Best PlacesAbilene, TX Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Abilene metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Atownbman, CC BY-SA 4.0, via commons
Abilene ranks 271st of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on tree cover and thin health care access. It does better on affordable childcare, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Abilene metro
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.
The best areas in Abilene
The towns and districts of the Abilene metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Tuscola
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and more adults hold degrees.
Clyde & Baird
More residents vote and crime runs lower.
Dyess AFB
It is quieter and more households have young kids.
Anson
Homes cost less, though commutes are longer.
Downtown Abilene
Streets are more walkable, though schools score lower.
Merkel
Heat risk is lower, though health care is harder to reach.
Stamford
Health outcomes score lower and more homes sit empty.
Abilene shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 4% of the country and others in the top 10%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Abilene's strengths and weaknesses
Abilene lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Affordable childcare, a stable housing market, and short commutes carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Tree cover, thin health care access, and distance from a big city hold the score down. That varies block to block rather than evenly, and the map below shows where.
Where Abilene ranks high
- Cheap childcare$571 a month, better than 96% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 94% of metro areas
- Short commute18.5 minutes each way, better than 94% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 89% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than 82% of metro areas
Where Abilene ranks low
- Tree shadeBetter than only 5% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 9% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than only 10% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 13% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than only 13% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Abilene
A household needs to earn about $53,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Abilene home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $73,165, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
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 Abilene's effective rate of 1.25%, 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 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Abilene
Abilene runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Abilene.
Who works in Abilene, and how
Work in Abilene centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Abilene
Abilene has less parkland per resident than most metro areas. That concentrates in some parts of Abilene and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Abilene growing, and who is moving in?
Abilene has grown about 10% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Dallas, TX.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Abilene go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Abilene, month by month
Abilene sees roughly 108 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 98 degrees. January highs sit near 61, with lows near 32. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, October, and November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 61° | 45° | 32° |
| April | 82° | 65° | 51° |
| July | 98° | 85° | 73° |
| October | 83° | 67° | 54° |
Flying in and out of Abilene
The nearest airport, Abilene Regional, is about 4 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Dallas-Fort Worth International, about 161 miles away.
The best schools in and around Abilene
Schools across Abilene average a B−, better than 53% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Wylie West IntA · 64% proficient
- Wylie East ElA− · 58% proficient
- Buffalo Gap ElB+ · 55% proficient
Top middle schools
- Wylie East J HA · 65% proficient
- Jim Ned MiddleA · 61% proficient
- Wylie West J HA · 61% proficient
Top high schools
- Premier H S Of AbileneA · 75% proficient
- Wylie H SA · 71% proficient
- Academy For Technology Engineering Math & ScienceA · 70% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Abilene school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Abilene 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 Abilene against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Abilene suits
Retirees
The weather beats 65% of metro areas and it is quieter than 66%.
Common questions about living in Abilene
Is Abilene a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Abilene ranks 271st of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on affordable childcare, a stable housing market, 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 Abilene expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $189,668. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $73,165 median income, cost of living beats 44% of metro areas.
Is Abilene safe?
Abilene is safer than 17% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $530 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Abilene?
July highs average about 98 degrees, and January highs near 61 with lows near 32. That works out to about 108 pleasant days a year, more than 65% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Abilene?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Tuscola, Clyde & Baird, and Dyess AFB. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Abilene good for families?
Schools beat 53% of metro areas, crime safety beats 17%, and childcare runs $571 a month.
Is Abilene good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 44% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 25% of metro areas. About 9% of workers already work from home.
Compare Abilene with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Abilene. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Abilene 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.
Abilene detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Abilene: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Abilene: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Abilene: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Abilene: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Abilene detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.