article

A recently released study ranked the top 50 Texas cities for people looking to move. 

The ConsumerAffairs study takes into account the affordability, economy, safety, and other factors of the cities. 

Top 10 Texas cities

The top ten places to move to include seven cities in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, one Austin suburb, and two near Houston and Galveston. 

By the numbers:

In North Texas, Allen, Frisco and Plano are the top three places to move. All score well across the board, but most notably: Allen is number two in the state for safety; Frisco fifth for health care and education; and Plano second for quality of life. 

The other four top-10 cities in the Metroplex are McKinney (4), Mansfield (6), Round Rock (9), and Richardson (10).

In Central Texas, the Austin suburb of Leander takes the number five spot. Leander is both the number one city in Texas for safety and the second highest for economy. Its lower scores for quality of life and affordability drag it to the bottom of the top five.

Near Houston, Sugar Land ranks seventh in the state overall. Its best scores are fourth for health care and education, and fifth for safety. League City, near Galveston, takes eighth place, notably ranking number one in Texas for health care and education. 

Which Texas metro is best?

Big picture view:

None of the largest Texas cities made it into the top 20 best places to move to in the state. Most are dragged down by safety, affordability, and other factors. 

At number 25, El Paso is the highest-ranked large Texas city. It has middling scores across the board, with the lowest being 42nd for health care and education. 

Austin comes in next at 26, with a number 4 economy not being enough to save it from a 41st affordability and 42nd safety. 

Fort Worth ranks at 39, with average to below average scores across the board. It does best in economy, at 21, and worst in affordability, at 40. 

Dallas comes in at 46, with overall below-average scores. A top spot in quality of life isn’t enough to outweigh near-bottom scores for affordability and safety. 

San Antonio ranks 48th, with no positive outliers. It does worst in safety, where it ranks 48th. 

Finally, Houston takes the worst ranking at number 50. It’s ranked the least safe city in Texas, with poor scores in all other categories other than quality of life, where it places at number five. 

How Texas cities are ranked

The methodology:

ConsumerAffairs conducted their study with the following categories and point distribution: 

Affordability (30 points): This category includes the median rent for each city in September 2025 (15 points) and the affordability ratio of median home sale price to median income in each metro area (15 points). Data is from the U.S. Census Bureau (2024) and Zillow (2025).Safety (30 points): This score is based on the rates of violent crime (15 points) and property crime (15 points) per 1,000 residents. Data is from NeighborhoodScout (2023).Economy (20 points): The economy score considers job growth in each metro from 2020 to 2025 (10 points), the city’s percentage of residents below the poverty level (7 points), and the unemployment rate (3 points). Data is from the U.S. Census Bureau (2023-2024) and Texas Workforce Commission.Health care and education (10 points): This category includes the number of health care professionals per 1,000 people (5 points) and the high school completion rate (5 points). Data is from the U.S. Census Bureau (2024).Quality of life (10 points): The quality of life score considers walkability (5 points) and the percentage of the population living within a 10-minute walk of a green space (5 points). Data is from Walk Score (2025) and NYU Langone Health (2024).

To read the full study and see the whole list, click here.

The Source: Information in this article came from ConsumerAffairs. 

TexasHousingEconomy