Best PlacesMarblehead, OH Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Marblehead, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Marblehead ranks 5,884th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cheap car insurance by a wide margin, and empty homes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Marblehead
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.
Marblehead's strengths and weaknesses
Where Marblehead ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 98% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 94% of towns
- School gradeA, better than 92% of towns
- Short commute19.1 minutes each way, better than 90% of towns
Where Marblehead ranks low
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 13% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 15% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 26% of towns
- Cheap childcare$959 a month, better than only 28% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Marblehead
A household needs to earn about $97,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Marblehead home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $83,655, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Marblehead's effective rate of 0.91%, 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 Marblehead
Marblehead 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 Marblehead.
Who works in Marblehead, and how
Work in Marblehead centers on manufacturing and hospitality & food. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 79%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Marblehead
Marblehead has more restaurants and bars per resident than 95% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Marblehead and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Marblehead, month by month
Marblehead sees roughly 72 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 35° | 29° | 23° |
| April | 59° | 49° | 42° |
| July | 84° | 75° | 68° |
| October | 65° | 56° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Marblehead
Cleveland-Hopkins International sits about 46 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 4.9 million passengers in 2025, with 72 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Marblehead
Schools across Marblehead average an A, better than 92% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Danbury Elementary SchoolA · 68% proficient
Top middle schools
- Danbury Middle SchoolA+ · 68% proficient
Top high schools
- Danbury High SchoolA− · 60% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Marblehead school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Marblehead 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 Marblehead against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Marblehead
Is Marblehead a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Marblehead ranks 5,884th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, health care access, and an educated workforce, and lowest on empty homes and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Marblehead expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $365,127. The overall cost of living runs about 1% above the national average. Set against a $83,655 median income, cost of living beats 68% of towns.
Is Marblehead safe?
Yes, Marblehead is safer than 62% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $242 per resident a year.
Compare Marblehead with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Marblehead. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Marblehead 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.
Marblehead detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Marblehead: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Marblehead: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Marblehead: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Marblehead: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Marblehead 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.