These Texas towns are some of the best places to live in 2026, US News says
Texas is a pretty good place to live. Or at least, that’s what U.S. News & World Report says in its list of the Best Places to Live in 2026.
Five Texas towns are ranked in the top 15. Flower Mound, a town in Denton and Tarrant counties, was ranked the highest, at No. 3.
The report looked at a city’s cost of living, housing affordability, education, healthcare, weather, crime data and leisure index. U.S. News also referred to its Best State Rankings, in which Texas is ranked No. 29.
The No. 1 and No. 2 best cities to live in the country in the 2026 are both in Indiana – Carmel and Fishers.
Here’s how Texas shaped up on the list.
The 10 best places in Texas to live in 2026
According to U.S. News & World Report, these were the top 10 Texas towns and their corresponding ranking on the list:
- No. 3: Flower Mound
- No. 8: Leander
- No. 9: Frisco
- No. 10: Sugar Land
- No. 13: League City
- No. 16: Pearland
- No. 17: McKinney
- No. 23: Allen
- No. 24: Cedar Park
- No. 25: Mansfield
Nearly half of the Texas cities in the Top 25 are in North Texas.
How did Fort Worth shape up?
Fort Worth ranked No. 146 out of the 250 best places to live in the list.
Based on U.S. News’ methodology, Fort Worth received a grade of 6.1 out of 10.
- A little more than 1 million residents live in Fort Worth: 1,013,652 to be exact, according to U.S. News.
- The average resident’s age is 32 years old
- Median household income is $82,106
- Average commute time is just around 23 minutes
- Median home value is at $321,437
- Median rent is $1,361
How U.S. News & World Report found its rankings
U.S. News & World Report bases its rankings on Applied Geographic Solutions (AGS), which develops data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce, the Federal Reserve and the Bureau of Economic Analysis, as well as state and local sources.
A public survey was sent out to Americans in February asking them what factors were most important to them when choosing somewhere to live. The four indexes were then weighted based on the survey results.
The four indexes include:
- Value Index – 28 percent: housing affordability, cost of living
- Quality of Life Index – 27 percent: education, accessibility and quality of healthcare, air quality, environmental risks, state economy and infrastructure
- Desirability Index – 24 percent: crime rates, weather, culture and leisure, and commute factors
- Job Market Index – 21 percent: unemployment rate and median household income
To see an in-depth explanation on how U.S. News and World Report calculated each city’s score, visit its website here.