- Sugar Land, Texas ranked No. 3 overall in Livability’s annual rankings of top places to live in the U.S. based on criteria such as health, education, housing affordability, safety, and transportation.
Sweet! A Houston-area city ranked among the top places to live in the U.S. in 2026. Livability is out with its annual rankings and for the second straight year, Sugar Land came in at No. 3 overall. And nearly half of the top 10 were in Texas.
The survey looked at small- to mid-size cities, so we’re talking about populations that are between 75,000 and 500,000 with median home values under $500,000.
The goal was to highlight cities where paychecks stretch further, commutes are shorter, and overall quality of life is prioritized. According to the survey, the scores were based on proprietary data collected from thousands of U.S. cities. Livability partnered with Applied Geographic Solutions (AGS) to analyze more than 100 data points…