In one embodiment, a process determines how often client devices roam from a given access point (AP) to each particular neighbor AP of a plurality of neighbor APs of the given AP, and correspondingly determines a roaming distance from the given AP to each particular neighbor AP, the roaming distance being shorter for neighbor APs roamed to more often, and longer for neighbor APs roamed to less often, within a given interval. Successful but temporary roams to the plurality of neighbor APs may also be detected and removed from consideration in the roaming distance to that particular neighbor AP. The process then generates a proximity list of one or more of the neighboring APs having the shortest roaming distances, and feeds the proximity list to the given AP to cause the given AP to provide the proximity list to client devices for optimized client roaming.