Best PlacesPortage Lakes, OH Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Portage Lakes, 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.
Portage Lakes ranks 13,106th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on transit by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Portage Lakes
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.
Portage Lakes' strengths and weaknesses
Where Portage Lakes ranks high
- TransitBetter than 97% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 96% of towns
- BikingBetter than 94% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 90% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 87% of towns
Where Portage Lakes ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,273 a month, better than only 11% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 11% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 16% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 25% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Portage Lakes
A household needs to earn about $49,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Portage Lakes home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $69,110, 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 Portage Lakes' effective rate of 1.60%, 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 Portage Lakes
Portage Lakes 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 Portage Lakes.
Who works in Portage Lakes, and how
Work in Portage Lakes centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 89%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Portage Lakes
Portage Lakes has more restaurants and bars per resident than 77% of towns and more parkland per resident than 94% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Portage Lakes and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Portage Lakes, month by month
Portage Lakes sees roughly 101 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 39, with lows near 22. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 39° | 30° | 22° |
| April | 65° | 52° | 40° |
| July | 88° | 76° | 64° |
| October | 69° | 57° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Portage Lakes
The nearest airport, Akron-Canton Regional, is about 8 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Cleveland-Hopkins International, about 33 miles away.
The best schools in and around Portage Lakes
Schools across Portage Lakes average an A−, better than 82% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Coventry Elementary SchoolA · 68% proficient
Top middle schools
- Coventry Middle SchoolA · 59% proficient
Top high schools
- Coventry High SchoolB− · 45% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Portage Lakes school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Portage Lakes 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 Portage Lakes against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Portage Lakes
Is Portage Lakes a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Portage Lakes ranks 13,106th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on transit, cheap car insurance, and biking, and lowest on property taxes and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Portage Lakes expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $169,086. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $69,110 median income, cost of living beats 50% of towns.
Is Portage Lakes safe?
Portage Lakes is safer than 27% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $362 per resident a year.
Compare Portage Lakes with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Portage Lakes. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Portage Lakes 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.
Portage Lakes detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Portage Lakes: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Portage Lakes: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Portage Lakes: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Portage Lakes: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Portage Lakes 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.