Best PlacesKaty, TX Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Katy, 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.
Katy ranks 70th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. Paychecks stretch further here than almost anywhere else: the median household brings in $123,314, everyday costs sit below the national average, and a strong job market ranks near the top of the country. The main drawbacks are long commutes, property taxes, and biking.
The best neighborhoods in Katy
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 Katy
The parts of Katy, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the city.
Cypress Bend
Incomes run higher, more adults hold degrees, and local pay stretches further.
Falcon Landing
Schools score higher, though fewer households have young kids.
Southeastern Katy
Biking is better and health care is easier to reach.
Western Katy
More residents vote, though heat risk is higher.
West Memorial & Cinco Ranch Meadow Place
More homes sit empty and it is noisier.
Nottingham, Memorial Parkway & Primewest
Streets are more walkable, though crime runs higher.
Estates Of Highland Creek
Homes cost less and prices have run up less.
Katy shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 14% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Katy's strengths and weaknesses
Katy ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. What local pay buys, a strong job market, and quiet carry most of that.
The one real hole is long commutes, near the bottom of the country. Property taxes and biking also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Katy ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 95% of cities
- Local economyBetter than 94% of cities
- QuietBetter than 93% of cities
- School gradeB+, better than 90% of cities
- Health outlookBetter than 89% of cities
Where Katy ranks low
- Short commute34.6 minutes each way, better than only 4% of cities
- Low property taxBetter than only 7% of cities
- BikingBetter than only 16% of cities
- TransitBetter than only 16% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than only 20% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Katy
A household needs to earn about $107,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Katy home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $123,314, 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 Katy's effective rate of 1.72%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Katy
Katy 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 Katy.
Who works in Katy, and how
Work in Katy centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 78%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Katy
Katy has more restaurants and bars per resident than 75% of cities and more parkland per resident than 84% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Katy and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Katy, month by month
Katy sees roughly 124 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 95 degrees. January highs sit near 65, with lows near 45. The comfortable stretch runs February through April and October through December.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 65° | 53° | 45° |
| April | 81° | 70° | 61° |
| July | 95° | 84° | 75° |
| October | 85° | 72° | 61° |
Flying in and out of Katy
George Bush Intcntl/Houston sits about 29 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 23.3 million passengers in 2025, with 214 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Katy
Schools across Katy average a B+, better than 90% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Hazel S Pattison ElA+ · 84% proficient
- Ray And Jamie Wolman ElA+ · 79% proficient
- Odessa Kilpatrick ElA+ · 78% proficient
Top middle schools
- Seven Lakes J HA+ · 84% proficient
- Beckendorff J HA+ · 82% proficient
- Tays J HA+ · 81% proficient
Top high schools
- Seven Lakes H SA+ · 90% proficient
- Tompkins H SA+ · 85% proficient
- Cinco Ranch H SA · 77% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Katy school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Katy 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 Katy against the other 444 cities.
Who Katy suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 95% of cities, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 18% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Katy
Is Katy a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Katy ranks 70th of 445 cities. It scores highest on what local pay buys, a strong job market, and quiet, and lowest on long commutes and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Katy expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $364,798. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $123,314 median income, cost of living beats 95% of cities.
Is Katy safe?
Yes, Katy is safer than 69% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $390 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Katy?
July highs average about 95 degrees, and January highs near 65 with lows near 45. That works out to about 124 pleasant days a year, more than 60% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Katy?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Cypress Bend, Falcon Landing, and Southeastern Katy. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Katy good for families?
Schools beat 90% of cities, crime safety beats 69%, and childcare runs $842 a month.
Is Katy good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 95% of cities, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 79% of cities. About 18% of workers already work from home.
Compare Katy with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Katy. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Katy 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.
Katy detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Katy: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Katy: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Katy: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Katy: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Katy 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.