Best PlacesWaller County, TX Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Waller County, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Waller County ranks 1,326th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on big-city access by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Waller County
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 Waller County
The parts of Waller County, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the county.
Katy
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and more households have young kids.
Hockley
Tree cover is thicker and it is quieter.
Hempstead
Prairie View
Brookshire
Fewer adults hold degrees and schools score lower.
Waller
Waller County shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 8% of the country and others in the top 9%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Waller County's strengths and weaknesses
Where Waller County ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 94% of counties
- Local economyBetter than 93% of counties
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 90% of counties
- Cell coverageBetter than 86% of counties
- Nice weatherabout 129 pleasant days a year, better than 81% of counties
Where Waller County ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 2% of counties
- Short commute32.2 minutes each way, better than only 9% of counties
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 10% of counties
- Heat safetyBetter than only 15% of counties
- WalkabilityBetter than only 16% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Waller County
A household needs to earn about $86,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Waller County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $80,401; 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 Waller County's effective rate of 1.21%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Waller County
Waller County runs younger than the country, 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 Waller County.
Who works in Waller County, and how
Work in Waller County centers on retail trade and construction. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Waller County
Waller County has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most counties and less parkland per resident than most counties. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Waller County and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Waller County growing, and who is moving in?
Waller County has grown about 39% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from the rest of the Houston, TX metro.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Waller County go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Waller County, month by month
Waller County sees roughly 129 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 95 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 | 81° | 70° | 61° |
| July | 95° | 84° | 75° |
| October | 85° | 72° | 61° |
Flying in and out of Waller County
George Bush Intcntl/Houston sits about 37 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 Waller County
Schools across Waller County average a C, better than 45% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Ray And Jamie Wolman ElA+ · 79% proficient
- Katy ElA− · 58% proficient
- Bryant ElB+ · 53% proficient
Top middle schools
- Woodcreek J HA+ · 74% proficient
- Katy J HA− · 53% proficient
- Schultz J HB− · 40% proficient
Top high schools
- Katy H SA · 72% proficient
- Magnolia West H SB+ · 53% proficient
- Waller H SC+ · 39% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Waller County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Waller County 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 Waller County against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Waller County suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 73% of counties, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 11% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Waller County
Is Waller County a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Waller County ranks 1,326th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on big-city access, a strong job market, and low taxes, and lowest on air quality and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Waller County expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $313,286. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $80,401 median income, cost of living beats 73% of counties.
Is Waller County safe?
Waller County is safer than 40% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $441 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Waller County?
July highs average about 95 degrees, and January highs near 65 with lows near 45. That works out to about 129 pleasant days a year, more than 81% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Waller County?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Katy, Hockley, and Hempstead. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Compare Waller County with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Waller County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Waller County 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.
Waller County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Waller County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Waller County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Waller County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Waller County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Waller County 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.