Best PlacesFort Wayne, IN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Fort Wayne 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 Momoneymoproblemz, CC BY-SA 3.0, via commons
Fort Wayne ranks 133rd 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 fast internet and cheap car insurance. The weaker spots are noise, the weather, and taxes.
The best neighborhoods in the Fort Wayne 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 Fort Wayne
The towns and districts of the Fort Wayne 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.
South Whitley
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and more adults hold degrees.
Huntertown
Prices have run up less, though fewer households have young kids.
Downtown Fort Wayne
Crime runs lower and more residents vote.
Roanoke
Schools score higher, though biking is worse.
Columbia City & Churubusco
It is quieter, though transit reaches fewer jobs.
New Haven
Homes cost less.
Bluffton & Ossian
Health care is harder to reach and health outcomes score lower.
Monroeville
Streets are more car-dependent and commutes are longer.
Fort Wayne shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 2% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Fort Wayne's strengths and weaknesses
Fort Wayne lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Fast internet, cheap car insurance, and few empty homes carry most of that.
The one real hole is noise, near the bottom of the country. The weather and taxes also cost it ground. That varies block to block rather than evenly, and the map below shows where.
Where Fort Wayne ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 89% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 85% of metro areas
- Low vacancyBetter than 84% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than 82% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than 80% of metro areas
Where Fort Wayne ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 5% of metro areas
- Nice weatherabout 64 pleasant days a year, better than only 11% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 19% of metro areas
- School gradeC, better than only 31% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than only 31% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Fort Wayne
A household needs to earn about $56,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Fort Wayne home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $79,283, 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 Fort Wayne's effective rate of 0.75%, 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 Fort Wayne
Fort Wayne runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Fort Wayne.
Who works in Fort Wayne, and how
Work in Fort Wayne centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Fort Wayne
Fort Wayne has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas. That concentrates in some parts of Fort Wayne and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Fort Wayne growing, and who is moving in?
Fort Wayne has grown about 9% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Indianapolis, IN.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Fort Wayne go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Fort Wayne, month by month
Fort Wayne sees roughly 64 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 22. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 28° | 22° |
| April | 59° | 48° | 39° |
| July | 84° | 73° | 64° |
| October | 64° | 53° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Fort Wayne
The nearest airport, Fort Wayne International, is about 9 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Indianapolis International, about 113 miles away.
The best schools in and around Fort Wayne
Schools across Fort Wayne average a C, better than 31% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Cedarville Elementary SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Fred H Croninger Elementary SchoolA+ · 72% proficient
- Aboite Elementary SchoolA · 65% proficient
Top middle schools
- Leo Elementary SchoolA · 66% proficient
- Maple Creek Middle SchoolA− · 54% proficient
- Carroll Middle SchoolB+ · 47% proficient
Top high schools
- Carroll High SchoolA · 72% proficient
- Homestead High SchoolA · 72% proficient
- East Allen UniversityB+ · 58% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Fort Wayne school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Fort Wayne 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 Fort Wayne against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Fort Wayne suits
Families
Schools land around the 31st percentile and crime safety beats 82%.
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 9% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Fort Wayne
Is Fort Wayne a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Fort Wayne ranks 133rd of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on fast internet, cheap car insurance, and few empty homes, and lowest on noise and the weather. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Fort Wayne expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $216,902. The overall cost of living runs about 15% below the national average. Set against a $79,283 median income, cost of living beats 65% of metro areas.
Is Fort Wayne safe?
Yes, Fort Wayne is safer than 82% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $231 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Fort Wayne?
July highs average about 84 degrees, and January highs near 34 with lows near 22. That works out to about 64 pleasant days a year, more than 11% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Fort Wayne?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are South Whitley, Huntertown, and Downtown Fort Wayne. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Fort Wayne good for families?
Schools beat 31% of metro areas, crime safety beats 82%, and childcare runs $878 a month.
Is Fort Wayne good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 65% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 89% of metro areas. About 9% of workers already work from home.
Compare Fort Wayne with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Fort Wayne. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Fort Wayne 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.
Fort Wayne detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Fort Wayne: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Fort Wayne: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Fort Wayne: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Fort Wayne: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Fort Wayne 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.