Best and Worst Suburbs
Best and worst Houston suburbs: Top locales get A+ for livability; others aren't so dandy
While there are a myriad of suburbs situated within the Houston metro area, a new ranking has deemed one suburb as better than the rest.
Ranking website Niche named Friendswood as the Best Suburb in the Houston Metro Area. The Galveston County town was the most highly-ranked Houston area suburb on the list of the Best Suburbs in Texas, coming in at No. 12.
The ranking noted that Friendswood — which received an "A+" grade overall — boasts high home values and low unemployment levels, as well as a population with "generally high education levels and very high income levels."
The suburb, which has 36,375 residents, is situated between League City and Pearland; both are also on the list of Top 10 Best Houston Suburbs. (The best suburb listing excludes any city over 100,000 residents.)
According to Niche, the Best Suburbs rankings "provide a comprehensive assessment of the overall livability and quality of life of an area at the suburb level." Each suburb is graded on key factors, including housing, employment, education, crime rates and traffic, in order to measure the overall quality of an area.
Other top Houston suburbs, each of which received an "A+" grade overall, are:
- Webster (No. 2)
- League City (No. 3)
- Missouri City (No. 4)
- Nassau Bay (No. 5)
- Seabrook (No. 6)
- Jersey Village (No. 7)
Katy, Pearland and Tomball round out the Top 10 list.
On the other end of the spectrum, La Marque came in last at No. 37, just ahead of Hitchcock at No. 36. Both areas are located in Galveston County and received a "C+" grade overall.
Rollingwood, located in Travis County in the Austin metro area, was the only Texas suburb included on Niche's list of the 100 Best Suburbs in America.
