Best PlacesAustin, TX Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Austin metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages hide a wide spread here, so the area matters as much as the address. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Randall Chancellor, CC BY-SA 2.0, via commons
Austin ranks 9th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. Paychecks stretch further here than almost anywhere else: the median household brings in $113,551, everyday costs sit below the national average, and a strong job market ranks near the top of the country. The main drawbacks are summer heat, long commutes, and thin health care access.
The best neighborhoods in the Austin 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 Austin
The towns and districts of the Austin 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.
Lakeway, The Hills & Bee Cave
More adults hold degrees, incomes run higher, and schools score higher.
Cedar Park, Leander & Liberty Hill
More households have young kids and local pay stretches further.
Georgetown & Jollyville
Health care is easier to reach, though transit reaches fewer jobs.
Round Rock, Pflugerville & Hutto
Heat risk is lower, though tree cover is thinner.
Downtown Austin
Biking is better and streets are more walkable.
San Marcos, Kyle & Buda
Disaster risk is higher.
Manor & Elgin
Homes cost less, though fewer residents vote.
Lockhart, Uhland & Creedmoor
Crime runs higher.
Del Valle, Bastrop & Cedar Creek
Commutes are longer and health outcomes score lower.
Austin shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 3% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Austin's strengths and weaknesses
Austin ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. What local pay buys is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. A strong job market and population health follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Summer heat, long commutes, and thin health care access hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Austin ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than 97% of metro areas
- Health outlookBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Household income$113,551 median, better than 96% of metro areas
- Educational attainmentBetter than 92% of metro areas
Where Austin ranks low
- Heat safetyBetter than only 11% of metro areas
- Short commute27.3 minutes each way, better than only 12% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 15% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than only 15% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than only 18% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Austin
A household needs to earn about $150,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Austin home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $113,551, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 1.38%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Austin
Austin runs younger than the country.
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 professional & technical and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 68%
- Work from home 27%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Austin
Austin has more restaurants and bars per resident than 68% of metro areas and more parkland per resident than 80% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Austin and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Austin growing, and who is moving in?
Austin has grown about 31% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Houston, TX.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Austin go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Austin, month by month
Austin sees roughly 155 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 99 degrees. January highs sit near 64, with lows near 43. The comfortable stretch runs February through April and October through December.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 64° | 52° | 43° |
| April | 82° | 70° | 60° |
| July | 99° | 86° | 76° |
| October | 85° | 72° | 62° |
Flying in and out of Austin
Austin-Bergstrom International sits about 9 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 10.7 million passengers in 2025, with 127 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Austin
Schools across Austin average a C+, better than 54% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Cactus Ranch ElA+ · 85% proficient
- Canyon Creek ElA+ · 80% proficient
- Patsy Sommer ElA+ · 77% proficient
Top middle schools
- Florence W Stiles MiddleA+ · 77% proficient
- Olympia HillsA+ · 75% proficient
- Hill Country MiddleA+ · 75% proficient
Top high schools
- Lasa H SA+ · 99% proficient
- University Of Texas At Austin H SA+ · 90% proficient
- Westlake H SA+ · 85% 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 386 metro areas.
Who Austin suits
Families
Schools land around the 54th percentile and crime safety beats 71%.
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 100% of metro areas, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 27% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Austin
Is Austin a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Austin ranks 9th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on what local pay buys, a strong job market, and population health, and lowest on summer heat and long commutes. 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 $533,268. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $113,551 median income, cost of living beats 100% of metro areas.
Is Austin safe?
Yes, Austin is safer than 71% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $342 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Austin?
July highs average about 99 degrees, and January highs near 64 with lows near 43. That works out to about 155 pleasant days a year, more than 88% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Austin?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Lakeway, The Hills & Bee Cave, Cedar Park, Leander & Liberty Hill, and Georgetown & Jollyville. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Austin good for families?
Schools beat 54% of metro areas, crime safety beats 71%, and childcare runs $994 a month.
Is Austin good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 100% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 84% of metro areas. About 27% of workers already work from home.
Compare Austin with other metro areas
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.
- 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.