Best PlacesGun Barrel City, TX Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Gun Barrel City, 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.
Gun Barrel City ranks 22,300th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cell coverage by a wide margin, and summer heat is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Gun Barrel City
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.
Gun Barrel City's strengths and weaknesses
Where Gun Barrel City ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 93% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 92% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 140 pleasant days a year, better than 89% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 86% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 83% of towns
Where Gun Barrel City ranks low
- Heat safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 16% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 33% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 35% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 35% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Gun Barrel City
A household needs to earn about $58,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Gun Barrel City home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $67,179, 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 Gun Barrel City's effective rate of 0.90%, 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 Gun Barrel City
Gun Barrel City runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Gun Barrel City.
Who works in Gun Barrel City, and how
Work in Gun Barrel City centers on construction and education. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 17%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Gun Barrel City
Gun Barrel City has more restaurants and bars per resident than 92% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Gun Barrel City and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Gun Barrel City, month by month
Gun Barrel City sees roughly 140 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 58, 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 | 58° | 46° | 37° |
| April | 76° | 65° | 55° |
| July | 93° | 82° | 73° |
| October | 80° | 66° | 56° |
Flying in and out of Gun Barrel City
The nearest airport, Tyler Pounds Regional, is about 43 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Dallas Love Field, about 55 miles away.
The best schools in and around Gun Barrel City
Schools across Gun Barrel City average a B−, better than 59% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Lakeview ElB · 45% proficient
- Eustace IntC+ · 37% proficient
- Southside ElC · 35% proficient
Top middle schools
- Eustace MiddleB+ · 49% proficient
- Mabank IntC · 35% proficient
Top high schools
- Mabank H SB · 50% proficient
- Eustace H SB− · 43% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Gun Barrel City school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Gun Barrel City 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 Gun Barrel City against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Gun Barrel City
Is Gun Barrel City a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Gun Barrel City ranks 22,300th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cell coverage, low taxes, and the weather, and lowest on summer heat and thin health care access. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Gun Barrel City expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $220,017. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $67,179 median income, cost of living beats 41% of towns.
Is Gun Barrel City safe?
Gun Barrel City is safer than 38% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $409 per resident a year.
Compare Gun Barrel City with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Gun Barrel City. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Gun Barrel City 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.
Gun Barrel City detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Gun Barrel City: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Gun Barrel City: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Gun Barrel City: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Gun Barrel City: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Gun Barrel City 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.