Best PlacesThicket, TX Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Thicket, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Thicket ranks 48,250th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low taxes by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Thicket
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.
Thicket's strengths and weaknesses
Where Thicket ranks high
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 92% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 86% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 81% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 120 pleasant days a year, better than 80% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 80% of towns
Where Thicket ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 5% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 6% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 6% of towns
- Household income$44,792 median, better than only 7% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 8% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Thicket
A household needs to earn about $50,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Thicket home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $44,792; 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 Thicket's effective rate of 1.17%, 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 Thicket
Thicket runs older than the country, though fewer residents are over 65 than the national share, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Thicket.
Who works in Thicket, and how
Work in Thicket centers on hospitality & food and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 97%
- Work from home 2%
- Transit, walk, or bike 0%
Life in Thicket
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Thicket.
What the weather is like in Thicket, month by month
Thicket sees roughly 120 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 65, with lows near 45. The comfortable stretch runs February through April and October through December.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 65° | 53° | 45° |
| April | 80° | 69° | 61° |
| July | 93° | 83° | 76° |
| October | 84° | 71° | 61° |
Flying in and out of Thicket
The nearest airport, Jack Brooks Regional, is about 46 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is George Bush Intcntl/Houston, about 52 miles away.
The best schools in and around Thicket
Schools across Thicket average a D+, better than 18% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Hardin ElB− · 41% proficient
- Kountze IntC+ · 35% proficient
- West Hardin ElD+ · 25% proficient
Top middle schools
- Hardin J HC+ · 36% proficient
Top high schools
- Hardin H SB+ · 58% proficient
- Kountze H SC+ · 37% proficient
- West Hardin H SD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Thicket school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Thicket 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 Thicket against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Thicket
Is Thicket a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Thicket ranks 48,250th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low taxes, tree cover, and state finances, and lowest on air quality and the cost of living against local pay. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Thicket expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $180,334. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $44,792 median income, cost of living beats 6% of towns.
Is Thicket safe?
Thicket is safer than 13% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $586 per resident a year.
Compare Thicket with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Thicket. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Thicket 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.
Thicket detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Thicket: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Thicket: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Thicket: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Thicket: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Thicket 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.