Best PlacesVictoria, TX Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Victoria 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 Jim Evans, CC BY-SA 4.0, via commons
Victoria ranks 348th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on summer heat and education levels. It does better on affordable childcare, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Victoria 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 Victoria
The towns and districts of the Victoria 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.
Inez
Fewer homes sit empty, more adults hold degrees, and heat risk is lower.
Downtown Victoria
Prices have run up more.
Goliad
It is quieter, though advertised internet is slower.
Bloomington
Homes cost less, though fewer households have young kids.
Scores across Victoria run from about the 1st to the 83rd percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Victoria's strengths and weaknesses
Victoria ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. Affordable childcare, a stable housing market, and low taxes carry most of that.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: summer heat, education levels, and thin health care access all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Victoria ranks high
- Cheap childcare$572 a month, better than 96% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 89% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 89% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than 86% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than 82% of metro areas
Where Victoria ranks low
- Heat safetyBetter than only 5% of metro areas
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 9% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than only 10% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Victoria
A household needs to earn about $60,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Victoria home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $73,551, 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 Victoria's effective rate of 1.39%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Victoria
Victoria'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 Victoria.
Who works in Victoria, and how
Work in Victoria centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 89%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Victoria
Victoria has less parkland per resident than most metro areas. That concentrates in some parts of Victoria and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Victoria growing, and who is moving in?
Victoria has grown about 1% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Houston, TX.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Victoria go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Victoria, month by month
Victoria sees roughly 124 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 96 degrees. January highs sit near 70, with lows near 43. The comfortable stretch runs October through April.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 70° | 55° | 43° |
| April | 84° | 71° | 59° |
| July | 96° | 84° | 75° |
| October | 88° | 72° | 60° |
Flying in and out of Victoria
The nearest airport, Victoria Regional, is about 5 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is San Antonio International, about 101 miles away.
The best schools in and around Victoria
Schools across Victoria average a C, better than 20% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Industrial El WestA · 63% proficient
- Nursery ElA · 63% proficient
- Vickers ElB+ · 51% proficient
Top middle schools
- Harold Cade MiddleB− · 42% proficient
- Goliad MiddleC+ · 38% proficient
- Refugio J HC · 35% proficient
Top high schools
- Refugio H SB · 47% proficient
- Goliad H SB− · 43% proficient
- Victoria West H SC+ · 37% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Victoria school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Victoria 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 Victoria against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Victoria suits
Retirees
The weather beats 75% of metro areas and it is quieter than 74%.
Common questions about living in Victoria
Is Victoria a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Victoria ranks 348th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on affordable childcare, a stable housing market, and low taxes, and lowest on summer heat and education levels. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Victoria expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $213,031. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $73,551 median income, cost of living beats 45% of metro areas.
Is Victoria safe?
Victoria is safer than 10% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $584 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Victoria?
July highs average about 96 degrees, and January highs near 70 with lows near 43. That works out to about 124 pleasant days a year, more than 75% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Victoria?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Inez, Downtown Victoria, and Goliad. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Victoria good for families?
Schools beat 20% of metro areas, crime safety beats 10%, and childcare runs $572 a month.
Is Victoria good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 45% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 52% of metro areas. About 8% of workers already work from home.
Compare Victoria with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Victoria. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Victoria 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.
Victoria detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Victoria: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Victoria: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Victoria: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Victoria: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Victoria 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.