The 20 Worst Places to Live in Texas
If you’re planning to move to a city in the state of Texas, you’re probably looking for the best place to live for your current circumstances. While it’s wise to know the statistics about crime, employment opportunities, and the overall quality of life in an area, it’s also important to know which places to avoid.
Even if you move to a neighborhood with a low crime rate, it’s possible to be within a short distance of some of the worst neighborhoods or adjacent cities. It’s also worth considering the rate of natural disasters that occur in some parts of the state as some coastal regions see more hurricanes and tropical depressions with flooding and devastating weather events. To help you know the places to keep in mind to avoid, here are the 20 worst places to live in Texas.
20. Huntsville, Texas
According to Home Snacks, Huntsville is one of the worst places to live in Texas. The population is 38,682 making it a medium-sized city. Homesnacks staff provides their reasons for naming five of the worst cities to live in by assessing the weather, average household income, safety, and amenities.
Huntsville has a low average household income of just $29,254 annually and it’s located an hour’s drive outside of Houston, the first available metropolis. The town is in the middle of nowhere and there isn’t much to do for families. The weather is ranked poorly adn it’s not a comfortable place to live. Unemployment rates are higher than the national average and the quality of life isn’t great.
19. Freeport, Texas
Freeport is a smaller city that is ranked in the bottom five percent for its education scores. The town of 12,107 residents is not a good place to raise children if you want college to be in their future. It”s situated south of Galveston. From all appearances, the town is in a state of decline with a home vacancy rate of twenty percent.
It means that there’s plenty of available housing. But here is a reason why one in five homes are standing vacant. The city of Freeport is along the Gulf Coast. The city is vulnerable to violent storms that sweep in off of the Atlantic in the heart of hurricane season.
18. Weslaco, Texas
Weslaco is one of the worst places to live in Texas. The unemployment rate is 8.6 percent. The home vacancy rate is close to the disturbing figures of Freeport, at 19 percent. According to Homesnacks, the crime rate is so high that residents are vulnerable to a large number of criminals in the area. The odds of becoming a violent crime victim are 1 in 95. The figure includes murder, rape, and violent assault. Approximately one in every ten residents is jobless. One in every five homes is vacant.
17. Galveston, Texas
Galveston is a larger city with a population of 48,352 residents. The household income is low. Although it’s better than some of the neighboring towns at $37,770, it could be better. It’s not enough incentive to make it an attractive place to live. That’s apparent because the home vacancy rate is an alarming 38 percent.
It’s is more than a third of the housing that is unoccupied. What is the reason for people exiting Galveston and not coming back? It’s a vacation beach town with plenty of outdoor recreational activities available, yet although tourists may want to pass through, there is little interest in staying.
The reasons for this are the weather, first of all. The sun doesn’t shine much in Galveston. It’s prone to some of the nastiest weather that mother nature can dish out. Crime rates list among the top 5 percent in Texas. With a high crime rate, low household income, and one in three homes vacant, it’s not a very safe place to move your family.
16. Vidor, Texas
Vidor is a small town with a population of just 10,735 residents. This city has a low population density that is among the lowest five percent in the state of Texas. The unemployment rate is 7.2 percent. Although the income level is decent at $39,000 a year, the population density is low and the unemployment rate is very high. These factors make it a bad place to live. There isn’t much to do, not many people to talk to and there are very few good jobs.
15. Wharton, Texas
Road Snacks has its own assessment of the worst places to live in Texas. They lead the next five worst places to live with Wharton. Wharton is a small city with a population of 8,718 residents. The median home value is ranked the 86th worst at $90,200. The unemployment rate is a jarring 9.1 percent.
The city has high unemployment and crime rates with low annual incomes. The only thing that keeps the city from being higher on our worst places to live in Texas lit is the fact that the education statistics are not as low as some of the worse cities.
14. Palmview, Texas
Palmview is a small town with a population of 5,740 residents. The statistics gathered by Road Snacks show that it has a low median home value of $83,200, worse than Wharton’s. The unemployment rate is 8.4 percent and those that can find work make an average of $35,921 annually. The crime isn’t the worst in Palmview, but it’s still high.
13. Center, Texas
Center is another small town in Texas with a low population of just 5,319 residents. The median home value is surprisingly low at $67,200. The unemployment rate in the town is even worse at a staggering 13.6 percent. It’s one of the worst places that you could choose to live in Texas or any other state in the country. The unemployment rate alone is enough to keep everyone depressed.
12. Aransas Pass, Texas
Aransas Pass is listed high on the list of bad places to live because it’s a place where you stand one of the best chances of becoming the victim of a property crime. The odds are 1 in 18.3 that you’ll be victimized. Crime is the thirteenth-highest in Texas.
