Best PlacesDallas, TX Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Dallas 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 J173770 U.S. Copyright Office Copyright deposit; Johnson & Rogers; August 30, 1912., via commons
Dallas ranks 91st of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. Paychecks stretch further here than almost anywhere else: the median household brings in $103,531, everyday costs sit below the national average, and a strong job market ranks near the top of the country. The main drawbacks are civic engagement, long commutes, and thin health care access.
The best neighborhoods in the Dallas 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 Dallas
The towns and districts of the Dallas 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.
Plano, McKinney & Allen
Local pay stretches further, more adults hold degrees, and incomes run higher.
Frisco, Carrollton & Lewisville
Homes cost more and fewer households have young kids.
Denton, Argyle & Roanoke
More residents vote, though biking is worse.
Keller, North Richland Hills & Haltom City
Scores close to Denton, Argyle & Roanoke, except that disaster risk is lower here.
Irving
Streets are more walkable and transit reaches more jobs.
Downtown Dallas
Crime runs higher.
Fort Worth & Arlington
Schools score lower and heat risk is higher.
Grand Prairie, DeSoto & Waxahachie
Health outcomes score lower.
Balch Springs, Ennis & Terrell
Health care is harder to reach and commutes are longer.
Dallas shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 2% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Dallas' strengths and weaknesses
Dallas ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. What local pay buys, high incomes, and big-city access carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Civic engagement, 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 Dallas ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 94% of metro areas
- Household income$103,531 median, better than 90% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than 90% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 89% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than 89% of metro areas
Where Dallas ranks low
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 8% of metro areas
- Short commute27.9 minutes each way, better than only 9% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 11% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than only 15% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than only 18% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Dallas
A household needs to earn about $111,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Dallas home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $103,531; 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 Dallas' effective rate of 1.43%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Dallas
Dallas 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 Dallas.
Who works in Dallas, and how
Work in Dallas centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 79%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Dallas
Dallas has more parkland per resident than 68% of metro areas and more late-night spots per resident than 68% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Dallas and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Dallas growing, and who is moving in?
Dallas has grown about 21% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Houston, TX.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Dallas go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Dallas, month by month
Dallas sees roughly 136 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 97 degrees. January highs sit near 59, with lows near 38. The comfortable stretch runs March, April, October, and November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 59° | 47° | 38° |
| April | 78° | 67° | 58° |
| July | 97° | 87° | 79° |
| October | 82° | 70° | 61° |
Flying in and out of Dallas
Dallas Love Field sits about 5 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 Dallas
Schools across Dallas average a B−, better than 57% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- School For The Highly GiftedA+ · 93% proficient
- Overton Park ElA+ · 85% proficient
- Old Union ElA+ · 83% proficient
Top middle schools
- Lawler MiddleA+ · 90% proficient
- William B Travis Vanguard Acad Of Academically TagA+ · 89% proficient
- George Dawson MiddleA+ · 87% proficient
Top high schools
- School For The Talented And GiftedA+ · 98% proficient
- School Of Science And EngineeringA+ · 98% proficient
- Wakeland H SA+ · 89% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Dallas school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Dallas 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 Dallas against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Dallas suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 94% of metro areas, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 18% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Dallas
Is Dallas a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Dallas ranks 91st of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on what local pay buys, high incomes, and big-city access, and lowest on civic engagement and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Dallas expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $391,088. The overall cost of living runs about 7% below the national average. Set against a $103,531 median income, cost of living beats 94% of metro areas.
Is Dallas safe?
Dallas is safer than 40% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $426 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Dallas?
July highs average about 97 degrees, and January highs near 59 with lows near 38. That works out to about 136 pleasant days a year, more than 81% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Dallas?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Plano, McKinney & Allen, Frisco, Carrollton & Lewisville, and Denton, Argyle & Roanoke. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Dallas good for families?
Schools beat 57% of metro areas, crime safety beats 40%, and childcare runs $882 a month.
Is Dallas good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 94% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 86% of metro areas. About 18% of workers already work from home.
Compare Dallas with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Dallas. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Dallas 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.
Dallas detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Dallas: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Dallas: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Dallas: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Dallas: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Dallas 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.