Houston, like the rest of Texas, has become a national hotspot in recent years. Millennials, hipsters, tech bros, and immigrants alike have been flocking to the de facto capital of the South. If you, like us, are thinking of moving, you’re probably deeply curious about the best neighborhoods in Houston, Texas.
While it’s not my favorite city in the world, I’ve lived here for a little while now and I think it might be one of the most functional cities in the country. It makes sense, but it doesn’t wow. And for that reason, I don’t see any reason why it won’t continue to keep growing and growing over the next decade.
For good reason, too. It’s cheap compared to other big, American cities, the weather’s nice (kind of), and the people are great (when they’re not behind the wheel, then they can and will try to kill you).
But if you’re anything like me, moving is stressful, and fills you with anxiety. Google becomes your best friend. You go deep on Reddit threads, read only the worst, and convince yourself it’s going to go horribly wrong.
Stop doing that. Right now. Read this guide instead.
**Note: If it does in fact go horribly wrong, it’s not my fault.
Where do you work?
Houston’s not a connected city like San Francisco, Chicago, or Toronto. Where you work matters here. Don’t make the mistake of thinking fifteen miles isn’t that much because it isn’t in whatever city you’re coming from.
This is a town where the neighborhood that you chose to live in matters. A lot. Wasting an hour crossing downtown is a good day. So choose your spot wisely.
Wherever you work, draw a circle roughly five or six miles in diameter and try your best to live within it. If the neighborhoods within your circle suck (mine did), you can go further out, but you’ve got to be strategic.
Here’s how:
- Open a new tab in Google. Type (work address) to (cool neighborhood) NO HIGHWAYS NO TOLLS. This is critical. There will be breakdowns and accidents on the highways all the time. You need options. Tons of them.
- Repeat this step for a few days at various hours.
- If you’re cool with these commute times (always believe the ones in red, ignore those in green), then you’re golden.
Now that you’ve got what I like to call the livability circle (trademark pending) charted out, it’s time to figure out the best hood for you and your needs. Let’s take a deep dive on some of the big ones.
A Brief Overview of the Best Neighborhoods in Houston
Like every city on this giant rotating sphere we call Earth, Houston has a few staple neighborhoods that everybody views as cool, hipster, fun, or some combination of the three. Before I give you my number one neighborhood in Houston, let’s go over the big dogs and see if they might be a good fit.
The Heights
For some reason that I’ve yet to figure out in my five months living in this city, The Heights is routinely listed as some great neighborhood perfect for young people. It’s not.
The branding’s all wrong, but it doesn’t suck. Not entirely. If you’re in your late twenties or older and looking to live a good, bougie life where you go for quick walks and coffee runs and love nice restaurants, then The Heights might be for you.
It’s packed full of awesome restaurants that, if you’re like me, you probably can’t afford. That’s my biggest complain about The Heights. It feels expensive in a very needless way. Very much a pay-to-play type of place.
Good for some, bad for me. And the two main “fun streets” are an uncomfortable walk away from each other. A full day in The Heights involves a lot of driving, parking, and swiping your card. The cherry goat ice cream at Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream is unbelievable, though. Go there and order that no matter what it costs you.
RECAP: Too expensive, too much driving. Good, expensive restaurants and rich people shops.
Montrose
Once something of a hipster dreamland, Montrose has certainly seen better days. The hood is undeniably cool, but it’s gotten grungy in a way that feels more sad than cool.
It feels a lot like San Francisco during peak Covid times. Tons of homeless people. And while there certainly needs to be a larger discussion about the shocking rate of homelessness in the country and how we should help them, I wouldn’t feel right making a neighborhood guide of Houston without giving a warning about Montrose.
We’ve felt uncomfortable walking around Montrose at least once almost every time we’ve been there. Just the other day a homeless man exposed himself and started going to the bathroom on the sidewalk a few inches away from my girlfriend’s feet.
And that really sucks, because it’s one of the coolest places in all of Houston. The street art is worth a trip alone, as do the cool, albeit overpriced thrift stores and boutiques. It’s all so beautiful in the most melancholy of ways.
RECAP: Could be great, isn’t quite. Don’t live here, but visit often.
