Best PlacesDecatur, TX Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Decatur, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Decatur ranks 13,970th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low taxes by a wide margin, and thin health care access ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Decatur
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.
Decatur's strengths and weaknesses
Where Decatur ranks high
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 92% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 144 pleasant days a year, better than 91% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 87% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 87% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 87% of towns
Where Decatur ranks low
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 13% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 17% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 18% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 18% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Decatur
A household needs to earn about $99,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Decatur home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $96,834; 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 Decatur's effective rate of 1.25%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Decatur
Decatur'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 Decatur.
Who works in Decatur, and how
Work in Decatur centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Decatur
Decatur has more restaurants and bars per resident than 88% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Decatur and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Decatur, month by month
Decatur sees roughly 144 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 97 degrees. January highs sit near 57, with lows near 37. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, October, and November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 57° | 46° | 37° |
| April | 76° | 64° | 55° |
| July | 97° | 85° | 75° |
| October | 79° | 67° | 58° |
Flying in and out of Decatur
Dallas-Fort Worth International sits about 38 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 41.3 million passengers in 2025, with 289 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Decatur
Schools across Decatur average a B−, better than 64% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Paradise IntA− · 60% proficient
- Alvord ElB+ · 53% proficient
- Blanche Dodd ElB · 49% proficient
Top middle schools
- Alvord MiddleA− · 58% proficient
- Mccarroll MiddleC · 35% proficient
- Chico MiddleC · 32% proficient
Top high schools
- Paradise H SA · 70% proficient
- Decatur H SB+ · 58% proficient
- Alvord H SB · 48% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Decatur school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Decatur 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 Decatur against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Decatur
Is Decatur a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Decatur ranks 13,970th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low taxes, the weather, and big-city access, 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 Decatur expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $357,696. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $96,834 median income, cost of living beats 77% of towns.
Is Decatur safe?
Decatur is safer than 19% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $533 per resident a year.
Compare Decatur with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Decatur. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Decatur 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.
Decatur detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Decatur: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Decatur: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Decatur: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Decatur: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Decatur 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.