Best PlacesLaredo, TX Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Laredo metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Not home at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via wiki
Laredo ranks 286th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on thin health care access and civic engagement. It does better on the weather, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Laredo 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 Laredo
The towns and districts of the Laredo 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.
Downtown Laredo
Crime runs lower and heat risk is lower.
Rio Bravo
Local pay stretches less far and incomes run lower.
El Cenizo
More homes sit empty and health outcomes score lower.
Laredo shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 4% of the country and others in the top 6%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Laredo's strengths and weaknesses
Laredo lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. The weather is the standout, in the top 2% of metro areas. Walkability and affordable childcare follow.
The one real hole is thin health care access, near the bottom of the country. Civic engagement and education levels also cost it ground. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Laredo ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 198 pleasant days a year, better than 98% of metro areas
- WalkabilityBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$582 a month, better than 94% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than 93% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than 92% of metro areas
Where Laredo ranks low
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than only 7% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Laredo
A household needs to earn about $54,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Laredo home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $66,985, 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 Laredo's effective rate of 1.61%, 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Laredo
Laredo 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 Laredo.
Who works in Laredo, and how
Work in Laredo centers on transportation & warehousing and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 90%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Laredo
Laredo has more restaurants and bars per resident than 94% of metro areas and more parkland per resident than 73% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Laredo and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Laredo growing, and who is moving in?
Laredo has grown about 2% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from San Antonio, TX.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Laredo go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Laredo, month by month
Laredo sees roughly 198 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 102 degrees. January highs sit near 71, with lows near 47. The comfortable stretch runs November through March.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 71° | 57° | 47° |
| April | 91° | 76° | 65° |
| July | 102° | 89° | 77° |
| October | 89° | 76° | 66° |
Flying in and out of Laredo
The nearest airport, Laredo International, is about 2 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is San Antonio International, about 152 miles away.
The best schools in and around Laredo
Schools across Laredo average a C, better than 21% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- J Kawas ElA+ · 80% proficient
- Farias ElB · 44% proficient
- Kazen ElB− · 42% proficient
Top middle schools
- United MiddleB+ · 48% proficient
- Trautmann MiddleB · 46% proficient
- Elias Herrera MiddleB · 44% proficient
Top high schools
- Hector J Garcia Early College H SA+ · 86% proficient
- John B Alexander H SB+ · 52% proficient
- United H SB · 50% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Laredo school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Laredo 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 Laredo against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Laredo suits
Families
Schools land around the 21st percentile and crime safety beats 72%.
Common questions about living in Laredo
Is Laredo a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Laredo ranks 286th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on the weather, walkability, and affordable childcare, and lowest on thin health care access and civic engagement. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Laredo expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $186,281. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $66,985 median income, cost of living beats 12% of metro areas.
Is Laredo safe?
Yes, Laredo is safer than 72% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $334 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Laredo?
July highs average about 102 degrees, and January highs near 71 with lows near 47. That works out to about 198 pleasant days a year, more than 98% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Laredo?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Downtown Laredo, Rio Bravo, and El Cenizo. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Laredo good for families?
Schools beat 21% of metro areas, crime safety beats 72%, and childcare runs $582 a month.
Is Laredo good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 12% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 48% of metro areas. About 6% of workers already work from home.
Compare Laredo with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Laredo. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Laredo 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.
Laredo detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Laredo: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Laredo: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Laredo: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Laredo: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Laredo 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.