Houston suburb named one of the nation’s best places to live
June 6, 2017
Katy is one of the nation’s most family-friendly places to live, according to a new report.
HomeUnion Inc. named the west Houston suburb on its list of the 30 best places to live for families, based on a combination of home affordability and access to good schools. The Irvine, California-based online real estate investment management firm based its ranking of the top ZIP codes using home sale data from HomeUnion and school data from the National Center for Education Statistics.
Katy was one of three Texas locales that made HomeUnion’s list of the best places for families to live in the U.S.
ZIP code 77450 — located in the Katy area between Interstate 10 and the Westpark Tollway inside the Grand Parkway — has a median home sale price of $239,500 and a 81.2 percent grade for its schools, according to HomeUnion.
ZIP code 78717 in Austin and ZIP code 78255 in San Antonio also made HomeUnion’s list, but homes in both cities were more expensive than Houston’s. The median home sale price in the San Antonio ZIP code is $317,100. The median home sale price in the Austin ZIP code is $375,000.
Most of the cities on HomeUnion’s list were located in the center of the U.S. These midwestern and southern cities offer the best combination of affordable homes and good schools for first-time homebuyers with children, said Steve Hovland, HomeUnion’s director of research.
“As home prices continue to increase in many coastal markets, particularly in the western U.S., we are seeing the best opportunities for first-time home buyers with families in the center of the country,” Hovland said in a statement. “ These areas are also good places for single-family rental buyers to invest in housing.”
Here are the top 15 best places for families to live in the U.S., according to HomeUnion:
- Blue Springs, near Kansas City, Missouri: $159,700 median home sale price
- Tuttle, near Oklahoma City: $165,000
- Fenton, near St. Louis: $167,000
- Boca Raton, near Palm Beach, Florida: $167,500
- Aurora, near Chicago: $168,000
- Brownsburg, near Indianapolis: $184,100
- Cranberry Township, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: $274,000
- Broadview Heights, near Cleveland: $200,000
- Horsham near Philadelphia: $217,500
- Buford, near Atlanta: $220,000
- Powell, near Columbus: $229,500
- Katy, near Houston: $239,500
- Summerlin, near Las Vegas: $295,000
- St. John’s, near Jacksonville, Fla.: $297,000
- Cross Mountain, near San Antonio, Texas: $317,100
Full story: Houston Business Journal
