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Houston suburbs named top places to live in Texas
The Woodlands and four area Houston suburbs ranked in the top 10 best places to live in Texas, according to a new study from NerdWallet.
The study looked into a number of different metrics to determine a city's quality of life, including public schools, walkability, crime rates, commute time, homeownership and unemployment rates.
The Woodlands took the top spot in the Lone Star State as the best place to live in Texas, according to the study. The booming Houston suburb earned top scores for education, low crime and unemployment rates. It did get dinged in transportation categories, with average commutes around 31 minutes and one of the worst walkability scores among all of the Texas communities.
Sugar Land was the next Houston-area city, coming in at No. 4. Homeownership in Sugar Land ranked at 81.3 percent, second only to Missouri City on the list of 50.
Pearland came in at No. 6, a key factor being that it was the safest city on the list. League City and Missouri City came in at No. 8 and No. 9, respectively. League City boasts high population growth and low unemployment rate, while Missouri City had the highest rate of homeownership on the list and top safety ratings.
Unfortunately for Houston proper, there's room for improvement. Of the 50 cities on the list, Houston came in at No. 47, behind San Antonio at No. 43 and Dallas at No. 46. Some of the main factors were high crime rates, lower homeownership rates and an average commute time of 27.8 minutes.
An earlier study by Rice University's Kinder Institute revealed that the greater Houston area's biggest problem for its quality of life was traffic, although most area residents felt their quality of life has improved over the past couple of years.
