Best PlacesYoungstown, OH Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Youngstown 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 Blue80, CC BY-SA 3.0, via commons
Youngstown ranks 278th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on low incomes and a weak job market. It does better on cheap car insurance, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Youngstown 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 Youngstown
The towns and districts of the Youngstown 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.
Boardman & Canfield
More adults hold degrees, local pay stretches further, and schools score higher.
Sebring & Salem
Fewer households have young kids and biking is worse.
Niles & Cortland
Crime runs lower and more residents vote.
Downtown Youngstown
Scores close to Niles & Cortland, except that advertised internet is slower here.
Lordstown
Incomes run higher, though it is noisier.
Masury & Brookfield
Tree cover is thicker, though streets are more car-dependent.
Austintown & Girard
Scores close to Masury & Brookfield, except that health care is harder to reach here.
Warren
More homes sit empty and health outcomes score lower.
Hubbard & Campbell
Homes cost less, though prices have run up more.
Youngstown shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 1% of the country and others in the top 3%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Youngstown's strengths and weaknesses
Youngstown lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Cheap car insurance, low disaster risk, and good schools carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Low incomes, a weak job market, and health outcomes hold the score down. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Youngstown ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 95% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than 84% of metro areas
- School gradeB, better than 82% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than 68% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 68% of metro areas
Where Youngstown ranks low
- Household income$62,034 median, better than only 6% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than only 8% of metro areas
- Health outlookBetter than only 8% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 8% of metro areas
- Nice weatherabout 70 pleasant days a year, better than only 22% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Youngstown
A household needs to earn about $44,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Youngstown home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $62,034, 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 Youngstown's effective rate of 1.28%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Youngstown
Youngstown 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 Youngstown.
Who works in Youngstown, and how
Work in Youngstown centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Youngstown
Youngstown has more parkland per resident than 91% of metro areas and more late-night spots per resident than 91% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Youngstown and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Youngstown growing, and who is moving in?
Youngstown has lost about 3% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Akron, OH.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Youngstown go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Youngstown, month by month
Youngstown sees roughly 70 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 38, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 38° | 29° | 21° |
| April | 64° | 50° | 37° |
| July | 86° | 73° | 61° |
| October | 67° | 55° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Youngstown
The nearest airport, Akron-Canton Regional, is about 43 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Pittsburgh International, about 46 miles away.
The best schools in and around Youngstown
Schools across Youngstown average a B, better than 82% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- South Range Elementary SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
- C H Campbell Elementary SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
- Springfield Elementary SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
Top middle schools
- Canfield Village Middle SchoolA+ · 86% proficient
- South Range Middle SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Springfield Intermediate Middle SchoolA+ · 73% proficient
Top high schools
- Canfield High SchoolA+ · 81% proficient
- Poland Seminary High SchoolA · 73% proficient
- South Range High SchoolA · 72% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Youngstown school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Youngstown 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 Youngstown against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Youngstown suits
Common questions about living in Youngstown
Is Youngstown a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Youngstown ranks 278th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, low disaster risk, and good schools, and lowest on low incomes and a weak job market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Youngstown expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $158,402. The overall cost of living runs about 15% below the national average. Set against a $62,034 median income, cost of living beats 8% of metro areas.
Is Youngstown safe?
Youngstown is safer than 24% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $384 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Youngstown?
July highs average about 86 degrees, and January highs near 38 with lows near 21. That works out to about 70 pleasant days a year, more than 22% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Youngstown?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Boardman & Canfield, Sebring & Salem, and Niles & Cortland. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Youngstown good for families?
Schools beat 82% of metro areas, crime safety beats 24%, and childcare runs $1,107 a month.
Is Youngstown good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 8% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 30% of metro areas. About 9% of workers already work from home.
Compare Youngstown with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Youngstown. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Youngstown 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.
Youngstown detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Youngstown: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Youngstown: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Youngstown: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Youngstown: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Youngstown 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.