Best PlacesSugar Land, TX Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Sugar Land, 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.
Sugar Land ranks 55th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. Paychecks stretch further here than almost anywhere else: the median household brings in $141,546, everyday costs sit below the national average, and an educated workforce ranks near the top of the country. The main drawbacks are transit, property taxes, and long commutes.
The best neighborhoods in Sugar Land
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 Sugar Land
The parts of Sugar Land, 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.
Eastern Sugar Land
More residents vote, more adults hold degrees, and health care is easier to reach.
Northeastern Sugar Land
Sugarland & Richmond Road Farms
More households have young kids and homes cost less.
Scores across Sugar Land run from about the 18th to the 98th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Sugar Land's strengths and weaknesses
Sugar Land 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 1% of cities. High incomes and a stable housing market follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Transit, property taxes, and long commutes hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Sugar Land ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 99% of cities
- Household income$141,546 median, better than 96% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 95% of cities
- Internet speedBetter than 94% of cities
- Health outlookBetter than 91% of cities
Where Sugar Land ranks low
- TransitBetter than only 5% of cities
- Low property taxBetter than only 7% of cities
- Short commute30.9 minutes each way, better than only 14% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than only 14% of cities
- Heat safetyBetter than only 19% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Sugar Land
A household needs to earn about $126,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Sugar Land home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $141,546, 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 Sugar Land's effective rate of 1.72%, 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 Sugar Land
Sugar Land's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Sugar Land.
Who works in Sugar Land, and how
Work in Sugar Land centers on health care & social and professional & technical. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 78%
- Work from home 20%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Sugar Land
Sugar Land has more restaurants and bars per resident than 85% of cities and more parkland per resident than 93% of cities. The coast is about 44 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Sugar Land and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Sugar Land, month by month
Sugar Land sees roughly 126 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 Sugar Land
William P Hobby sits about 21 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 Sugar Land
Schools across Sugar Land average a B+, better than 87% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Commonwealth ElA+ · 79% proficient
- Cornerstone ElA+ · 77% proficient
- Bess Campbell ElA+ · 76% proficient
Top middle schools
- Fort Settlement MiddleA+ · 80% proficient
- Reading J HA · 65% proficient
- Sartartia MiddleA · 63% proficient
Top high schools
- Clements H SA+ · 80% proficient
- George Ranch H SA · 68% proficient
- Lawrence E Elkins H SA− · 64% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Sugar Land school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Sugar Land 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 Sugar Land against the other 444 cities.
Who Sugar Land suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 99% of cities, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 20% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 61% of cities, health care access beats 72%, and it is quieter than 72%.
Common questions about living in Sugar Land
Is Sugar Land a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Sugar Land ranks 55th of 445 cities. It scores highest on what local pay buys, high incomes, and a stable housing market, and lowest on transit and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Sugar Land expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $428,865. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $141,546 median income, cost of living beats 99% of cities.
Is Sugar Land safe?
Sugar Land is safer than 46% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $469 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Sugar Land?
July highs average about 95 degrees, and January highs near 66 with lows near 46. That works out to about 126 pleasant days a year, more than 61% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Sugar Land?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Eastern Sugar Land, Northeastern Sugar Land, and Sugarland & Richmond Road Farms. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Sugar Land good for families?
Schools beat 87% of cities, crime safety beats 46%, and childcare runs $842 a month.
Is Sugar Land good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 99% of cities, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 94% of cities. About 20% of workers already work from home.
Compare Sugar Land with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Sugar Land. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Sugar Land 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.
Sugar Land detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Sugar Land: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Sugar Land: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Sugar Land: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Sugar Land: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Sugar Land 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.