Mayfield Heights Named Area's Best Bargain

topped the list of Best Bargains, while was rated 13th among the area's best suburbs in Cleveland Magazine's annual "Rating the Suburbs" issue.

The Best Bargains list was based on the 30 suburbs with the lowest median home sale value, which was $133,000 or less. Those communities were ranked by the same criteria used to determine the top suburbs overall – safety, education and housing are the major factors and public services, diversity and walkability were also considered.

Mayfield Heights was named Best Bargain for 2012 after not making the list of 15 communities last year. North Olmsted, Willowick and Berea (last year's Best Bargain) were ranked second through fourth.

Although dropping one spot from last year, Mayfield Village remained on the list of top 20 suburbs and was ranked sixth for safety and 23rd for education. also was among the top-ranked communities for safety, in 11th place.

Gates Mills was not among the 77 suburbs included in the rankings.

Some statistics from "Rating the Suburbs":

Number of home sales
• Highland Heights – 72
• Mayfield Heights – 131
• Mayfield Village – 18

Median home sale price
• Highland Heights – $245,000
• Mayfield Heights – $122,000
• Mayfield Village – $177,550

Property tax per $100,000 valuation
• Highland Heights – $1,980
• Mayfield Heights – $2,170
• Mayfield Village – $1,990

10-year home sale price (percent change)
• Highland Heights – 24.68
• Mayfield Heights – (-2.40)
• Mayfield Village – 1.46