Best PlacesTexarkana, TX Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Texarkana metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Renelibrary, CC BY-SA 4.0, via commons
Texarkana ranks 364th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on low incomes and internet speeds. It does better on a stable housing market, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Texarkana metro
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 Texarkana
The towns and districts of the Texarkana metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Ashdown
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and more adults hold degrees.
New Boston & Hooks
Crime runs lower, though tree cover is thinner.
DeKalb & Foreman
It is quieter and prices have run up less.
Downtown Texarkana
More households have young kids and fewer homes sit empty.
Wake Village
Schools score lower and health care is harder to reach.
Texarkana
Fewer residents vote and heat risk is higher.
Fouke
Health outcomes score lower.
Texarkana shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 1% of the country and others in the top 6%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Texarkana's strengths and weaknesses
Texarkana ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. A stable housing market, affordable childcare, and short commutes carry most of that.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: low incomes, internet speeds, and empty homes all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Texarkana ranks high
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$600 a month, better than 93% of metro areas
- Short commute20.1 minutes each way, better than 85% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 83% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than 82% of metro areas
Where Texarkana ranks low
- Household income$61,840 median, better than only 5% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- Low vacancyBetter than only 7% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than only 7% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than only 7% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Texarkana
A household needs to earn about $46,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Texarkana home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $61,840, 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 Texarkana's effective rate of 0.95%, 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 Texarkana
Texarkana's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Texarkana.
Who works in Texarkana, and how
Work in Texarkana centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 91%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Texarkana
Texarkana has more restaurants and bars per resident than 93% of metro areas and more late-night spots per resident than 95% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Texarkana and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Texarkana growing, and who is moving in?
Texarkana has lost about 2% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Dallas, TX.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Texarkana go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Texarkana, month by month
Texarkana sees roughly 84 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 95 degrees. January highs sit near 56, with lows near 37. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, October, and November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 56° | 46° | 37° |
| April | 77° | 65° | 55° |
| July | 95° | 84° | 75° |
| October | 79° | 67° | 57° |
Flying in and out of Texarkana
The nearest airport, Texarkana Regional-Webb Field, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Dallas Love Field, about 164 miles away.
The best schools in and around Texarkana
Schools across Texarkana average a C+, better than 44% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Martha & Josh Morriss Math & Engineering ElA+ · 87% proficient
- Pleasant Grove IntA · 66% proficient
- Red Lick ElA · 65% proficient
Top middle schools
- Pleasant Grove MiddleA · 59% proficient
- Red Lick MiddleA− · 54% proficient
- New Boston MiddleB · 45% proficient
Top high schools
- Redwater H SA · 75% proficient
- Pleasant Grove H SA− · 65% proficient
- Hooks H SA− · 62% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Texarkana school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Texarkana 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 Texarkana against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Texarkana suits
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Texarkana
Is Texarkana a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Texarkana ranks 364th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on a stable housing market, affordable childcare, and short commutes, and lowest on low incomes and internet speeds. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Texarkana expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $171,493. The overall cost of living runs about 19% below the national average. Set against a $61,840 median income, cost of living beats 12% of metro areas.
Is Texarkana safe?
Texarkana is safer than 17% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $585 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Texarkana?
July highs average about 95 degrees, and January highs near 56 with lows near 37. That works out to about 84 pleasant days a year, more than 45% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Texarkana?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Ashdown, New Boston & Hooks, and DeKalb & Foreman. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Texarkana good for families?
Schools beat 44% of metro areas, crime safety beats 17%, and childcare runs $600 a month.
Is Texarkana good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 12% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 6% of metro areas. About 6% of workers already work from home.
Compare Texarkana with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Texarkana. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Texarkana 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.
Texarkana detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Texarkana: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Texarkana: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Texarkana: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Texarkana: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Texarkana 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.