Best PlacesLima, OH Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Lima 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 WeaponizingArchitecture, CC BY-SA 4.0, via commons
Lima ranks 172nd of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on the weather and internet speeds. It does better on cheap car insurance, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Lima 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 Lima
The towns and districts of the Lima 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.
Spencerville
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and schools score higher.
Bluffton
More residents vote and more adults hold degrees.
Delphos & Elida
Fewer homes sit empty and health care is easier to reach.
Fort Shawnee
More households have young kids, though it is noisier.
Downtown Lima
Biking is better, though prices have run up more.
Lima shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 11% of the country and others in the top 6%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Lima's strengths and weaknesses
Lima lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Cheap car insurance is the standout, in the top 3% of metro areas. Short commutes and good schools follow.
The one real hole is the weather, near the bottom of the country. Internet speeds and a weak job market 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 Lima ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 97% of metro areas
- Short commute18.7 minutes each way, better than 93% of metro areas
- School gradeB+, better than 91% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than 83% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 75% of metro areas
Where Lima ranks low
- Nice weatherabout 60 pleasant days a year, better than only 3% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than only 9% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than only 11% of metro areas
- Health outlookBetter than only 11% of metro areas
- Household income$69,341 median, better than only 20% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Lima
A household needs to earn about $44,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lima home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $69,341, 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 Lima's effective rate of 1.06%, 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Lima
Lima's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Lima.
Who works in Lima, and how
Work in Lima centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 90%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Lima
Lima has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and less late-night activity than most metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Lima and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Lima growing, and who is moving in?
Lima has lost about 4% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Auglaize County, OH.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Lima go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Lima, month by month
Lima sees roughly 60 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 37, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 37° | 29° | 20° |
| April | 64° | 51° | 39° |
| July | 86° | 75° | 64° |
| October | 69° | 56° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Lima
The nearest airport, Fort Wayne International, is about 58 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is John Glenn Columbus International, about 83 miles away.
The best schools in and around Lima
Schools across Lima average a B+, better than 91% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Bluffton Elementary SchoolA+ · 86% proficient
- Franklin Elementary SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
- Bath Elementary SchoolA+ · 79% proficient
Top middle schools
- Jefferson Middle SchoolA+ · 79% proficient
- Columbus Grove Middle SchoolA+ · 76% proficient
- Bath Middle SchoolA+ · 74% proficient
Top high schools
- Shawnee High SchoolA · 77% proficient
- Bluffton High SchoolA · 77% proficient
- Jefferson High SchoolA · 70% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lima school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lima 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 Lima against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Lima suits
Common questions about living in Lima
Is Lima a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lima ranks 172nd of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, short commutes, and good schools, and lowest on the weather and internet speeds. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lima expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $162,893. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $69,341 median income, cost of living beats 24% of metro areas.
Is Lima safe?
Yes, Lima is safer than 59% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $292 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Lima?
July highs average about 86 degrees, and January highs near 37 with lows near 20. That works out to about 60 pleasant days a year, more than 3% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Lima?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Spencerville, Bluffton, and Delphos & Elida. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Lima good for families?
Schools beat 91% of metro areas, crime safety beats 59%, and childcare runs $764 a month.
Is Lima good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 24% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 9% of metro areas. About 6% of workers already work from home.
Compare Lima with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lima. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lima 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.
Lima detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lima: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lima: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lima: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lima: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lima 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.