Best PlacesWilloughby Hills, OH Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Willoughby Hills, 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.
Willoughby Hills ranks 7,353rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on transit by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Willoughby Hills
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.
Willoughby Hills' strengths and weaknesses
Where Willoughby Hills ranks high
- TransitBetter than 96% of towns
- BikingBetter than 94% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 92% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 89% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 88% of towns
Where Willoughby Hills ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 2% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 7% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,273 a month, better than only 11% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 17% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 32% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Willoughby Hills
A household needs to earn about $97,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Willoughby Hills home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $81,435, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Willoughby Hills' effective rate of 1.67%, 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 Willoughby Hills
Willoughby Hills 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 Willoughby Hills.
Who works in Willoughby Hills, and how
Work in Willoughby Hills centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 78%
- Work from home 21%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Willoughby Hills
Willoughby Hills has more restaurants and bars per resident than 71% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Willoughby Hills and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Willoughby Hills, month by month
Willoughby Hills sees roughly 81 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36° | 30° | 24° |
| April | 59° | 50° | 41° |
| July | 82° | 75° | 66° |
| October | 64° | 57° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Willoughby Hills
Cleveland-Hopkins International sits about 24 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 4.9 million passengers in 2025, with 72 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Willoughby Hills
Schools across Willoughby Hills average a B+, better than 88% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Wickliffe Elementary SchoolA− · 58% proficient
Top middle schools
- School Of InnovationA+ · 92% proficient
- Wickliffe Middle SchoolA · 59% proficient
- Willoughby Middle SchoolB− · 41% proficient
Top high schools
- Wickliffe High SchoolB+ · 57% proficient
- South High SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Willoughby Hills school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Willoughby Hills 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 Willoughby Hills against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Willoughby Hills
Is Willoughby Hills a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Willoughby Hills ranks 7,353rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on transit, biking, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on noise and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Willoughby Hills expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $330,843. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $81,435 median income, cost of living beats 75% of towns.
Is Willoughby Hills safe?
Yes, Willoughby Hills is safer than 56% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $271 per resident a year.
Compare Willoughby Hills with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Willoughby Hills. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Willoughby Hills 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.
Willoughby Hills detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Willoughby Hills: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Willoughby Hills: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Willoughby Hills: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Willoughby Hills: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Willoughby Hills 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.