Best PlacesOttawa, OH Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Ottawa, 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.
Ottawa ranks 3,925th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cheap car insurance by a wide margin, and tree cover ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Ottawa
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.
Ottawa's strengths and weaknesses
Where Ottawa ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- School gradeA, better than 96% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 90% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 89% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 88% of towns
Where Ottawa ranks low
- Tree shadeBetter than only 18% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 25% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 32% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 42% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 44% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Ottawa
A household needs to earn about $58,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Ottawa home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $90,984, 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 Ottawa's effective rate of 0.85%, 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 Ottawa
Ottawa's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Ottawa.
Who works in Ottawa, and how
Work in Ottawa 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 93%
- Work from home 5%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Ottawa
Ottawa has more restaurants and bars per resident than 74% of towns and more parkland per resident than 93% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Ottawa and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Ottawa, month by month
Ottawa sees roughly 84 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 22. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 35° | 28° | 22° |
| April | 62° | 50° | 40° |
| July | 85° | 74° | 64° |
| October | 66° | 54° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Ottawa
The nearest airport, Eugene F Kranz Toledo Express, is about 41 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Detroit Metro Wayne County, about 90 miles away.
The best schools in and around Ottawa
Schools across Ottawa average an A, better than 96% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Miller City Elementary SchoolA+ · 92% proficient
- Kalida Elementary SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Glandorf Elementary SchoolA+ · 84% proficient
Top middle schools
- Miller City Middle SchoolA+ · 87% proficient
- Pandora-gilboa Middle SchoolA+ · 78% proficient
- Columbus Grove Middle SchoolA+ · 76% proficient
Top high schools
- Miller City High SchoolA+ · 87% proficient
- Columbus Grove High SchoolA · 78% proficient
- Continental Local High SchoolA · 73% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Ottawa school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Ottawa 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 Ottawa against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Ottawa
Is Ottawa a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Ottawa ranks 3,925th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, good schools, and civic engagement, and lowest on tree cover and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Ottawa expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $219,592. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $90,984 median income, cost of living beats 83% of towns.
Is Ottawa safe?
Ottawa is safer than 48% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $275 per resident a year.
Compare Ottawa with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Ottawa. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Ottawa 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.
Ottawa detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Ottawa: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Ottawa: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Ottawa: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Ottawa: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Ottawa 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.