Best PlacesKress, TX Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Kress, 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.
Kress ranks 40,689th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on short commutes by a wide margin, and tree cover ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Kress
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.
Kress' strengths and weaknesses
Where Kress ranks high
- Short commute18.0 minutes each way, better than 93% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 92% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 142 pleasant days a year, better than 90% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 88% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 81% of towns
Where Kress ranks low
- Tree shadeBetter than only 2% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 4% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 7% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 9% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 9% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Kress
A household needs to earn about $28,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Kress home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $49,786, 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 Kress' effective rate of 0.88%, 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 4 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Kress
Kress runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Kress.
Who works in Kress, and how
Work in Kress centers on agriculture & forestry and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 93%
- Work from home 4%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Kress
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Kress.
What the weather is like in Kress, month by month
Kress sees roughly 142 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 53, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 53° | 36° | 24° |
| April | 75° | 57° | 43° |
| July | 93° | 79° | 66° |
| October | 75° | 58° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Kress
The nearest airport, Lubbock Preston Smith International, is about 49 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Albuquerque International Sunport, about 282 miles away.
The best schools in and around Kress
Schools across Kress average a C, better than 40% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Kress ElD+ · 23% proficient
- Lockney ElD · 20% proficient
- Tulia ElD− · 13% proficient
Top middle schools
- Tulia J HC− · 30% proficient
- Lockney J HC− · 30% proficient
Top high schools
- Plainview H SB+ · 57% proficient
- Kress H SB− · 42% proficient
- Tulia H SC− · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Kress school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Kress 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 Kress against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Kress
Is Kress a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Kress ranks 40,689th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on short commutes, low taxes, and the weather, and lowest on tree cover 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 Kress expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $107,358. The overall cost of living runs about 25% below the national average. Set against a $49,786 median income, cost of living beats 21% of towns.
Is Kress safe?
Kress is safer than 15% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $573 per resident a year.
Compare Kress with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Kress. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Kress 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.
Kress detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Kress: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Kress: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Kress: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Kress: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Kress 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.