Best PlacesLock, OH Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lock, 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.
Lock ranks 3,841st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cheap car insurance by a wide margin, and internet speeds rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Lock
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.
Lock's strengths and weaknesses
Where Lock ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 95% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 92% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 91% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 89% of towns
- School gradeA−, better than 88% of towns
Where Lock ranks low
- Internet speedBetter than only 10% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,133 a month, better than only 15% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 24% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 24% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Lock
A household needs to earn about $103,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lock home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $99,772; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Lock's effective rate of 1.01%, 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 Lock
Lock runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Lock.
Who works in Lock, and how
Work in Lock centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 22%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Lock
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Lock.
What the weather is like in Lock, month by month
Lock sees roughly 81 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36° | 29° | 23° |
| April | 62° | 51° | 42° |
| July | 84° | 73° | 64° |
| October | 66° | 55° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Lock
John Glenn Columbus International sits about 24 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 4.4 million passengers in 2025, with 94 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Lock
Schools across Lock average an A−, better than 88% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Centerburg Elementary SchoolA+ · 81% proficient
- Northridge ElementaryA− · 60% proficient
Top middle schools
- Centerburg Middle SchoolA · 60% proficient
- Northridge Middle SchoolA− · 53% proficient
Top high schools
- Centerburg High SchoolA− · 63% proficient
- Northridge High SchoolA− · 60% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lock school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lock 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 Lock against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Lock
Is Lock a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lock ranks 3,841st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, civic engagement, and low crime, and lowest on internet speeds and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lock expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $384,150. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $99,772 median income, cost of living beats 89% of towns.
Is Lock safe?
Yes, Lock is safer than 91% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $169 per resident a year.
Compare Lock with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lock. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lock 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.
Lock detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lock: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lock: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lock: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lock: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lock 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.