Best PlacesDurango, TX Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Durango, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Durango ranks 13,531st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on a stable housing market by a wide margin, and long commutes are the weak spot.

#13,531
of 50,333 towns
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 50,333 towns
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Durango

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Durango area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Durango's strengths and weaknesses

Top 10%A stable housing market
Top 10%Low taxes
Top 10%The weather
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Durango with other towns.

Where Durango ranks high

  • Housing crash safetyBetter than 95% of towns
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 92% of towns
  • Nice weatherabout 145 pleasant days a year, better than 91% of towns
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 89% of towns
  • Local economyBetter than 85% of towns

Where Durango ranks low

  • Short commute42.7 minutes each way, better than only 3% of towns
  • Heat safetyBetter than only 11% of towns
  • Internet speedBetter than only 16% of towns
  • Crime safetyBetter than only 16% of towns
  • Tree shadeBetter than only 19% of towns

What it costs to buy a home in Durango

A household needs to earn about $46,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Durango home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $89,375, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$46,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,076
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $177,500 home
Median rent
$700
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$905
Property tax$112
Homeowners insurance$59

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 Durango's effective rate of 0.76%, 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.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Durango

Durango runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
49
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
18%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.4
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1819%
18 to 3415%
35 to 4922%
50 to 6427%
65 and older18%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Durango.


Who works in Durango, and how

Work in Durango centers on education and public administration. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
8%
below the national average
Unemployment
0.0%
below the national average
Job growth
+4.1%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Education15%
Public administration15%
Manufacturing10%
Transportation & warehousing10%
Retail trade9%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 91%
  • Work from home 8%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 1%

Life in Durango

The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Durango.


What the weather is like in Durango, month by month

Durango sees roughly 145 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 97 degrees. January highs sit near 61, with lows near 37. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, October, and November.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January61°48°37°
April79°66°56°
July97°85°74°
October83°69°58°

Flying in and out of Durango

The nearest airport, Waco Regional, is about 29 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Austin-Bergstrom International, about 77 miles away.

Nearest airport
ACT
Waco Regional, about 29 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
270th-busiest in the US, 4 nonstop destinations
Average drive
42 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Durango

Schools across Durango average a C+, better than 55% of towns.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Durango school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Durango 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 Durango against the other 50,332 towns.


Common questions about living in Durango

Is Durango a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Durango ranks 13,531st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on a stable housing market, low taxes, and the weather, and lowest on long commutes and summer heat. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Durango expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $177,500. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $89,375 median income, cost of living beats 89% of towns.

Is Durango safe?

Durango is safer than 16% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $556 per resident a year.


Compare Durango with other towns


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Durango. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Durango 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.

Durango detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Durango: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Durango: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Durango: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Durango: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Durango detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.