Best Places77520, TX Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood inside ZIP code 77520, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

77520 ranks 25,299th of 33,110 U.S. zip codes on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cell coverage by a wide margin, and thin health care access ranks lowest.

#25,299
of 33,110 zip codes
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 33,110 zip codes
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in 77520

Map of the best neighborhoods in the 77520 area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.

77520's strengths and weaknesses

Top 10%Cell coverage
Top 10%Walkability
Top 10%Low taxes
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare 77520 with other zip codes.

Where 77520 ranks high

  • Cell coverageBetter than 92% of zip codes
  • WalkabilityBetter than 91% of zip codes
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 91% of zip codes
  • Nice weatherabout 134 pleasant days a year, better than 83% of zip codes
  • Big-city accessBetter than 83% of zip codes

Where 77520 ranks low

  • Healthcare accessBetter than only 3% of zip codes
  • Voter turnoutBetter than only 4% of zip codes
  • Educational attainmentBetter than only 4% of zip codes
  • Air qualityBetter than only 5% of zip codes
  • Disaster safetyBetter than only 8% of zip codes

What it costs to buy a home in 77520

A household needs to earn about $45,000 a year to comfortably buy the median 77520 home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $60,749, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$45,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,051
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $159,780 home
Median rent
$1,284
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$815
Property tax$183
Homeowners insurance$53

Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses 77520's effective rate of 1.37%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.

Renting versus buying

At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 4 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in 77520

77520 runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.

Median age
38
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
14%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.8
above the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1825%
18 to 3422%
35 to 4920%
50 to 6420%
65 and older14%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for 77520.


Who works in 77520, and how

Work in 77520 centers on construction and retail trade. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.

Work from home
5%
below the national average
Unemployment
9.0%
above the national average
Job growth
+1.2%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Construction14%
Retail trade13%
Health care & social12%
Manufacturing12%
Hospitality & food8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 92%
  • Work from home 5%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 3%

Life in 77520

77520 has more restaurants and bars per resident than 66% of zip codes and more parkland per resident than 76% of zip codes. The coast is about 10 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of 77520 and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
179
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 47.1 per 10,000 residents, more than 66% of zip codes
Coffee shops
9
about 2.4 per 10,000 residents, more than 50% of zip codes
Parkland
199 acres
about 5.2 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 76% of zip codes
To the coast
10 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

What the weather is like in 77520, month by month

77520 sees roughly 134 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 64, with lows near 48. The comfortable stretch runs October through April.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January64°55°48°
April79°71°63°
July93°84°78°
October82°73°66°

Flying in and out of 77520

William P Hobby sits about 19 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 6.8 million passengers in 2025, with 101 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
HOU
William P Hobby, about 19 miles
Airport size
Medium hub
37th-busiest in the US, 101 nonstop destinations
Average drive
28 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around 77520

Schools across 77520 average a B−, better than 58% of zip codes.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every 77520 school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


77520 measure by measure

Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare 77520 against the other 33,109 zip codes.


Who 77520 suits

Families

Schools beat 58% of zip codes.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

Internet is fast and widely advertised and 5% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

The weather beats 83% of zip codes.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in 77520

Is 77520 a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, 77520 ranks 25,299th of 33,110 zip codes. It scores highest on cell coverage, walkability, and low taxes, and lowest on thin health care access and civic engagement. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is 77520 expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $159,780. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $60,749 median income, cost of living beats 32% of zip codes.

Is 77520 safe?

77520 is safer than 24% of zip codes. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $507 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in 77520?

July highs average about 93 degrees, and January highs near 64 with lows near 48. That works out to about 134 pleasant days a year, more than 83% of zip codes.

Is 77520 good for families?

Schools beat 58% of zip codes, crime safety beats 24%, and childcare runs $842 a month.


Compare 77520 with other zip codes


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to 77520. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in 77520 represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.

77520 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for 77520: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in 77520: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of 77520: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in 77520: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

77520 detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.