Best PlacesHouston, TX Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Houston 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 juvx, Unsplash License, via unsplash
Houston ranks 242nd of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. Paychecks stretch further here than almost anywhere else: the median household brings in $95,757, everyday costs sit below the national average, and a strong job market ranks near the top of the country. The main drawbacks are air quality, long commutes, and thin health care access.
The best neighborhoods in the Houston 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 Houston
The towns and districts of the Houston 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.
Cypress, Tomball & The Woodlands
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and disaster risk is lower.
Sugar Land, Missouri City & Richmond
More adults hold degrees, though biking is worse.
Katy
Schools score higher, though tree cover is thinner.
League City, Friendswood & Galveston
Transit reaches fewer jobs and fewer households have young kids.
Downtown Houston
Streets are more walkable, though crime runs higher.
Pearland, Lake Jackson & Rosharon
Scores close to Downtown Houston, except that it is quieter here.
Humble, Atascocita & Cleveland
Prices have run up less, though commutes are longer.
Spring & Conroe
Fewer residents vote and health care is harder to reach.
Baytown, Pasadena & Channelview
Homes cost less, though health outcomes score lower.
Houston shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 1% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Houston's strengths and weaknesses
Houston lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Cell coverage, what local pay buys, and big-city access carry most of that.
The one real hole is air quality, near the bottom of the country. Long commutes and thin health care access also cost it ground. That varies block to block rather than evenly, and the map below shows where.
Where Houston ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 93% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than 91% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 89% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than 89% of metro areas
Where Houston ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 4% of metro areas
- Short commute29.9 minutes each way, better than only 5% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 9% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Houston
A household needs to earn about $95,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Houston home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $95,757, 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 Houston's effective rate of 1.46%, 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 Houston
Houston 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 Houston.
Who works in Houston, and how
Work in Houston 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 81%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Houston
The coast is about 37 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Houston, which the map shows.
Is Houston growing, and who is moving in?
Houston has grown about 19% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Dallas, TX.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Houston go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Houston, month by month
Houston sees roughly 122 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 96 degrees. January highs sit near 67, with lows near 43. The comfortable stretch runs February through April and October through December.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 67° | 54° | 43° |
| April | 82° | 70° | 59° |
| July | 96° | 85° | 76° |
| October | 86° | 72° | 61° |
Flying in and out of Houston
William P Hobby sits about 14 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 6.8 million passengers in 2025, with 101 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Houston
Schools across Houston average a C+, better than 56% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Creekside Forest ElA+ · 90% proficient
- West University ElA+ · 85% proficient
- Hazel S Pattison ElA+ · 84% proficient
Top middle schools
- Seven Lakes J HA+ · 84% proficient
- Mccullough J HA+ · 83% proficient
- Beckendorff J HA+ · 82% proficient
Top high schools
- Debakey H S For Health ProfA+ · 93% proficient
- Carnegie Vanguard H SA+ · 91% proficient
- Tomball Star AcademyA+ · 91% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Houston school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Houston 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 Houston against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Houston suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 93% of metro areas, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 13% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Houston
Is Houston a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Houston ranks 242nd of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on cell coverage, what local pay buys, and big-city access, and lowest on air quality and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Houston expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $331,555. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $95,757 median income, cost of living beats 93% of metro areas.
Is Houston safe?
Houston is safer than 12% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $573 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Houston?
July highs average about 96 degrees, and January highs near 67 with lows near 43. That works out to about 122 pleasant days a year, more than 74% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Houston?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Cypress, Tomball & The Woodlands, Sugar Land, Missouri City & Richmond, and Katy. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Houston good for families?
Schools beat 56% of metro areas, crime safety beats 12%, and childcare runs $841 a month.
Is Houston good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 93% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 89% of metro areas. About 13% of workers already work from home.
Compare Houston with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Houston. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Houston 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.
Houston detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Houston: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Houston: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Houston: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Houston: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Houston 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.