Best PlacesAmarillo, TX Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Amarillo metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Who What Where Nguyen Why a/k/a Anonymous Cow, CC BY-SA 3.0, via commons
Amarillo ranks 250th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on tree cover and distance from a big city. It does better on cell coverage, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Amarillo 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.
Amarillo's strengths and weaknesses
Amarillo lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Cell coverage is the standout, in the top 2% of metro areas. Low taxes and what local pay buys follow.
The one real hole is tree cover, near the bottom of the country. Distance from a big city and thin health care access also cost it ground. That varies block to block rather than evenly, and the map below shows where.
Where Amarillo ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 98% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 89% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 85% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than 82% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$678 a month, better than 82% of metro areas
Where Amarillo ranks low
- Tree shadeBetter than only 4% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 8% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than only 9% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than only 13% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Amarillo
A household needs to earn about $60,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Amarillo home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $78,466, 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 Amarillo'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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Amarillo
Amarillo runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Amarillo.
Who works in Amarillo, and how
Work in Amarillo 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 89%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Amarillo
Amarillo has more restaurants and bars per resident than 82% of metro areas and more parkland per resident than 67% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Amarillo and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Amarillo growing, and who is moving in?
Amarillo has grown about 5% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Dallas, TX.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Amarillo go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Amarillo, month by month
Amarillo sees roughly 127 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 96 degrees. January highs sit near 55, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 55° | 37° | 23° |
| April | 76° | 57° | 41° |
| July | 96° | 81° | 66° |
| October | 78° | 59° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Amarillo
The nearest airport, Rick Husband Amarillo International, is about 9 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Albuquerque International Sunport, about 268 miles away.
The best schools in and around Amarillo
Schools across Amarillo average a B−, better than 65% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Woodlands ElA · 65% proficient
- Reeves-hinger ElA · 65% proficient
- Panhandle ElA · 63% proficient
Top middle schools
- Lorenzo De Zavala MiddleA · 65% proficient
- Bonham MiddleA · 60% proficient
- Panhandle J HA · 60% proficient
Top high schools
- Happy H SA+ · 83% proficient
- Bushland H SA · 78% proficient
- Canyon H SA · 70% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Amarillo school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Amarillo 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 Amarillo against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Amarillo suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 85% of metro areas, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 8% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Amarillo
Is Amarillo a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Amarillo ranks 250th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on cell coverage, low taxes, and what local pay buys, and lowest on tree cover and distance from a big city. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Amarillo expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $213,567. The overall cost of living runs about 23% below the national average. Set against a $78,466 median income, cost of living beats 85% of metro areas.
Is Amarillo safe?
Amarillo is safer than 9% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $586 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Amarillo?
July highs average about 96 degrees, and January highs near 55 with lows near 23. That works out to about 127 pleasant days a year, more than 77% of metro areas.
Is Amarillo good for families?
Schools beat 65% of metro areas, crime safety beats 9%, and childcare runs $678 a month.
Is Amarillo good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 85% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 79% of metro areas. About 8% of workers already work from home.
Compare Amarillo with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Amarillo. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Amarillo 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.
Amarillo detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Amarillo: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Amarillo: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Amarillo: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Amarillo: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Amarillo 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.