Five Texas Cities Ranked Among the "Best" Small Cities in the U.S., New Report Shows

ALABAMA - Ever since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Texas has been a popular destination for young professionals in search for better economic opportunities. This has created a significant increase in population, with the Lone Star State gaining 473,453 new residents in 2023, accounting for nearly 30% of all new residents in the entire United States.

Although many big tech companies have moved their headquarters from the West Coast to big cities in Texas, smaller cities have also gained new inhabitants as affordability is one of the perks that comes with living in a relatively smaller place.

On Oct. 1, a WalletHub report on America's Best Small Cities compared more than 1,300 U.S. cities with populations between 25,000 and 100,000, based on 45 different metrics such as housing costs, school-system quality and number of restaurants per capita.

In WalletHub's 2024 report, some small cities in Texas ranked very highly in the rubric. Given the large sample of cities ranked in the study, cities were grouped by percentile. Divided into five major groups that considered affordability, economic health, education/health, and quality of life, five small cities in the Lone Star State ranked within the 93rd and 97th percentile.

Which city is Texas' "best" small city?

According to the report, Texas has two cities tied for first place. Both Rockwall and Leander ranked 97th nationally, although Rockwall earned a slightly better overall score. Located in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, Rockwall received its best scores in the economic health category (91st) and safety (61st).

Rockwall was followed by Leander, with the small city a few miles outside of the Austin metro area having the best quality of life ranking than any other Texas city in the report (866).

Despite many of the Texas cities considered in WalletHub's ranking scoring high in regards of affordability, many of them were relegated to a lower rank due to very low quality of life and safety rankings.

Two Texas cities among the top five in terms of home ownership rates

Although big cities in Texas have seen a dramatic increase in how much they are paying for rent and their mortgages, smaller cities in the Lone Star State ranked well in rubrics such as housing costs and home ownership rates. Colleyville and Southlake ranked second and third nationally in terms of home ownership rates, respectively.

All throughout the nation, Latinos are responsible for a big chunk of new home owners in recent years.

According to a 2024 report by the HWP Blueprint, the total number of Latino households has grown by 4.6 million since 2013, accounting for 30% of the overall U.S. household growth despite comprising only 15% of the total U.S. population.

In 2023, Hispanic households experienced a net increase of 377,000 owner-households, the most significant single-year gain since 2005, according to the 2023 State of Hispanic Homeownership Report by the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP).

A Texas city ranks first in terms of percentage of population in poverty

Besides ranking among the best cities in terms of housing costs and home ownership rates, the city of Southlake, just outside Dallas, had the lowest percentage of its population living in poverty, according to WalletHub's report.

When compared to the nation's worst city in this rubric, Southlake had a 36-time difference with Isla Vista, California, which ranked 1316th nationally.