Best PlacesSpringfield, OH Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Springfield metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by David Wilson, CC BY 2.0, via wiki
Springfield ranks 253rd of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on health outcomes and education levels. It does better on cheap car insurance, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Springfield metro
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.
The best areas in Springfield
The towns and districts of the Springfield metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Enon & Medway
Crime runs lower, local pay stretches further, and incomes run higher.
New Carlisle
It is quieter and prices have run up less.
Downtown Springfield
More households have young kids and more residents vote.
South Charleston
Fewer homes sit empty.
Springfield shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 5% of the country and others in the top 10%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Springfield's strengths and weaknesses
Springfield lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Cheap car insurance, low disaster risk, and cell coverage carry most of that.
The one real hole is health outcomes, near the bottom of the country. Education levels and transit also cost it ground. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Springfield ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 95% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than 83% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than 80% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than 64% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 61% of metro areas
Where Springfield ranks low
- Health outlookBetter than only 4% of metro areas
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 12% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than only 13% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than only 15% of metro areas
- Household income$67,675 median, better than only 16% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Springfield
A household needs to earn about $47,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Springfield home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $67,675, 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 Springfield's effective rate of 1.16%, 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 Springfield
Springfield's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Springfield.
Who works in Springfield, and how
Work in Springfield centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Springfield
Springfield has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas. That concentrates in some parts of Springfield and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Springfield growing, and who is moving in?
Springfield has lost about 1% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Dayton, OH.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Springfield go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Springfield, month by month
Springfield sees roughly 74 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 40, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 40° | 31° | 23° |
| April | 66° | 53° | 41° |
| July | 86° | 74° | 64° |
| October | 69° | 57° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Springfield
The nearest airport, James M Cox Dayton International, is about 22 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is John Glenn Columbus International, about 48 miles away.
The best schools in and around Springfield
Schools across Springfield average a B−, better than 57% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Cedarville Elementary SchoolA+ · 78% proficient
- Rolling Hills Elementary SchoolA · 66% proficient
- Miami View Elementary SchoolA− · 61% proficient
Top middle schools
- Southeastern Jr. High SchoolA · 63% proficient
- Graham Middle SchoolA− · 58% proficient
- Northridge Middle SchoolA− · 57% proficient
Top high schools
- Northwestern Junior/senior High SchoolA− · 65% proficient
- Southeastern Sr. High SchoolA− · 63% proficient
- Shawnee Middle School/high SchoolA− · 60% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Springfield school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Springfield 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 Springfield against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Springfield suits
Common questions about living in Springfield
Is Springfield a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Springfield ranks 253rd of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, low disaster risk, and cell coverage, and lowest on health outcomes and education levels. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Springfield expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $171,571. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $67,675 median income, cost of living beats 26% of metro areas.
Is Springfield safe?
Springfield is safer than 46% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $321 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Springfield?
July highs average about 86 degrees, and January highs near 40 with lows near 23. That works out to about 74 pleasant days a year, more than 31% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Springfield?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Enon & Medway, New Carlisle, and Downtown Springfield. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Springfield good for families?
Schools beat 57% of metro areas, crime safety beats 46%, and childcare runs $959 a month.
Is Springfield good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 26% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 22% of metro areas. About 10% of workers already work from home.
Compare Springfield with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Springfield. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Springfield 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.
Springfield detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Springfield: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Springfield: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Springfield: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Springfield: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Springfield 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.