Editor’s View, by Corinne Minard

At the end of last year, I bought my first home. While everyone tells you location is an important consideration, I don’t think I truly understood how important it was until I started my own home search. I looked at a lot of places, and many of them had bigger yards and nicer appliances than the home I chose. But, in the end, it really did come down to location.

Our annual Rating the Burbs feature is, when it comes down to it, a deep dive into what makes a city, township or suburb a great location. Do you know your community’s average commute time? The percentage of owner-occupied homes? How many homes were sold last year? Probably not, but these are all important factors into making a location great.

Each year, Editor Bill Ferguson Jr. dedicates two-to-three months to researching home values, crime statistics and school ratings to determine the best community in the Greater Cincinnati suburbs. We encourage you to look through our data to see how your community stacks up against others in the region and to look at what makes the best great.

However, data isn’t everything and many fantastic communities aren’t on this year’s list. In fact, my community (who’s location was so important to me) isn’t in the Top 75 (though it is an Honorable Mention!). There are many more factors that make a community or location great other than the ones in our data. But we hope this is a useful tool for those looking for the perfect location for their family.