Midtown
Midtown is one of the few neighborhoods in Houston that actually feels like it’s in a big city. You’ve got your classic mid-rises and walkable sidewalks, pilates girls walking their corgis, and awesome restaurants to burn through those sweet adult paychecks.
If I worked downtown I would strongly consider living in Midtown. It’s got everything I miss about Toronto and Chicago. That classic big city feel. Anything can happen here, and it’s fun in a deeply early-twenty-something type of way.
RECAP: Get in, spend a couple years, have the time of your life, get out.
EaDo (East Downtown)
Located near a bunch of the major Houston sports arenas, in the area that used to be Houston’s Chinatown (or Little Saigon, depending on who you’re talking to), is a relatively new hood called East Downtown, or EaDo for short.
Most neighborhoods with shortened names written in camel case are hipster playgrounds, and EaDo is no different. It’s H-Town’s answer to Wicker Park, just slightly missed the mark.
It has easy connectivity to downtown, and, in theory, should provide great walkability to some of the offices over there, but the path takes you right through the biggest homeless encampments in the city. That being said, I’ve had nothing but positive interactions with the homeless people in EaDo. It’s a stark contrast from Montrose.
Also, the beer at 8th Wonder is world-class. Get the Vietnamese Coffee brew (called Rocket Fuel), get another, and then thank me. And if you’re hungry, there are tons of options.
Huynh has some of the best Vietnamese food in the area, Truck Yard is awesome if not glorious average on the taste buds, and Rodeo Goat knocks it out of the park every time.
RECAP: A pretty good neighborhood, that could one day become world-class. I believe in EaDo long-term.
Galleria/River Oaks
This one is for those of us with deep pockets. It’s beautiful, relatively no homeless people, and all the shopping and restaurants you could ever want.
There’s not much to say here, really. Galleria and River Oaks both are temples built for the worshipping of capitalism and nothing more. If consumerism was a place, it’d be here.
Still, it’s a pretty nice neighborhood, all things considered. And if you can afford it and want to live on the Southwest side of the city, it could be a good move. Just not for me.
RECAP: It’s great, it’s expensive. I’d never live here.
Rice Military
My love affair with the area around Rice University started when I got tired of $6 coffees and filled a thermos and set out to LARP as a university student and get some work done for free.
It was beautiful. The entire time it felt like I was working at Hogwarts if it was located in a leafy swamp rather than the Scottish Highlands (I think that’s where Hogwarts is supposed to be, at least).
The area around campus really comes alive at night, and wandering around at dusk with my girlfriend and watching the lights come on remains one of my favorite things to do in Houston.
Grab a good book, find one of those leafy trees that cover the road, settle in, and stay awhile. It’s one of the most relaxing things you’ll do in all of Houston. And it’s within walking distance of the zoo and some great (free!) green spaces.
RECAP: If you’re young and don’t mind living around a bunch of university students, I would highly recommend living near Rice. It’s upsettingly beautiful.
The Most Slept On Neighborhood in Houston (Or: Where I Would Live if I Could Do It All Over Again)
If you’re working somewhere on the Southwest side of the city and can’t (or simply don’t want to) pay the crazy rents in River Oaks and deal with the snobs and limited parking, go a few extra miles out and move to Chinatown.
This might come out of left field and seem like an odd suggestion, but it’s seriously one of the best spots in Houston. My girlfriend and I live in Lindale Park (an old neighborhood a few miles east of The Heights) and make the 40-something minute commute to Chinatown three or four times a week.
We love it that much.
It’s got everything you could want in a neighborhood. Beautiful cafes, great restaurants, shopping for every budget, and affordability. And it’s not like most Chinatowns in the United States. Anyone can live here. There are several blocks that are almost entirely Hispanic.
Bonus Hood: Mecca for the 30-somethings with kids working in the North
If you’re moving to H-Town for work or the lower cost of living and don’t care about living somewhere cool (or if hipsters and young people simply disgust you), consider moving to The Woodlands.
It’s about 20-ish minutes from downtown if you’re a Houston driver, 30-40 for those of us that are reasonable or jaded from five car accidents, and has some awesome restaurants, a world class mall, and won “best city in America” by some meaningless publication.
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