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Fairlawn 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.
Fairlawn detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Fairlawn: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Fairlawn: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Fairlawn: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Fairlawn: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Fairlawn 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.