Although the median home value is $107,000, which isn’t great but certainly not the worst, the unemployment rate is 7.4 percent. The population in the town is 8,113 residents. The commute distance between this small town and metropolitan areas is long and there isn’t much to do for the people who live there. Living here is like exposing yourself to greater potential for poverty and becoming a crime victim.
11. Robstown, Texas
Robstown is the final selection we’ve chosen from Road Snacks’ list of the worst Texas cities to live in. The population of this small town is 11,494 residents. What makes this such a terrible place to live is the fact that the unemployment rate was last recorded at a flat twenty percent.
This means that one in every five people does not have a job. The median income is barely above the poverty line, and the city has the ninth-highest crime statistics in the state of Texas. The median home value is a low $52,900, and your odds of being robbed in Robstown are 1 in 14.6. This means that if you haven’t been robbed, you probably know someone who has recently.
10. Corsicana, Texas
Texas Police News has its own list of cities in Texas that you wouldn’t want to call home. It leads our next several cities of the 20 worst with Corsicana. This city has a population of 24,284 residents. The weightings that Texas Police News gives for its assessment of the worst places are the crime rates for property and violent crimes. According to the statistics, you stand a one in 17 chance of becoming a violent crime victim in Corsicana.
9. Paris, Texas
Paris is a city with a population of 25,693 residents. This is a city that is equal to Corsicana in its statistics for violent and property crimes. The odds of becoming a victim are the same at one in 17. This is far too high for most people’s liking. Crime is high in Paris, Texas and if safety is important to you, this might not be the best choice.
8. Beaumont, Texas
Beaumont is one of the larger cities in the state of Texas. The population is 120, 323 residents. If you enjoy metropolitan living with a variety of different amenities, places to eat, and things to do, it’s not bad. What makes it one of the worst places to live is its high violent and property crime rates. It’s right up there with the previous two worst cities to live in Texas. Your odds of being robbed, assaulted, murdered, or raped are about one in seventeen.
7. Houston, Texas
Houston is the largest metropolitan area in the State of Texas with a burgeoning population of 2,177,273 residents living there. The violent crime rate is high and so is the property crime rate. Like the previous three worst places to live in Texas, you have a one in 17 chance of becoming the victim of a property or violent crime if you live there.
6. Lubbock, Texas
Police News lists Lubbock with its population of 237,241 residents among the top ten worst places to live in Texas. The property and crime rates are even higher in this city than in some of the larger ones. The odds of becoming a violent or property crime victim are one in 16.
5. San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio has a population of 1,380,123 residents. It’s one of the most dangerous places to live in the state of Texas. If you think it’s dangerous to live in Lubbock, it’s a lot worse in San Antonio. The odds of becoming the victim of a property crime or worse, a violent crime are one in fifteen.
4. South Dallas, Dallas, Texas
Area Vibes lists the worst neighborhoods in Dallas, Texas. These round out our list of the top 20 worst places to live in the state and let you know which places to avoid. They kick off some alarmingly dangerous neighborhoods with insane crime rates starting with South Dallas, Dallas Texas.
The neighborhood of South Dallas has a one percent annual rise in crime rates. It is currently 135 percent higher than the national average and the chances of becoming the victim of any type of crime are 1 in 17. The violent crime rates are a frightening 300 percent higher than the national average for South Dallas.
3. Cedar Crest, Texas
Cedar Crest is a neighborhood in Dallas that has alarming crime statistics. The crime rates are 94 percent above the national average, but what’s worse is that the violent crimes are three-hundred and two percent higher. The yearly crime rate continues to increase by one percent every year and this isn’t a place you’d want to call home.
2. Convention Center District, Dallas
Convention Center District, Dallas. Would you want to lie in a neighborhood that had great amenities, but ranked an F for its cost of living, an F for its disturbingly high crime rate, and F in housing, and a B in school quality? The crime rates are 299 percent higher than the national average with a one percent increase in crime annually. the odds of becoming a crime victim are one in ten.
1. South Boulevard Park Row, Texas
This neighborhood in Dallas, Texas is the worst place to live in the entire state. The reason that Area Vibes chose this as the number one worst is that crime rates are 243 percent higher than the national average. Hang on because it gets even worse. The rate of violent crimes that are committed in South Boulevard-Park Row is six-hundred and fifty-eight percent higher than the national average. Although the odds of becoming a crime victim are one in twelve, the risk of violent crime is much higher.
You can also read:
- The 10 Most Beautiful Places to Live in Texas
- The 20 Best Places to Live in Texas
- The 10 Richest Counties in Texas
- The 10 Richest Zip Codes in Texas
