Best PlacesRound Rock, TX Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Round Rock, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages hide a wide spread here, so the area matters as much as the address. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Round Rock ranks 18th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. Paychecks stretch further here than almost anywhere else: the median household brings in $127,553, everyday costs sit below the national average, and a strong job market ranks near the top of the country. The main drawbacks are walkability, property taxes, and transit.
The best neighborhoods in Round Rock
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 Round Rock
The parts of Round Rock, 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.
Paloma Lake
More households have young kids, incomes run higher, and local pay stretches further.
Mayfield Ranch
More adults hold degrees and schools score higher.
Crossley Crossing
Biking is worse.
Round Rock East
Crime runs higher and fewer residents vote.
Scores across Round Rock run from about the 22nd to the 100th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Round Rock's strengths and weaknesses
Round Rock ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. What local pay buys is the standout, in the top 3% of cities. A strong job market and low disaster risk follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Walkability, property taxes, and transit hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Round Rock ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 97% of cities
- Local economyBetter than 95% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than 94% of cities
- Crime safetyBetter than 94% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 92% of cities
Where Round Rock ranks low
- WalkabilityBetter than only 12% of cities
- Low property taxBetter than only 17% of cities
- TransitBetter than only 20% of cities
- BikingBetter than only 23% of cities
- Heat safetyBetter than only 28% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Round Rock
A household needs to earn about $130,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Round Rock home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $127,553; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Round Rock's effective rate of 1.46%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Round Rock
Round Rock runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Round Rock.
Who works in Round Rock, and how
Work in Round Rock centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 71%
- Work from home 27%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Round Rock
Round Rock has more restaurants and bars per resident than 77% of cities and more parkland per resident than 90% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Round Rock and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Round Rock, month by month
Round Rock sees roughly 161 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 97 degrees. January highs sit near 62, with lows near 39. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, October, and November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 62° | 49° | 39° |
| April | 80° | 68° | 58° |
| July | 97° | 86° | 76° |
| October | 83° | 70° | 59° |
Flying in and out of Round Rock
Austin-Bergstrom International sits about 23 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 10.7 million passengers in 2025, with 127 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Round Rock
Schools across Round Rock average a B, better than 72% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Cactus Ranch ElA+ · 85% proficient
- Elsa England ElA+ · 74% proficient
- Fern Bluff ElA · 62% proficient
Top middle schools
- Florence W Stiles MiddleA+ · 77% proficient
- James Garland Walsh MiddleA+ · 73% proficient
- Cedar Valley MiddleA+ · 69% proficient
Top high schools
- Round Rock H SA · 74% proficient
- Rrisd Early College H SA · 68% proficient
- Dripping Springs H SA− · 65% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Round Rock school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Round Rock 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 Round Rock against the other 444 cities.
Who Round Rock suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 97% of cities, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 27% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Round Rock
Is Round Rock a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Round Rock ranks 18th of 445 cities. It scores highest on what local pay buys, a strong job market, and low disaster risk, and lowest on walkability and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Round Rock expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $457,822. The overall cost of living runs about 17% below the national average. Set against a $127,553 median income, cost of living beats 97% of cities.
Is Round Rock safe?
Yes, Round Rock is safer than 94% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $273 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Round Rock?
July highs average about 97 degrees, and January highs near 62 with lows near 39. That works out to about 161 pleasant days a year, more than 76% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Round Rock?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Paloma Lake, Mayfield Ranch, and Crossley Crossing. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Round Rock good for families?
Schools beat 72% of cities, crime safety beats 94%, and childcare runs $926 a month.
Is Round Rock good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 97% of cities, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 80% of cities. About 27% of workers already work from home.
Compare Round Rock with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Round Rock. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Round Rock 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.
Round Rock detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Round Rock: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Round Rock: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Round Rock: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Round Rock: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Round Rock 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.