If you believe what you read on Movoto, North Texans must spend a lot of time napping. Six Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs made the real estate blog's roundup of the 10 most boring places in Texas: Rowlett, Mesquite, Duncanville, Cleburne, Lancaster and Grand Prairie.
Movoto started with the same 100 places used in its list of the state's most exciting cities. Then the number crunchers ranked the cities based on data culled from the U.S. Census and business listings:
- Nightlife per capita (bars, clubs, comedy, etc.)
- Live music venues per capita
- Active life options per capita (parks, outdoor activities, etc.)
- Fast food restaurants per capita (the fewer the better)
- Percentage of restaurants that are fast food (the lower the better)
- Percentage of young residents ages 20 to 34 (the higher the better)
Cities received a score from 1 to 100 in each category, with 100 being the worst. Those rankings were averaged into one overall score, and the place with the highest total score was deemed the snooziest.
That prize went to Rowlett, a.k.a., the Most Boring City of Them All. Its No. 1 ranking was secured by its geezer residents — only 19 percent between the ages of 18 and 34, which put Rowlett 94 out of 100 in the youthful category — and ridiculously high number of fast food restaurants.
On a related note, Rowlett ranked No. 1 on another Movoto list: best small towns in America to move to. Obviously fun didn't factor into it.
Mesquite didn't fare much better, landing at No. 3. It ranked 93 in nightlife, and Movoto points out the city's largest employer is UPS. "What can brown do for you? Ship you somewhere more exciting, if you're lucky," the blog reads. Aren't they clever.
What about the rodeo, you ask? Movoto doesn't believe rodeos contribute to excitement.
Duncanville ranked No. 4 overall. Like Mesquite, it showed poorly in nightlife (90), but Duncanville doesn't have nearly as many fast food restaurants as many other cities on this list.
No. 5 Cleburne has no nightlife to speak of, but a score of 28 out of 100 for active life options isn't bad. You know where there are few active life options? In Lancaster, which snagged the No. 6 overall spot. However, Lancaster ranked 11 out of 100 for fast-food joints per capita. Yay, Lancaster.
Tying for No. 9 was Grand Prairie. Although it has the highest percentage of 18- to 34-year-olds among the 10 most boring cities, those young whippersnappers couldn't save Grand Prairie from its dull fate.
Here's the top 10. If you want to see slog through all 50, visit the Movoto blog.
- City of Rowlett
- City of Schertz
- City of Mesquite
- City of Duncanville
- City of Cleburne
- City of Rosenberg
- City of La Porte
- City of Lancaster
- City of Grand Prairie and City of Pearland (tie)
Rowlett is the most boring place in Texas, according to Movoto.
Kate Weiser Chocolate is closing all locations. Photo courtesy of Kate Weiser