Best PlacesPasadena, TX Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Pasadena, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Pasadena ranks 414th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 15 minutes away. Its strengths are cell coverage and a stable housing market. The cost shows up in thin health care access, education levels, and civic engagement.
The best neighborhoods in Pasadena
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 Pasadena
The parts of Pasadena, 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.
South Houston Gardens, Clear Lake & Village Grove East
More adults hold degrees, local pay stretches further, and incomes run higher.
Hubbell
It is quieter, though schools score lower.
Bosque San Leon & Bayshore Park
Heat risk is higher and fewer households have young kids.
Ward Acres, Mount Vernon & Shaver Place
Fewer residents vote and health care is harder to reach.
Houston Suburban Homes
Prices have run up more.
Downtown Pasadena
Streets are more walkable, though more homes sit empty.
Pasadina & Alta Vista Acres
Health outcomes score lower and tree cover is thinner.
Scores across Pasadena run from about the 1st to the 86th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Pasadena's strengths and weaknesses
Pasadena ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. Cell coverage, a stable housing market, and low taxes carry most of that.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: thin health care access, education levels, and civic engagement all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Pasadena ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 94% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 94% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 84% of cities
- State fiscal healthBetter than 84% of cities
- Cheap childcare$842 a month, better than 78% of cities
Where Pasadena ranks low
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 1% of cities
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 2% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 2% of cities
- Local economyBetter than only 8% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 10% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Pasadena
A household needs to earn about $59,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Pasadena home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $69,746, 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 Pasadena's effective rate of 1.34%, 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 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Pasadena
Pasadena 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 Pasadena.
Who works in Pasadena, and how
Work in Pasadena centers on construction and retail trade. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Pasadena
Pasadena has more restaurants and bars per resident than 72% of cities and more parkland per resident than 81% of cities. The coast is about 15 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Pasadena and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Pasadena, month by month
Pasadena sees roughly 133 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 Pasadena
William P Hobby sits about 6 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 Pasadena
Schools across Pasadena average a C, better than 31% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Fairmont ElB+ · 54% proficient
- G W RobinsonB+ · 53% proficient
- Brookwood ElB+ · 53% proficient
Top middle schools
- Fairmont J HA+ · 69% proficient
- Deer Park J HA · 62% proficient
- Seabrook IntA− · 58% proficient
Top high schools
- Deer Park H SA− · 64% proficient
- Clear Lake H SA− · 64% proficient
- Clear Falls H SA− · 61% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Pasadena school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Pasadena 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 Pasadena against the other 444 cities.
Who Pasadena suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 8% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Pasadena
Is Pasadena a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Pasadena ranks 414th of 445 cities. It scores highest on cell coverage, a stable housing market, and low taxes, and lowest on thin health care access and education levels. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Pasadena expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $210,868. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $69,746 median income, cost of living beats 30% of cities.
Is Pasadena safe?
Pasadena is safer than 25% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $563 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Pasadena?
July highs average about 93 degrees, and January highs near 64 with lows near 48. That works out to about 133 pleasant days a year, more than 65% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Pasadena?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are South Houston Gardens, Clear Lake & Village Grove East, Hubbell, and Bosque San Leon & Bayshore Park. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Pasadena good for families?
Schools beat 31% of cities, crime safety beats 25%, and childcare runs $842 a month.
Is Pasadena good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 30% of cities, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 71% of cities. About 8% of workers already work from home.
Compare Pasadena with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Pasadena. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Pasadena 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.
Pasadena detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Pasadena: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Pasadena: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Pasadena: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Pasadena: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Pasadena 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.