Best PlacesAmes, TX Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Ames, 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.
Ames ranks 37,046th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low taxes by a wide margin, and thin health care access ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Ames
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.
Ames' strengths and weaknesses
Where Ames ranks high
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 92% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 87% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 86% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 123 pleasant days a year, better than 82% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 81% of towns
Where Ames ranks low
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 3% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 3% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 5% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 14% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Ames
A household needs to earn about $64,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Ames home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $60,642; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Ames' effective rate of 1.27%, 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 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Ames
Ames runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Ames.
Who works in Ames, and how
Work in Ames centers on retail trade and education. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 91%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Ames
The coast is about 35 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Ames, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Ames, month by month
Ames sees roughly 123 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 65, with lows near 45. The comfortable stretch runs February through April and October through December.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 65° | 53° | 45° |
| April | 80° | 69° | 61° |
| July | 93° | 83° | 76° |
| October | 84° | 71° | 61° |
Flying in and out of Ames
George Bush Intcntl/Houston sits about 36 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 23.3 million passengers in 2025, with 214 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Ames
Schools across Ames average a B−, better than 55% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Liberty ElC · 33% proficient
Top middle schools
- Liberty MiddleB− · 41% proficient
Top high schools
- Liberty H SB · 48% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Ames school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Ames 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 Ames against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Ames
Is Ames a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Ames ranks 37,046th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low taxes, a strong job market, and big-city access, and lowest on thin health care access and education levels. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Ames expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $231,759. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $60,642 median income, cost of living beats 26% of towns.
Is Ames safe?
Ames is safer than 33% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $420 per resident a year.
Compare Ames with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Ames. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Ames 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.
Ames detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Ames: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Ames: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Ames: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Ames: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Ames 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.
- 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.