Best PlacesStafford, TX Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Stafford, 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.
Stafford ranks 1,598th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cell coverage by a wide margin, and civic engagement ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Stafford
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 Stafford
The parts of Stafford, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first.
Parkway Trails
Sugarland
Clark Plaza One
Scores across Stafford run from about the 7th to the 71st percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Stafford's strengths and weaknesses
Where Stafford ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 99% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 88% of cities
- State fiscal healthBetter than 88% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 82% of cities
- Internet speedBetter than 82% of cities
Where Stafford ranks low
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 6% of cities
- Crime safetyBetter than only 6% of cities
- Air qualityBetter than only 10% of cities
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 11% of cities
- Local economyBetter than only 14% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Stafford
A household needs to earn about $77,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Stafford home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $80,420, 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 Stafford's effective rate of 1.25%, 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 Stafford
Stafford runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Stafford.
Who works in Stafford, and how
Work in Stafford centers on health care & social 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 82%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Stafford
Stafford has more restaurants and bars per resident than 87% of cities. The coast is about 38 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Stafford and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Stafford, month by month
Stafford sees roughly 127 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 95 degrees. January highs sit near 66, with lows near 46. The comfortable stretch runs October through April.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 66° | 55° | 46° |
| April | 82° | 71° | 62° |
| July | 95° | 85° | 76° |
| October | 85° | 73° | 63° |
Flying in and out of Stafford
William P Hobby sits about 18 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 Stafford
Schools across Stafford average a C, better than 27% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Barrington Place ElC+ · 37% proficient
- Meadows ElC · 32% proficient
- Edgar Glover Jr ElC · 32% proficient
Top middle schools
- Dulles MiddleB · 44% proficient
- Stafford MiddleC− · 28% proficient
- Missouri City MiddleD · 23% proficient
Top high schools
- Kerr H SA+ · 85% proficient
- Dulles H SA− · 63% proficient
- Stafford H SB− · 42% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Stafford school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Stafford 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 Stafford against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Stafford suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 11% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Stafford
Is Stafford a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Stafford ranks 1,598th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on cell coverage, low taxes, and state finances, and lowest on civic engagement and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Stafford expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $279,021. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $80,420 median income, cost of living beats 51% of cities.
Is Stafford safe?
Stafford is safer than 6% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $682 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Stafford?
July highs average about 95 degrees, and January highs near 66 with lows near 46. That works out to about 127 pleasant days a year, more than 72% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Stafford?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Parkway Trails, Sugarland, and Clark Plaza One. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Compare Stafford with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Stafford. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Stafford 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.
Stafford detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Stafford: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Stafford: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Stafford: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Stafford: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Stafford 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.