Best PlacesThe Woodlands, TX Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around The Woodlands, 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.
The Woodlands ranks 11th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. Paychecks stretch further here than almost anywhere else: the median household brings in $157,411, everyday costs sit below the national average, and good schools ranks near the top of the country. The main drawbacks are walkability, air quality, and transit.
The best neighborhoods in The Woodlands
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 The Woodlands
The parts of The Woodlands, 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.
Creekside Park
More households have young kids, crime runs lower, and incomes run higher.
Alden Bridge
Local pay stretches further and heat risk is lower.
Panther Creek, East Shore & Town Center
Streets are more walkable, though tree cover is thinner.
Sterling Ridge
More adults hold degrees and schools score higher.
Cochran's Crossing & Indian Springs
Homes cost less and health care is easier to reach.
Harper's Landing
It is noisier and fewer residents vote.
Southern The Woodlands
Fewer homes sit empty, though commutes are longer.
Grogan's Mill
Prices have run up less.
Scores across The Woodlands run from about the 27th to the 100th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
The Woodlands' strengths and weaknesses
The Woodlands 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. Good schools and high incomes follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Walkability, air quality, 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 The Woodlands ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 99% of cities
- School gradeA, better than 99% of cities
- Household income$157,411 median, better than 98% of cities
- QuietBetter than 97% of cities
- Educational attainmentBetter than 96% of cities
Where The Woodlands ranks low
- WalkabilityBetter than only 9% of cities
- Air qualityBetter than only 12% of cities
- TransitBetter than only 13% of cities
- Low property taxBetter than only 15% of cities
- Heat safetyBetter than only 33% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in The Woodlands
A household needs to earn about $160,000 a year to comfortably buy the median The Woodlands home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $157,411; 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 The Woodlands' effective rate of 1.50%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in The Woodlands
The Woodlands'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 The Woodlands.
Who works in The Woodlands, and how
Work in The Woodlands centers on professional & technical and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 75%
- Work from home 22%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in The Woodlands
The Woodlands has more restaurants and bars per resident than 77% of cities and more parkland per resident than 91% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of The Woodlands and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in The Woodlands, month by month
The Woodlands sees roughly 111 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 95 degrees. January highs sit near 65, with lows near 44. The comfortable stretch runs February through April and October through December.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 65° | 53° | 44° |
| April | 81° | 70° | 61° |
| July | 95° | 84° | 76° |
| October | 84° | 72° | 61° |
Flying in and out of The Woodlands
George Bush Intcntl/Houston sits about 17 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 23.3 million passengers in 2025, with 214 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around The Woodlands
Schools across The Woodlands average an A, better than 99% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Creekside Forest ElA+ · 90% proficient
- David ElA+ · 82% proficient
- Galatas ElA+ · 81% proficient
Top middle schools
- Mccullough J HA+ · 83% proficient
- Mitchell IntA+ · 78% proficient
- Collins IntA+ · 76% proficient
Top high schools
- The Woodlands H SA+ · 83% proficient
- Tomball H SA · 72% proficient
- College Park H SA · 72% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every The Woodlands school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
The Woodlands 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 The Woodlands against the other 444 cities.
Who The Woodlands suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 100% of cities, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 22% already work from home.
Common questions about living in The Woodlands
Is The Woodlands a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, The Woodlands ranks 11th of 445 cities. It scores highest on what local pay buys, good schools, and high incomes, and lowest on walkability and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is The Woodlands expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $558,669. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $157,411 median income, cost of living beats 100% of cities.
Is The Woodlands safe?
Yes, The Woodlands is safer than 57% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $445 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in The Woodlands?
July highs average about 95 degrees, and January highs near 65 with lows near 44. That works out to about 111 pleasant days a year, more than 54% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in The Woodlands?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Creekside Park, Alden Bridge, and Panther Creek, East Shore & Town Center. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is The Woodlands good for families?
Schools beat 99% of cities, crime safety beats 57%, and childcare runs $842 a month.
Is The Woodlands good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 100% of cities, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 81% of cities. About 22% of workers already work from home.
Compare The Woodlands with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to The Woodlands. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in The Woodlands 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.
The Woodlands detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for The Woodlands: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in The Woodlands: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of The Woodlands: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in The Woodlands: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
The Woodlands 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.