Best PlacesChildress, TX Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Childress, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Childress ranks 34,520th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and thin health care access ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Childress
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.
Childress' strengths and weaknesses
Where Childress ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 96% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 95% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 92% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 132 pleasant days a year, better than 86% of towns
- BikingBetter than 85% of towns
Where Childress ranks low
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 4% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 6% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 6% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 8% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Childress
A household needs to earn about $39,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Childress home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $60,441, 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 Childress' effective rate of 1.31%, 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 Childress
Childress 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 Childress.
Who works in Childress, and how
Work in Childress centers on retail trade and agriculture & forestry. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 95%
- Work from home 2%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Childress
Childress has more restaurants and bars per resident than 89% of towns and more parkland per resident than 98% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Childress and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Childress, month by month
Childress sees roughly 132 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 98 degrees. January highs sit near 56, with lows near 30. The comfortable stretch runs March through May and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 56° | 41° | 30° |
| April | 79° | 62° | 49° |
| July | 98° | 85° | 73° |
| October | 79° | 64° | 52° |
Flying in and out of Childress
The nearest airport, Rick Husband Amarillo International, is about 100 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Dallas-Fort Worth International, about 212 miles away.
The best schools in and around Childress
Schools across Childress average a B, better than 67% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Childress ElB · 46% proficient
- Wellington ElB− · 40% proficient
Top middle schools
- Childress J HB · 46% proficient
- Wellington J HD+ · 24% proficient
Top high schools
- Wellington H SA− · 63% proficient
- Childress H SB · 47% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Childress school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Childress 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 Childress against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Childress
Is Childress a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Childress ranks 34,520th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, walkability, and low taxes, and lowest on thin health care access and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Childress expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $139,600. The overall cost of living runs about 26% below the national average. Set against a $60,441 median income, cost of living beats 48% of towns.
Is Childress safe?
Childress is safer than 8% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $713 per resident a year.
Compare Childress with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Childress. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Childress 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.
Childress detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Childress: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Childress: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Childress: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Childress: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Childress 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.