The Best Places to Live in Ohio

It would be a safe assumption to consider the best place to live in Ohio is dependent upon the personal tastes and lifestyle of an individual, as there is an Ohio location agreeable with every personality type. The subject can be approached with a scientific analysis of crime and employment statistics, housing prices and local school district rankings, but to view the best places to live in Ohio in this manner is rather antiseptic to say the least. The best place in Ohio to live is the locale that feels like home - a place of comfort that embodies the essence of the individual, while at the same time providing for the basic necessities of daily life. Though this may sound like a long and hard process to discover such a place, it is rather simple, and you'll know the best place to live in Ohio when you see it.

For an individual looking for big city life in Ohio, the two best locations are Columbus or Cleveland. Columbus offers a high technology environment and is home to The Ohio State University, and is easily one of the best places to live in America for someone with an eye to the future. While Cleveland is an older city within the "Rustbelt" it offers a great deal of cultural attractions, including major league sports, and of course having Lake Erie in your backyard is a nice feature. Other contenders in the big city category are Cincinnati, Dayton, Toledo and Akron.

Those searching for all of the amenities of city life but like the country feel of a smaller town are in luck in many Ohio locations. The area between Akron and Canton is wonderful, it offers the best of several great towns within an hour's drive. Best of all it offers a great mixture of city and country living, abundant colleges and universities, and the cost of living is more than reasonable. The area north of Akron and south of Cleveland is another great location, with the towns of Hudson, Brecksville, Northfield, and Twinsburg topping the list. These Ohio towns are very clean and pleasant, and the cost to live in these places is a bit pricey at times.

An individual looking to find a rural lifestyle need do nothing more than throw a dart at a map of Ohio. Outside of cities and towns, Ohio is a rich agricultural community encompassing everything from large and small farms to the rustic charm of the Appalachians in the southern region of the state. One of the great features of living in rural Ohio is that at most a decent sized city is only an hour or so drive away.