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Booming Houston 'burb named best place to buy a home and raise a family in America

The Woodlands is the best place to buy a home in America, per Niche.

Photo courtesy of The Woodlands Arts Council

Texas homebuyers and families searching for their next place to call home should be looking at this Houston suburb, which was just named one of the best cities to live in America in a new report from Niche.

Niche is an online platform that connects families to schools or colleges; their 2023 report’s data was collected through resident reviews in combination with information from the Census and the FBI. This latest release is their ninth annual report, with rankings determined after a study of 228 American cities and nearly 18,000 towns and neighborhoods.

The Woodlands made it at the top of the list in several categories. It was named the No. 1 best city to buy a house in America, outranking Overland Park, Kansas (No. 2) and Naperville, Illinois (No. 3). It earned an A+ rating for its job market, and an A- rank for its diversity, housing availability, and outdoor activities.

The north Houston suburb came in at No. 2 in the ranking of best cities to raise a family, with Naperville sliding into first place, and Arlington, Virginia, taking third. The Woodlands has an A+ ranking for its family-friendliness and public school selection.

In the overall best American city to live in category, The Woodlands ranked No. 3. Cambridge, Massachusetts (No. 1) and Arlington, Virginia (No. 2) took the top two spots in the ranking.

Niche founder and CEO Luke Skurman said in a press release that the company is proud to be “a trusted resource for families, homebuyers” and many other professionals.

“For almost ten years now, our Best Places to Live rankings have helped people find a new neighborhood to call home based on what matters most to them, whether that’s affordable housing, easy access to amenities or excellent local schools,” said Skurman. “Families wondering about an area’s school district can also use our comprehensive school profiles and rankings to get a feel for their child’s potential school.”

Two Dallas suburbs also earned a few spots in Niche's report. Plano ranked No. 10 for the best cities to raise a family and No. 8 on the list of best American cities to buy a house. Plano also ranked just outside the top 10 at No. 11 in the category of best overall city to live in. Richardson, which is just south of Plano, ranked No. 12 for best overall American city to live in and No. 13 for best cities to raise a family.

The full report and its methodology can be found on Niche's website.

Texas homebuyers rankings best american cities best cities The Woodlands

H-Town rising

Houston leaps back into top 50 'World's Best Cities' list for 2025

Photo by Adrian Newell on Unsplash

Houston made a big leap back into the top 50, ranking No. 40, after previously plummeting into No. 72 last year.

Lively Houston has regained its rightful place among the top 50 best cities in the world, according to a prestigious new report by Resonance Consultancy.

The Canada-based real estate and tourism marketing advisors ranked Houston the 40th best city worldwide for 2025 in its annual "World's Best Cities" list.

The report quantifies the relative qualities of livability, "lovability," and prosperity for the world's top 100 cities with metropolitan populations of 1 million or more. New to the 10th anniversary edition, Resonance partnered with global market researchers Ipsos to include perception-based data into the rankings, surveying over 22,000 people in 30 countries worldwide to determine "the most desirable places to visit, live or work."

Houston made a major rebound after plummeting to No. 73 in last year's report. In 2022, Houston ranked No. 42.

Resonance refers to its previous "World's Best Cities" reports and its 2024 "America's Best Cities" list – which ranked Houston in the top 10 – when explaining the Bayou City's successes. The report praised Houston's vast cultural diversity and placed a great focus on its economic prosperity, even going so far as to suggest Houston residents make more money "and can sock more away."

"...[W]here America’s fourth-largest city truly takes off is in its economic heft and wealth, ranking No. 9 globally for GDP per Capita and No. 14 for Fortune 500 companies in town," the report said. "All that rolls up into an overall Prosperity index ranking of No. 36, which is even more impressive given the No. 14-ranked Price-to Income Ratio [of the city]."

Elsewhere in Texas, Austin and Dallas also earned spots on the World's Best Cities list for 2025, but only one made a similar rebound from the previous year's rankings. Dallas moved up from No. 66 in last year's report to its current rank as No. 55. Meanwhile, Austin took its first tumble out of the 43rd spot (which it had occupied for two years straight) and now ranks No. 53.

London held onto its crown as the No. 1 best city in the world for 2025, followed by New York (No. 2), Paris (No. 3), Tokyo (No. 4), and Singapore (No. 5).