Best PlacesKemah, TX Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Kemah, 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.
Kemah ranks 11,046th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cell coverage by a wide margin, and disaster risk is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Kemah
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.
Kemah's strengths and weaknesses
Where Kemah ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 95% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 95% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 94% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 92% of towns
- Household income$115,766 median, better than 92% of towns
Where Kemah ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 11% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 20% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 22% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Kemah
A household needs to earn about $140,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Kemah home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $115,766, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Kemah's effective rate of 1.45%, 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 Kemah
Kemah 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 Kemah.
Who works in Kemah, and how
Work in Kemah centers on professional & technical and construction. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 17%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Kemah
Kemah has more restaurants and bars per resident than 96% of towns. The coast is about 3 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Kemah and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Kemah, month by month
Kemah sees roughly 142 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 64, with lows near 48. The comfortable stretch runs October through April.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 64° | 55° | 48° |
| April | 79° | 71° | 63° |
| July | 93° | 84° | 78° |
| October | 82° | 73° | 66° |
Flying in and out of Kemah
William P Hobby sits about 16 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 Kemah
Schools across Kemah average a B, better than 71% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Sandra Mossman ElB · 48% proficient
- Lloyd R Ferguson ElB · 48% proficient
- Lavace Stewart ElC+ · 39% proficient
Top middle schools
- Bayside IntB · 47% proficient
- Clear Creek IntC · 33% proficient
Top high schools
- Clear Falls H SA− · 61% proficient
- Clear Creek H SB+ · 54% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Kemah school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Kemah 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 Kemah against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Kemah
Is Kemah a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Kemah ranks 11,046th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cell coverage, what local pay buys, and fast internet, and lowest on disaster risk and summer heat. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Kemah expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $493,203. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $115,766 median income, cost of living beats 95% of towns.
Is Kemah safe?
Kemah is safer than 33% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $423 per resident a year.
Compare Kemah with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Kemah. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Kemah 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.
Kemah detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Kemah: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Kemah: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Kemah: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Kemah: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Kemah 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.