Best Places79416, TX Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood inside ZIP code 79416, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

79416 ranks 11,258th of 33,110 U.S. zip codes on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and tree cover ranks lowest.

#11,258
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 79416

Map of the best neighborhoods in the 79416 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.

79416's strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%Clean air
Top 5%Cell coverage
Top 5%Short commutes
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare 79416 with other zip codes.

Where 79416 ranks high

  • Air qualityBetter than 97% of zip codes
  • Cell coverageBetter than 96% of zip codes
  • Short commute15.9 minutes each way, better than 95% of zip codes
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 91% of zip codes
  • Nice weatherabout 138 pleasant days a year, better than 85% of zip codes

Where 79416 ranks low

  • Tree shadeBetter than only 7% of zip codes
  • Healthcare accessBetter than only 10% of zip codes
  • Voter turnoutBetter than only 12% of zip codes
  • Low property taxBetter than only 12% of zip codes
  • Disaster safetyBetter than only 23% of zip codes

What it costs to buy a home in 79416

A household needs to earn about $65,000 a year to comfortably buy the median 79416 home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $71,658, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$65,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,525
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $227,672 home
Median rent
$1,301
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,161
Property tax$288
Homeowners insurance$76

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 79416's effective rate of 1.52%, 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 7 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 79416

79416 runs younger than the country.

Median age
34
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
13%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.5
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1822%
18 to 3433%
35 to 4918%
50 to 6415%
65 and older13%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for 79416.


Who works in 79416, and how

Work in 79416 centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
8%
below the national average
Unemployment
4.3%
about the national average
Job growth
+4.6%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social20%
Education16%
Retail trade10%
Hospitality & food9%
Manufacturing7%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 88%
  • Work from home 8%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 4%

Life in 79416

79416 has more parkland per resident than 71% of zip codes. That concentrates in some parts of 79416 and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
89
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 24.7 per 10,000 residents, more than 37% of zip codes
Coffee shops
11
about 3.1 per 10,000 residents, more than 54% of zip codes
Parkland
144 acres
about 4.0 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 71% of zip codes

What the weather is like in 79416, month by month

79416 sees roughly 138 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 97 degrees. January highs sit near 58, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, September, and October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January58°40°26°
April81°62°45°
July97°83°70°
October80°63°48°

Flying in and out of 79416

The nearest airport, Lubbock Preston Smith International, is about 8 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Albuquerque International Sunport, about 285 miles away.

Nearest airport
LBB
Lubbock Preston Smith International, about 8 miles
Airport size
Small hub
133rd-busiest in the US, 23 nonstop destinations
Average drive
12 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around 79416

Schools across 79416 average a C+, better than 51% 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 79416 school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


79416 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 79416 against the other 33,109 zip codes.


Who 79416 suits

Families

Schools land around the 51st percentile.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

Internet is fast and widely advertised and 8% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

The weather beats 85% of zip codes.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in 79416

Is 79416 a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, 79416 ranks 11,258th of 33,110 zip codes. It scores highest on clean air, cell coverage, and short commutes, and lowest on tree cover and thin health care access. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is 79416 expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $227,672. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $71,658 median income, cost of living beats 52% of zip codes.

Is 79416 safe?

79416 is safer than 33% of zip codes. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $470 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in 79416?

July highs average about 97 degrees, and January highs near 58 with lows near 26. That works out to about 138 pleasant days a year, more than 85% of zip codes.

Is 79416 good for families?

Schools beat 51% of zip codes, crime safety beats 33%, and childcare runs $672 a month.


Compare 79416 with other zip codes


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to 79416. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in 79416 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.

79416 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for 79416: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in 79416: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of 79416: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in 79416: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

79416 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.