supreme suburbs

Fort Worth suburb makes the list of best places to live in the U.S.

Mansfield is the 27th best place to live in the U.S., and 9th in Texas.

City of Mansfield, Texas Municipal Government/Facebook

Nearly a dozen Dallas-Fort Worth cities, including Mansfield, have landed among the best places to live in 2025, according to U.S. News & World Report.

The annual list of Best Places to Live in the U.S. is designed to help readers make the most informed decisions when choosing where to settle down, using data from sources such as the U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce, the Federal Reserve and the Bureau for Economic Analysis, as well as state and local sources.

For the 2025-2026 rankings, U.S. News expanded its coverage from 150 to 250 U.S. cities, and updated its methodology to examine each city based on five livability indexes: Quality of life, value, desirability, job market, and net migration.

The top three best places to live are located in Johns Creek, Georgia (No. 1), Carmel, Indiana (No. 2), and the Houston-area suburb of Pearland, Texas (No. 3).

Mansfield ranked No. 27 nationwide, and it landed in the coveted No. 9 spot in U.S. News' separate rankings of the best places to live in Texas for 2025-2026.

Aspects of Mansfield that put it among the top 30 include its high median household income ($117,680), median home values ($364,136), and its bustling population of nearly 80,000 residents.

The city's population is a healthy mix of young individuals and families, with 31 percent of residents being under 20 years old and 32 percent of the population being between the ages of 20-44. A quarter of Mansfield's population is between 45-64 years old, while only 12 percent of residents are over 65, the report says.

Nearly two thirds (66.6 percent) of all Mansfield residents are married, and 55 percent of the population are between the ages of 25 and 64 years old.

Mansfield is a listmaker's favorite, landing on a 2024 list that named it one of the most livable small cities in the country.

Mansfield park Mansfield has many parks for families to enjoy.Mansfield Texas Parks & Recreation - Government/Facebook

"Finding a community to be part of can play a major role in making a place feel like home," U.S. News said. "If you’re a parent with young children, you may want to live in a neighborhood with other people in that phase of life. If you’re a professional moving to a hot job market for your field, you may want to live in an apartment close to the office or within walking distance of friends and colleagues."

However, if people are looking for a public transportation-friendly city, they may need to look elsewhere. Almost all commuters in Mansfield drive to their workplaces, making access to a vehicle absolutely necessary for living in the suburb. Mansfield's 27.8-minute average commute time is also 5.8 minutes higher than the national average, U.S. News said.

The suburb's housing costs are slightly cheapt the national average home value ($370,489), but that shouldn't deter newcomers that are looking for a place to settle down.

Other Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs
The DFW-area city that scored the highest ranking was Flower Mound, which came in as the 14th best place to live in the U.S., and No. 4 in Texas.

The city boasts a median household income of $163,766, and median home values at $476,609.

But residents in Flower Mound also predominantly rely on vehicles for their daily commutes, spending an average time of nearly 27 minutes driving to work, U.S. News determined.

Here's how other Dallas-Fort Worth cities faired among the top 150:

No. 30 – Frisco
No. 37 – McKinney
No. 64 – North Richland Hills
No. 82 – Carrollton
No. 83 – Rowlett
No. 102 – Wylie
No. 105 – Grand Prairie
No. 149 – Irving
No. 150 – Plano

Fort Worth flops to the bottom
Fort Worth is on a bit of a downward spiral: After slumping into No. 113 in U.S. News' 2023 report, it plummeted even farther toward the bottom of the list for 2025-2026, coming in at No. 212. In addition, it ranked No. 50 in the statewide comparison, showing that the city has been eclipsed by its appealing suburban neighbors.

The top 10 best places to live in the U.S. are:

No. 1 – Johns Creek, Georgia
No. 2 – Carmel, Indiana
No. 3 – Pearland, Texas
No. 4 – Fishers, INdiana
No. 5 – Cary, North Carolina
No. 6 – League City, Texas
No. 7 – Apex, North Carolina
No. 8 – Leander, Texas
No. 9 – Rochester Hills, Michigan
No. 10 – Troy, Michigan

suburbs us news & world report rankings dallas flower mound mansfield fort worth

income news

How Texans' income compares to the rest of the U.S. in 2025

Photo by Money Knack on Unsplash

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Hardworking Texans are making less money per year than the national median, a new WalletHub study has revealed.

The just-released report, "States Where People Have the Highest Income," found Texas workers are making an adjusted median annual income of $73,718, compared to the national median of $81,000 per year.

The study examined the average annual income of the top five percent, the average income of the bottom 20 percent, and the median income for all residents in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Income was adjusted for the cost of living.

Although individual Texans are not quite making the national median, the state as a whole ranked 11th for "highest" incomes, moving up one spot from its 2024 ranking. Virginia claimed the No. 1 spot, followed by New Jersey (No. 2) and New York (No. 3). (As a note, the earnings of each state's top five percent were double weighted, meaning they counted twice as much as the median and bottom categories.)

Based on WalletHub's findings, the top five percent of Texans are making more than $504,000 per year, adjusted for cost of living. Meanwhile, the bottom 20 percent of Texas residents are making only an adjusted $17,461 annually.

In a major city like Fort Worth, income disparities may appear to be even wider than other Texas cities. Earning a "comfortable" wage in Fort Worth now costs $1,700 more than it did in 2024, and being a middle-class earner means making a minimum of $51,383 a year and as much as $154,164. Even Fort Worth's suburbs are attracting more high-earning households than many other U.S. cities.

"The highest-earning 10 percent of individuals in the United States earn over 12 times more than those in the lowest-earning 10 percent, based on the latest Census data," said WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo. "By measuring the income of various percentiles against a state's median income, we can better identify where income disparities are more prevalent, which could help us better understand why residents of certain states struggle more to make ends meet."

The top 10 states with residents earning the highest income are:

No. 1 – Virginia
No. 2 – New Jersey
No. 3 – New York
No. 4 – Connecticut
No. 5 – Washington
No. 6 – Utah
No. 7 – Minnesota
No. 8 – Colorado
No. 9 – Illinois
No. 10 – Massachusetts

texas wallethub reports income

supreme suburbs

Fort Worth suburb makes the list of best places to live in the U.S.

income news

How Texans' income compares to the rest of the U.S. in 2025

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