Best PlacesCarrollton, TX Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Carrollton, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Carrollton ranks 74th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on a stable housing market and fast internet. The weaker spots are tree cover, property taxes, and civic engagement.
The best neighborhoods in Carrollton
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 Carrollton
The parts of Carrollton, 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.
Northeast Dallas
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and more adults hold degrees.
Northwest Dallas
More households have young kids and schools score higher.
North Central Dallas & Central Carrollton
Prices have run up less and transit reaches more jobs.
Far North Dallas-Carrollton & Far North Dallas
Fewer residents vote and more homes sit empty.
Southwest Carrollton
Crime runs higher and streets are more car-dependent.
Original Town
Heat risk is lower, though health care is harder to reach.
Southwestern Carrollton
Scores across Carrollton run from about the 20th to the 100th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Carrollton's strengths and weaknesses
Carrollton ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. A stable housing market, fast internet, and what local pay buys carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Tree cover, property taxes, and civic engagement hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Carrollton ranks high
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 92% of cities
- Internet speedBetter than 90% of cities
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 88% of cities
- Nice weatherabout 198 pleasant days a year, better than 86% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 84% of cities
Where Carrollton ranks low
- Tree shadeBetter than only 19% of cities
- Low property taxBetter than only 21% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 24% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than only 28% of cities
- Heat safetyBetter than only 32% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Carrollton
A household needs to earn about $108,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Carrollton home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $106,875; 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 Carrollton's effective rate of 1.40%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Carrollton
Carrollton's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Carrollton.
Who works in Carrollton, and how
Work in Carrollton centers on retail trade and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 21%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Carrollton
Carrollton has more restaurants and bars per resident than 81% of cities and more parkland per resident than 95% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Carrollton and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Carrollton, month by month
Carrollton sees roughly 198 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 96 degrees. January highs sit near 57, with lows near 39. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, October, and November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 57° | 47° | 39° |
| April | 77° | 66° | 58° |
| July | 96° | 86° | 78° |
| October | 80° | 70° | 61° |
Flying in and out of Carrollton
Dallas Love Field sits about 11 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 8.2 million passengers in 2025, with 91 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Carrollton
Schools across Carrollton average a C+, better than 53% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Barksdale ElA · 70% proficient
- Castle Hills ElA · 69% proficient
- Mccoy ElA · 66% proficient
Top middle schools
- Killian MiddleA · 60% proficient
- Arbor Creek MiddleA− · 56% proficient
- Renner MiddleA− · 54% proficient
Top high schools
- Hebron H SA · 67% proficient
- The Colony H SB+ · 52% proficient
- Creekview H SB · 49% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Carrollton school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Carrollton 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 Carrollton against the other 444 cities.
Who Carrollton suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 88% of cities, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 21% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Carrollton
Is Carrollton a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Carrollton ranks 74th of 445 cities. It scores highest on a stable housing market, fast internet, and what local pay buys, and lowest on tree cover and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Carrollton expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $381,678. The overall cost of living runs about 7% below the national average. Set against a $106,875 median income, cost of living beats 88% of cities.
Is Carrollton safe?
Carrollton is safer than 48% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $450 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Carrollton?
July highs average about 96 degrees, and January highs near 57 with lows near 39. That works out to about 198 pleasant days a year, more than 86% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Carrollton?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Northeast Dallas, Northwest Dallas, and North Central Dallas & Central Carrollton. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Carrollton good for families?
Schools beat 53% of cities, crime safety beats 48%, and childcare runs $871 a month.
Is Carrollton good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 88% of cities, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 90% of cities. About 21% of workers already work from home.
Compare Carrollton with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Carrollton. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Carrollton 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.
Carrollton detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Carrollton: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Carrollton: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Carrollton: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Carrollton: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Carrollton 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.