Best PlacesMentor, OH Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Mentor, 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.
Mentor ranks 424th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cheap car insurance by a wide margin, and cell coverage ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Mentor
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.
Mentor's strengths and weaknesses
Where Mentor ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 99% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than 97% of cities
- Healthcare accessBetter than 94% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than 92% of cities
- School gradeA, better than 90% of cities
Where Mentor ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 22% of cities
- Low property taxBetter than only 23% of cities
- Health outlookBetter than only 28% of cities
- Air qualityBetter than only 31% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than only 33% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Mentor
A household needs to earn about $74,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Mentor home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $98,049, 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 Mentor's effective rate of 1.42%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Mentor
Mentor 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 Mentor.
Who works in Mentor, and how
Work in Mentor centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Mentor
Mentor has more restaurants and bars per resident than 85% of cities and more parkland per resident than 89% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Mentor and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Mentor, month by month
Mentor sees roughly 81 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 38, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 38° | 30° | 23° |
| April | 58° | 47° | 36° |
| July | 82° | 72° | 62° |
| October | 66° | 55° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Mentor
Cleveland-Hopkins International sits about 33 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 Mentor
Schools across Mentor average an A, better than 90% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Kirtland Elementary SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Hopkins Elementary SchoolA+ · 81% proficient
- Parkside Elementary SchoolA+ · 77% proficient
Top middle schools
- Kirtland Middle SchoolA+ · 69% proficient
- Perry Middle SchoolA · 66% proficient
- Memorial Middle SchoolA · 65% proficient
Top high schools
- Kirtland High SchoolA+ · 82% proficient
- Istem Geauga Early College High SchoolA · 78% proficient
- Chardon High SchoolA · 73% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Mentor school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Mentor 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 Mentor against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Mentor suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 75% of cities and 14% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Mentor
Is Mentor a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Mentor ranks 424th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, low disaster risk, and health care access, and lowest on cell coverage and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Mentor expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $260,412. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $98,049 median income, cost of living beats 75% of cities.
Is Mentor safe?
Yes, Mentor is safer than 68% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $245 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Mentor?
July highs average about 82 degrees, and January highs near 38 with lows near 23. That works out to about 81 pleasant days a year, more than 45% of cities.
Is Mentor good for families?
Schools beat 90% of cities, crime safety beats 68%, and childcare runs $1,273 a month.
Compare Mentor with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Mentor. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Mentor 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.
Mentor detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Mentor: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Mentor: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Mentor: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Mentor: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Mentor 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.