Best PlacesBaytown, TX Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Baytown, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Baytown ranks 379th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 13 minutes away. Its strengths are a stable housing market and low taxes. The cost shows up in thin health care access, civic engagement, and education levels.
The best neighborhoods in Baytown
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 Baytown
The parts of Baytown, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the city.
Highland Farms
Fewer homes sit empty, heat risk is lower, and local pay stretches further.
Eastern Baytown
Tree cover is thicker, though incomes run lower.
Goose Creek
Streets are more walkable, though fewer adults hold degrees.
Scores across Baytown run from about the 5th to the 75th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Baytown's strengths and weaknesses
Baytown ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. A stable housing market, low taxes, and state finances carry most of that.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: thin health care access, civic engagement, and education levels all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Baytown ranks high
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 93% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 84% of cities
- State fiscal healthBetter than 84% of cities
- Cell coverageBetter than 83% of cities
- Cheap childcare$842 a month, better than 78% of cities
Where Baytown ranks low
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 2% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 5% of cities
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 5% of cities
- Local economyBetter than only 6% of cities
- BikingBetter than only 7% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Baytown
A household needs to earn about $60,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Baytown home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $70,175, 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 Baytown's effective rate of 1.52%, 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 Baytown
Baytown 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 Baytown.
Who works in Baytown, and how
Work in Baytown centers on construction and manufacturing. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 90%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Baytown
Baytown has more restaurants and bars per resident than 74% of cities and more parkland per resident than 82% of cities. The coast is about 13 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Baytown and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Baytown, month by month
Baytown sees roughly 134 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 64, with lows near 48. The comfortable stretch runs October through April.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 64° | 55° | 48° |
| April | 79° | 71° | 63° |
| July | 93° | 84° | 78° |
| October | 82° | 73° | 66° |
Flying in and out of Baytown
William P Hobby sits about 20 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 6.8 million passengers in 2025, with 101 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Baytown
Schools across Baytown average a B−, better than 67% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Barbers Hill El NorthA · 71% proficient
- Deer Park ElA− · 55% proficient
- Alamo ElB− · 41% proficient
Top middle schools
- Barbers Hill Middle SouthA+ · 70% proficient
- Deer Park J HA · 62% proficient
- Anahuac MiddleB+ · 49% proficient
Top high schools
- Barbers Hill H SA · 76% proficient
- Deer Park H SA− · 64% proficient
- Impact Early College H SA− · 62% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Baytown school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Baytown 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 Baytown against the other 444 cities.
Who Baytown suits
Common questions about living in Baytown
Is Baytown a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Baytown ranks 379th of 445 cities. It scores highest on a stable housing market, low taxes, and state finances, and lowest on thin health care access and civic engagement. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Baytown expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $209,721. The overall cost of living runs about 17% below the national average. Set against a $70,175 median income, cost of living beats 36% of cities.
Is Baytown safe?
Baytown is safer than 45% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $469 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Baytown?
July highs average about 93 degrees, and January highs near 64 with lows near 48. That works out to about 134 pleasant days a year, more than 66% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Baytown?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Highland Farms, Eastern Baytown, and Goose Creek. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Baytown good for families?
Schools beat 67% of cities, crime safety beats 45%, and childcare runs $842 a month.
Is Baytown good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 36% of cities, though advertised internet speeds beat only 54% of cities. About 8% of workers already work from home.
Compare Baytown with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Baytown. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Baytown 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.
Baytown detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Baytown: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Baytown: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Baytown: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Baytown: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Baytown 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.