Best PlacesBrownsville, TX Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Brownsville metro, 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.
Photo by Michael Martin from Cypress, Texas, CC BY-SA 2.0, via commons
Brownsville ranks 377th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 33 minutes away. Its strengths are the weather and low taxes. The cost shows up in civic engagement, low incomes, and thin health care access.
The best neighborhoods in the Brownsville 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 Brownsville
The towns and districts of the Brownsville 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.
Rio Hondo
Prices have run up less, it is quieter, and local pay stretches further.
Olmito
Fewer homes sit empty and advertised internet is faster.
Los Fresnos, Port Isabel & Laguna Vista
Fewer households have young kids and crime runs higher.
La Feria
Biking is worse and streets are more car-dependent.
Harlingen
Heat risk is higher.
Downtown Brownsville
Scores close to Harlingen, except that fewer residents vote here.
San Benito
Schools score lower.
Scores across Brownsville run from about the 3rd to the 80th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Brownsville's strengths and weaknesses
Brownsville ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. The weather, low taxes, and cell coverage carry most of that.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: civic engagement, low incomes, and thin health care access all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Brownsville ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 169 pleasant days a year, better than 93% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 89% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than 87% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than 82% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$712 a month, better than 77% of metro areas
Where Brownsville ranks low
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Household income$58,228 median, better than only 1% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than only 4% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Brownsville
A household needs to earn about $40,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Brownsville home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $58,228, 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 Brownsville'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 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 Brownsville
Brownsville 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 Brownsville.
Who works in Brownsville, and how
Work in Brownsville centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Brownsville
Brownsville has more restaurants and bars per resident than 92% of metro areas and less late-night activity than most metro areas. The coast is about 33 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Brownsville and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Brownsville growing, and who is moving in?
Brownsville has grown about 3% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Mcallen, TX.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Brownsville go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Brownsville, month by month
Brownsville sees roughly 169 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 96 degrees. January highs sit near 75, with lows near 52. The comfortable stretch runs November through March.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 75° | 62° | 52° |
| April | 88° | 76° | 67° |
| July | 96° | 85° | 78° |
| October | 89° | 77° | 68° |
Flying in and out of Brownsville
The nearest airport, Brownsville/South Padre Island International, is about 4 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is San Antonio International, about 256 miles away.
The best schools in and around Brownsville
Schools across Brownsville average a C, better than 33% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Ortiz ElA− · 57% proficient
- Rancho Verde ElB+ · 51% proficient
- Olmito ElB− · 44% proficient
Top middle schools
- Resaca MiddleB− · 43% proficient
- Liberty Memorial MiddleC+ · 36% proficient
- Los Cuates MiddleC+ · 36% proficient
Top high schools
- Brownsville Early College H SA · 73% proficient
- Harlingen Collegiate H SA− · 60% proficient
- Veterans Memorial Early College H SB+ · 53% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Brownsville school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Brownsville 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 Brownsville against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Brownsville suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 10% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 93% of metro areas and it is quieter than 57%.
Common questions about living in Brownsville
Is Brownsville a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Brownsville ranks 377th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on the weather, low taxes, and cell coverage, and lowest on civic engagement and low incomes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Brownsville expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $142,776. The overall cost of living runs about 23% below the national average. Set against a $58,228 median income, cost of living beats 7% of metro areas.
Is Brownsville safe?
Brownsville is safer than 19% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $503 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Brownsville?
July highs average about 96 degrees, and January highs near 75 with lows near 52. That works out to about 169 pleasant days a year, more than 93% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Brownsville?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Rio Hondo, Olmito, and Los Fresnos, Port Isabel & Laguna Vista. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Brownsville good for families?
Schools beat 33% of metro areas, crime safety beats 19%, and childcare runs $712 a month.
Is Brownsville good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 7% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 73% of metro areas. About 10% of workers already work from home.
Compare Brownsville with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Brownsville. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Brownsville 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.
Brownsville detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Brownsville: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Brownsville: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Brownsville: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Brownsville: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Brownsville 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.