Suburban Living

2 charming Dallas suburbs among best places to move in 2021

Forney is the No. 2 best suburb to move to in 2021.

City of Forney/Facebook

Fueled by the growing trend of remote working and their overall affordability, suburbs are having a moment right now. And if you're considering a move from the big city to the 'burbs, you don't have to look far from Dallas to find a top choice.

A new study from Homes.com ranks the Dallas suburbs of Forney and Little Elm among the 10 best in the nation.

To determine the best suburbs to move to in 2021, the website looked at nine factors. All-important real estate metrics like list price, square footage, homes for sale per capita, the ratio of housing price to income, and yard size were considered, as were crime index, school district score, work-from-home score, and racial and ethnic diversity.

Forney ranks No. 2 in the U.S., behind Westfield, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis.

"At 2.29, Forney, [Texas] (outside of Dallas), has the third-best housing price-to-income ratio in our ranking and is the second-best suburb in terms of the number of homes for sale per 100,000 people," Homes.com says. "Lastly, its average yard size is just shy of 0.25 acres (the fifth highest in our ranking)." Forney also boasts a median list price of an affordable $235,100, and its school district makes the grade with an A rating.

Little Elm places seventh and has a work-from-home score of 1.4 — one of the highest in the study — and a housing price-to-income ratio of 2.77. Homes in Little Elm are more expensive than Forney, with the median landing at $273,600, but it ranks as the safest city in the top 10, with a crime index of 73 (with 100 being the safest).

"Notably," says Homes.com, "Texas holds three suburbs within our top ten, proving that suburbs outside of Dallas and Austin are hot tickets in the world of residential real estate."

Leander, located just outside of Austin, ranks fifth on the list, and is the only other Texas city to appear. Its median list price of $271,500 registers as far more affordable than the city of Austin, which just last month hit an all-time high median sale price of $515,000. And its work-from-home score of 1.4 makes it one of the best for remote workers.

home-for-sale rankings

Dallas Got Robbed

The richest small town in Texas is surprisingly not in Dallas

Facebook / City of Bellaire, Texas

Houston neighbor Bellaire is the richest town in Texas.

A survey of affluent small towns has found one town in Texas to be at the top of the list, but shockingly, it is not in Dallas. The town of Bellaire, a small enclave within the Houston metro area, has earned the top spot as the richest small town in Texas for 2025. Boo.

The report, "The Richest Small Town in Every State," from GoBankingRates, selected one city from each state, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey to determine the 50 richest small towns based on their median household income.

Describing Bellaire as a "small town" might be a misnomer. It's located less than 10 miles from downtown Houston and is fully surrounded by the City of Houston. It's really more of a wealthy enclave within Houston, with a population of just over 17,000 residents.

Those affluent citizens earn a median $236,311 in income every year, which GoBankingRates says is the 11th highest household median income out of all 50 cities included in the report.

The average home in this city is worth over $1.12 million, but Bellaire's lavish residential reputation often attracts properties with multi-million-dollar price tags.

Bellaire also earned a shining 81 livability score for its top quality schools, health and safety, commute times, with an abundance of exceptional local amenities.

Those include conveniently located grocery stores, coffee shops, diverse dining options, and spacious parks.

It's not the first time that Bellaire has caught the eye of GoBankingRates, which previously ranked it as the No. 23 wealthiest suburb in America, and it's been named on similar lists comparing the richest American cities.

Dallas can take comfort in the fact that a different survey found Lewisville to be of the cities attracting the most high-income households, meaning those that make more than $200,000. However, census data places the most recent median income in Lewisville at $85,002 — so it's nowhere close to catching up to Bellaire.

suburbs houston bellaire affluent households