Rating Cleveland's suburbs: highlights & lowlights of magazine's annual list

CLEVELAND - Solon has the best schools for your kids. Moreland hills is the safest place for your family to live. Streetsboro has the lowest property taxes.

From Amherst to Medina to Willowick, and every suburb in between, Cleveland Magazine's annual "Rating the Suburbs" issue ranks the best schools, safest towns and lowest taxes.

Bay Village wins as the top suburb, all things considered. That's up from ninth place last year.

Just released on newsstands and online, the annual rankings can give bragging rights to some cities, while others aren't always excited for the annual list.

For example, at the bottom of the education rankings are East Cleveland and Warrensville Heights. East Cleveland and Lorain come in at the bottom of the safety rankings. And you will pay the highest property taxes in Shaker Heights and Cleveland Heights, according to the magazine's number crunching.

Cleveland's suburbs also are ranked in several other categories, including home sale price, owner-occupied homes, total community services, roads with sidewalks and how many people live below the poverty line.

There also is a special section ranking the best bargain 'burbs. On that list, Mayfield Heights comes in first place this year, while last year it did not rank in that category.

The magazine uses raw data converted into points to derive a ranking. The data come from several local, state-level and national offices.

And the rankings may be more important than ever this year. The Ohio Association of Realtors reported Wednesday the number of single-family homes and condominiums put under agreement for sale in April rose for the 12th straight consecutive month.

More people opted to buy homes in Ohio over the last year than at any other time since the housing bubble burst, the group said.

Tell us what you think about the annual rankings by leaving a comment below.