Best PlacesAustin, TX Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Austin, 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.
Austin ranks 36th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. Paychecks stretch further here than almost anywhere else: the median household brings in $113,549, everyday costs sit below the national average, and an educated workforce ranks near the top of the country. The main drawbacks are summer heat, property taxes, and air quality.
The best neighborhoods in Austin
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 Austin
The parts of Austin, 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.
Davenport Ranch West & Treemont
Incomes run higher, schools score higher, and more adults hold degrees.
Northwest Austin & River Dance at Steiner Ranch
More households have young kids, though streets are more car-dependent.
Downtown Austin, West University Austin & University Of Texas
Transit reaches more jobs and biking is better.
Allandale, Milwood & North Shoal Creek
Health care is easier to reach and local pay stretches further.
Garrison Park, East Oak Hill & West Oak Hill
More residents vote and crime runs lower.
Martin Luther King, Windsor Park & Rmma
Tree cover is thinner and it is noisier.
North Austin, North Burnet & Georgian Acres
Homes cost less.
Franklin Park, Riverside & Parker Lane
Scores close to North Austin, North Burnet & Georgian Acres, except that heat risk is higher here.
Montopolis & Pleasant Valley
Commutes are longer.
Austin shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 8% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Austin's strengths and weaknesses
Austin ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Population health, what local pay buys, and an educated workforce carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Summer heat, property taxes, and air quality hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Austin ranks high
- Health outlookBetter than 93% of cities
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 93% of cities
- Educational attainmentBetter than 90% of cities
- Internet speedBetter than 85% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 84% of cities
Where Austin ranks low
- Heat safetyBetter than only 14% of cities
- Low property taxBetter than only 24% of cities
- Air qualityBetter than only 29% of cities
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 32% of cities
- State infrastructureBetter than only 40% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Austin
A household needs to earn about $181,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Austin home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $113,549, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Austin's effective rate of 1.32%, 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 Austin
Austin runs younger than the country, 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 Austin.
Who works in Austin, and how
Work in Austin centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 62%
- Work from home 31%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Austin
Austin has more restaurants and bars per resident than 86% of cities and more parkland per resident than 92% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Austin and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Austin, month by month
Austin sees roughly 152 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 99 degrees. January highs sit near 64, with lows near 43. The comfortable stretch runs February through April and October through December.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 64° | 52° | 43° |
| April | 82° | 70° | 60° |
| July | 99° | 86° | 76° |
| October | 85° | 72° | 62° |
Flying in and out of Austin
Austin-Bergstrom International sits about 9 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 10.7 million passengers in 2025, with 127 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Austin
Schools across Austin average a C, better than 56% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Cactus Ranch ElA+ · 85% proficient
- Canyon Creek ElA+ · 80% proficient
- Patsy Sommer ElA+ · 77% proficient
Top middle schools
- Florence W Stiles MiddleA+ · 77% proficient
- Olympia HillsA+ · 75% proficient
- Hill Country MiddleA+ · 75% proficient
Top high schools
- Lasa H SA+ · 99% proficient
- University Of Texas At Austin H SA+ · 90% proficient
- Westlake H SA+ · 85% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Austin school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Austin 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 Austin against the other 444 cities.
Who Austin suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 93% of cities, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 31% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Austin
Is Austin a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Austin ranks 36th of 445 cities. It scores highest on population health, what local pay buys, and an educated workforce, and lowest on summer heat and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Austin expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $647,228. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $113,549 median income, cost of living beats 93% of cities.
Is Austin safe?
Yes, Austin is safer than 67% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $404 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Austin?
July highs average about 99 degrees, and January highs near 64 with lows near 43. That works out to about 152 pleasant days a year, more than 74% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Austin?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Davenport Ranch West & Treemont, Northwest Austin & River Dance at Steiner Ranch, and Downtown Austin, West University Austin & University Of Texas. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Austin good for families?
Schools beat 56% of cities, crime safety beats 67%, and childcare runs $1,039 a month.
Is Austin good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 93% of cities, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 85% of cities. About 31% of workers already work from home.
Compare Austin with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Austin. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Austin 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.
Austin detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Austin: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Austin: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Austin: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Austin: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Austin 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.