These Are The 10 Best Dayton Suburbs

Big city living isn’t for everyone–but at the same time, urban areas certainly have their perks.

There’s the culture, the food, the arts, the food, the energy, and you know, the food. But there are drawbacks. There’s traffic, expensive parking, expensive housing–pretty much, expensive everything, depending on which big city you’re looking at.

But that’s where the suburbs come in–they have all of the benefits of being near big cities, without actually having to be big cities.

Of course, not all suburbs of Dayton are created equally, which is precisely why we set out to find the best ones. So without further ado, here are the 10 best suburbs around Dayton:

1. Oakwood (Photos)
2. Bellbrook (Photos)
3. Springboro (Photos)
4. Centerville (Photos)
5. Beavercreek (Photos)
6. Tipp City (Photos)
7. Englewood (Photos)
8. Kettering (Photos)
9. Union (Photos)
10. Miamisburg (Photos)

If you happen to be a resident of Oakwood, you’re probably not too surprised to find it on the top our list.

We’ll tell you what makes each of these 10 Dayton ‘burbs better than the rest–but first, a bit about our methodology.

How We Determined The Best Suburbs Around Dayton

Figuring out the best ‘burbs around Dayton was pretty simple; we just needed to list several things that people like, and then find out which cities have the most of those things.

We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible:

• Low unemployment rate
• High Median household incomes
• Population density (lots of things to do)
• High home values
• A lot of college educated people

Then we used the 2010-2014 American Community Survey to research each suburb. FYI: We defined a suburb based on the Census’s designation of being part of an “Urban Cluster,” but not the main city of said urbanized area. For example, the Census considers all of these places to be part of the Dayton, Oh Urbanized Area.

Additionally, we limited the analysis to non-CDPs that have over 5,000 people. This left us with a grand total of 23 suburbs to evaluate around Dayton.

We ranked each place with scores from 1 to 23 in each category, where 1 was the “best.

Next, we averaged the rankings for each place to create a quality of life index.

And finally, we crowned the city with the best quality of life index the “Best Suburb near Dayton.” We’re lookin’ at you, Oakwood.

Read on below to learn more about what it’s like to live in the best of the best. Or skip to the end to see the list of all the suburbs ranked from best to worst.

1. Oakwood

Population: 9,150
Unemployment Rate: 1.9%
Median Home Price: $232,000
Median Income: $100,724

2. Bellbrook

Population: 7,035
Unemployment Rate: 6.3%
Median Home Price: $154,400
Median Income: $74,798

3. Springboro

Population: 17,499
Unemployment Rate: 6.5%
Median Home Price: $199,200
Median Income: $93,292

4. Centerville

Population: 23,986
Unemployment Rate: 6.5%
Median Home Price: $171,200
Median Income: $59,917

5. Beavercreek

Population: 45,738
Unemployment Rate: 5.1%
Median Home Price: $174,200
Median Income: $79,243

6. Tipp City

Population: 9,778
Unemployment Rate: 7.2%
Median Home Price: $159,600
Median Income: $61,975

7. Englewood

Population: 13,468
Unemployment Rate: 8.7%
Median Home Price: $121,300
Median Income: $52,321

8. Kettering

Population: 56,138
Unemployment Rate: 7.3%
Median Home Price: $127,800
Median Income: $49,790

9. Union

Population: 6,425
Unemployment Rate: 6.6%
Median Home Price: $94,000
Median Income: $52,526

10. Miamisburg

Population: 20,168
Unemployment Rate: 6.9%
Median Home Price: $136,400
Median Income: $52,171

Welcome to the ‘Burbs

We said it once and we’ll say it again–life in the big city isn’t for everyone. At least not all the time.

So if you’re hankering for some of the amenities of a larger city like Dayton, but don’t want to deal with the drawbacks, one of these suburbs might just be for you.
For more Ohio reading , check out:

• These Are The 10 Happiest Cities In Ohio
• These Are The 10 Most Boring Cities In Ohio
• These Are The 10 Drunkest Cities In Ohio

Detailed List Of The Best Burbs To Live Around Dayton