Best PlacesO'Donnell, TX Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around O'Donnell, 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.
O'Donnell ranks 29,904th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and education levels rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in O'Donnell
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.
O'Donnell's strengths and weaknesses
Where O'Donnell ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 97% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 94% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 92% of towns
- Short commute18.8 minutes each way, better than 91% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 87% of towns
Where O'Donnell ranks low
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 4% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 5% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 6% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 7% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 11% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in O'Donnell
A household needs to earn about $35,000 a year to comfortably buy the median O'Donnell home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $68,889, 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 O'Donnell's effective rate of 1.18%, 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 O'Donnell
O'Donnell runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for O'Donnell.
Who works in O'Donnell, and how
Work in O'Donnell centers on agriculture & forestry and education. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 91%
- Work from home 5%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in O'Donnell
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across O'Donnell.
What the weather is like in O'Donnell, month by month
O'Donnell sees roughly 133 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 97 degrees. January highs sit near 58, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 58° | 40° | 26° |
| April | 81° | 62° | 45° |
| July | 97° | 83° | 70° |
| October | 80° | 63° | 48° |
Flying in and out of O'Donnell
The nearest airport, Lubbock Preston Smith International, is about 48 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Dallas-Fort Worth International, about 276 miles away.
The best schools in and around O'Donnell
Schools across O'Donnell average a C+, better than 50% of towns.
Top middle schools
- Tahoka MiddleC · 33% proficient
- Post MiddleD− · 18% proficient
Top high schools
- Post H SB+ · 57% proficient
- Tahoka H SB · 47% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every O'Donnell school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
O'Donnell 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 O'Donnell against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in O'Donnell
Is O'Donnell a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, O'Donnell ranks 29,904th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, a stable housing market, and low taxes, and lowest on education levels and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is O'Donnell expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $126,633. The overall cost of living runs about 15% below the national average. Set against a $68,889 median income, cost of living beats 51% of towns.
Is O'Donnell safe?
O'Donnell is safer than 7% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $737 per resident a year.
Compare O'Donnell with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to O'Donnell. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in O'Donnell 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.
O'Donnell detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for O'Donnell: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in O'Donnell: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of O'Donnell: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in O'Donnell: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
O'Donnell 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.