Best PlacesPayne, OH Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Payne, 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.
Payne ranks 17,062nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cheap car insurance by a wide margin, and crime is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Payne
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.
Payne's strengths and weaknesses
Where Payne ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- School gradeA, better than 94% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 93% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 87% of towns
- BikingBetter than 74% of towns
Where Payne ranks low
- Crime safetyBetter than only 14% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 15% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 28% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 31% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 31% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Payne
A household needs to earn about $35,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Payne home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $75,158, 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 Payne's effective rate of 1.00%, 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Payne
Payne runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Payne.
Who works in Payne, and how
Work in Payne 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 92%
- Work from home 5%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Payne
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Payne.
What the weather is like in Payne, month by month
Payne sees roughly 74 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 22. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 28° | 22° |
| April | 59° | 48° | 39° |
| July | 84° | 73° | 64° |
| October | 64° | 53° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Payne
The nearest airport, Fort Wayne International, is about 25 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Detroit Metro Wayne County, about 106 miles away.
The best schools in and around Payne
Schools across Payne average an A, better than 94% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Crestview Elementary SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Antwerp Local Elementary SchoolA · 72% proficient
- Payne Elementary SchoolA · 68% proficient
Top middle schools
- Crestview Middle SchoolA+ · 74% proficient
- Antwerp Local Middle SchoolA+ · 68% proficient
- Paulding Middle SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
Top high schools
- Wayne Trace High SchoolA · 69% proficient
- Crestview High SchoolA− · 65% proficient
- Antwerp Local High SchoolA− · 62% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Payne school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Payne 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 Payne against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Payne
Is Payne a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Payne ranks 17,062nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, good schools, and cell coverage, and lowest on crime and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Payne expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $130,975. The overall cost of living runs about 17% below the national average. Set against a $75,158 median income, cost of living beats 62% of towns.
Is Payne safe?
Payne is safer than 14% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $457 per resident a year.
Compare Payne with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Payne. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Payne 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.
Payne detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Payne: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Payne: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Payne: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Payne: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Payne 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.