Best PlacesAustin, AR Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Austin, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Austin ranks 14,151st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Air quality pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on a strong job market.
The best neighborhoods in Austin
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.
Austin's strengths and weaknesses
Where Austin ranks high
- Local economyBetter than 88% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 88% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 85% of towns
- Household income$97,827 median, better than 83% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 82% of towns
Where Austin ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 7% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 67 pleasant days a year, better than only 20% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 23% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 25% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 26% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Austin
A household needs to earn about $62,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Austin home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $97,827, 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 Austin's effective rate of 0.63%, 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Austin
Austin 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 Austin.
Who works in Austin, and how
Work in Austin 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 91%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Austin
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Austin.
What the weather is like in Austin, month by month
Austin sees roughly 67 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 52, with lows near 31. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 52° | 40° | 31° |
| April | 74° | 62° | 51° |
| July | 93° | 82° | 73° |
| October | 77° | 64° | 53° |
Flying in and out of Austin
The nearest airport, Bill and Hillary Clinton Ntl/Adams Field, is about 22 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Memphis International, about 114 miles away.
The best schools in and around Austin
Schools across Austin average a B, better than 64% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Mountain Springs Elem SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
- Magness Creek ElementaryB+ · 53% proficient
- Stagecoach Elementary SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
Top middle schools
- Frank Mitchell Intermediate SchoolB+ · 48% proficient
- Cabot Middle School NorthB · 46% proficient
- Cabot Junior High SouthB · 43% proficient
Top high schools
- Vilonia High SchoolC+ · 39% proficient
- Cabot High SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
- Lonoke High SchoolC− · 26% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Austin school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Austin 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 Austin against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Austin
Is Austin a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Austin ranks 14,151st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on a strong job market, what local pay buys, and state finances, and lowest on air quality and the weather. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Austin expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $241,834. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $97,827 median income, cost of living beats 88% of towns.
Is Austin safe?
Austin is safer than 40% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $497 per resident a year.
Compare Austin with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Austin. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Austin 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.
Austin detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Austin: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Austin: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Austin: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Austin: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Austin 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.