While the Houston region continues to grow, newcomers mayrun into some livability issues.
That’s according to a new ranking of the nation’s most livable metro areas from RentCafe.com, a website focused on the rental housing market. This year’s list placed Houston at No. 127 out of 149 U.S. metros, which were evaluatedon 17 metrics in three categories – socioeconomics, location and community, and quality of life.
Most Texas cities fared little better – or even worse. Of the 11 Texas metros RentCafe sized up, only Dallas made the top 100, coming in at No. 24. Killeen, in central Texas, ranked as the second-most livable city in the state, but only No. 117 in the nation. All three of the bottom spots of the list went to Texas metros, too: San Antonio ranked No. 147, Brownsville ranked No. 148, and McAllen ranked No. 149.
RentCafe ranked Washington, D.C., as the nation’s most livable metro area, followed by Portland, Maine, and Kansas City, Missouri, at No. 3. (The Kansas City metro area includes Kansas City, Kansas.)
“Livability refers to how well a metro area supports residents’ overall well-being, comfort, and social engagement in day-to-day life,” the website said, adding: “It’s everything that you would care about when choosing where to live.”
LIVABILITY: Houston is the ‘worst’ city to move to in Texas, new ranking says
This marks the second time in as many months that Houston has been dinged for quality of life issues. Last month, ConsumerAffairs put Houston dead last on its annual list of the best 50 cities to move to in Texas, citing factors including a relatively high rate of violent crime and a poverty rate of 21%, the highest poverty rate among the nation’s big cities.
Of course, all of these rankings tend to have an element of subjectivity. The 17 factors RentCafe considered ranged from the cost of living, poverty rate and unemployment rate to the percentage of uninsured residents, share of residents with access to exercise opportunities, social association rates and commute times. Houston – like most of the Texas metros – rated best in the “socioeconomic factors” category, despite the high poverty rate in Houston and the south Texas cities that came in at the bottom of the list.
However, socioeconomic factors only made up 20% of each metro’s total score, compared to 40% each for location and community and quality of life. In those categories, Houston struggled. The region has one of the highest rates of uninsured residents in the country, for example, and about 40% of residents face long commutes.
Despite such concerns, however, Houston continues to be an attractive destination for people looking to relocate. Over the past decade, according to data from the Census Bureau, the region’s population has grown by more than 20%.
This article originally published at Houston is one of the least livable big metro areas in the US, website ranking says.