Best PlacesOswego, IN Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Oswego, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Oswego ranks 4,326th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on a strong job market by a wide margin, and tree cover ranks lowest.

#4,326
of 50,333 towns
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 50,333 towns
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Oswego

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Oswego area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Oswego's strengths and weaknesses

Top 10%A strong job market
Top 10%Cheap car insurance
Top 10%What local pay buys
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Oswego with other towns.

Where Oswego ranks high

  • Local economyBetter than 93% of towns
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than 93% of towns
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 92% of towns
  • Household income$107,782 median, better than 89% of towns
  • Healthcare accessBetter than 87% of towns

Where Oswego ranks low

  • Tree shadeBetter than only 2% of towns
  • Air qualityBetter than only 30% of towns
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 31% of towns
  • Low vacancyBetter than only 34% of towns
  • Cheap childcare$916 a month, better than only 35% of towns

What it costs to buy a home in Oswego

A household needs to earn about $68,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Oswego home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $107,782, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$68,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,581
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $269,500 home

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,374
Property tax$117
Homeowners insurance$90

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 Oswego's effective rate of 0.52%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.


Who lives in Oswego

Oswego's age mix sits close to the national median.

Median age
41
about the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
22%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.5
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1821%
18 to 3423%
35 to 4918%
50 to 6417%
65 and older22%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Oswego.


Who works in Oswego, and how

Work in Oswego centers on manufacturing and construction. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
7%
below the national average
Unemployment
0.5%
below the national average
Job growth
+11.1%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Manufacturing37%
Construction14%
Other services12%
Admin & support services8%
Hospitality & food8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 91%
  • Work from home 7%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 3%

Life in Oswego

The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Oswego.


What the weather is like in Oswego, month by month

Oswego sees roughly 95 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 33, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January33°27°21°
April59°48°39°
July83°73°64°
October64°54°45°

Flying in and out of Oswego

The nearest airport, South Bend International, is about 38 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Chicago Midway International, about 106 miles away.

Nearest airport
SBN
South Bend International, about 38 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
137th-busiest in the US, 37 nonstop destinations
Average drive
55 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Oswego

Schools across Oswego average a B−, better than 54% of towns.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Oswego school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Oswego 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 Oswego against the other 50,332 towns.


Common questions about living in Oswego

Is Oswego a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Oswego ranks 4,326th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on a strong job market, cheap car insurance, and what local pay buys, and lowest on tree cover and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Oswego expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $269,500. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $107,782 median income, cost of living beats 92% of towns.

Is Oswego safe?

Yes, Oswego is safer than 80% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $184 per resident a year.


Compare Oswego with other towns


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Oswego. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Oswego 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.

Oswego detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Oswego: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Oswego: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Oswego: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Oswego: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Oswego detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.