Best PlacesOssian, IN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Ossian, 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.
Ossian ranks 14,368th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cheap car insurance by a wide margin, and the weather ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Ossian
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.
Ossian's strengths and weaknesses
Where Ossian ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 91% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 90% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 88% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 87% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 86% of towns
Where Ossian ranks low
- Nice weatherabout 58 pleasant days a year, better than only 5% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 9% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 14% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 21% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 31% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Ossian
A household needs to earn about $53,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Ossian home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $74,741, 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 Ossian's effective rate of 0.57%, 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 Ossian
Ossian 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 Ossian.
Who works in Ossian, and how
Work in Ossian centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 89%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Ossian
Ossian has more parkland per resident than 96% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Ossian and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Ossian, month by month
Ossian sees roughly 58 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° | 28° | 20° |
| April | 64° | 50° | 38° |
| July | 86° | 74° | 63° |
| October | 69° | 55° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Ossian
The nearest airport, Fort Wayne International, is about 7 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Indianapolis International, about 100 miles away.
The best schools in and around Ossian
Schools across Ossian average a B, better than 64% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Lancaster Central SchoolB · 45% proficient
- Ossian ElementaryB− · 44% proficient
- Lafayette Meadow SchoolB− · 42% proficient
Top middle schools
- Norwell Middle SchoolB+ · 47% proficient
- Summit Middle SchoolB · 46% proficient
- Bellmont Middle SchoolC− · 27% proficient
Top high schools
- Homestead High SchoolA · 72% proficient
- East Allen UniversityB+ · 58% proficient
- Bellmont Senior High SchoolB− · 45% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Ossian school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Ossian 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 Ossian against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Ossian
Is Ossian a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Ossian ranks 14,368th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, civic engagement, and few empty homes, and lowest on the weather and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Ossian expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $207,913. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $74,741 median income, cost of living beats 59% of towns.
Is Ossian safe?
Yes, Ossian is safer than 86% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $188 per resident a year.
Compare Ossian with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Ossian. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Ossian 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.
Ossian detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Ossian: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Ossian: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Ossian: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Ossian: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Ossian 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.