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Not everyone is cut out for city life. Some people would prefer to live in the cities and towns that surround Garland.
So the question arises, do the suburbs maintain a semblance of the larger-than-life appeal of their more famous neighbor?
Today, we'll use science and data to determine which Garland 'burbs need a little tender loving care - the sore thumbs of the Garland area if you will. Realistically, you can't expect all the suburbs to live up to Garland proper, although Highland Park certainly tries.
Of course, not all suburbs of Garland are created equally, which is precisely why we set out to find the best ones..
We examined the 68 biggest suburbs of Garland to find out the worst places to live. And while you won't necessarily find them on the worst places to live in Texas lists, these ten places are a little too far downwind of Garland in terms of quality of life.
Here are the 10 worst suburbs around Garland for 2022:
What's the worst suburb of Garland? Hutchins ranks as the worst suburb of Garland for 2022 based on the most recent Census and FBI data.
Read on to see how we determined the places around Garland that need a pick-me-up. And remember, don't blame the messenger.
Or, if you're thinking of moving to elsewhere in Texas check out the best places in Texas overall or the worst.
And remember, there are some good places to live around Garland too.
Editor's Note: If you see a slight difference between the worst in state rankings and this suburb ranking, it's because of the methodology. We needed a way to include more places, so we eliminated crime and commute times as criteria for this analysis.
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The 10 Worst Garland Suburbs To Live For 2022
We'll get the ball rolling with Hutchins, the absolute worst place to live around Garland according to the data.
And in the world of worst rankings, Hutchins beat the competition pretty handily thanks to scoring in the bottom 15% in three major categories. Income is the worst in the Garland area, and to make matters worse, the city ranks worst when it comes to home values.
But hey, at least it's cheap to live there. But there's a reason for that... it's Hutchins.
You won't feel bad about not having a great income for the area, there aren't a bunch of places to spend your money anyway.
/10
Welcome to Seagoville. Home to KMart, Big Lots, and a lot of gas stations.
This city is 18.4 miles to Garland. Income levels here are the 13th lowest in the metro area, where families bring in about $62,038 a year, which doesn't go a long ways even on a shoestring budget.
But on the bright side, there are a lot of fast food joints in the area.
/10
Back up the highway we go for the third worst Garland suburb you can live in. You might have expected to see Kaufman on here. While the cost of living is low, your entertainment and work options are limited. And that's an understatement.
In terms of numbers, it's in the worst 15% for insurance, and the adult high school drop out rate is poor compared to other Garland suburbs.
But at least there are nice parks to bring the kids during the day.
/10
If you live in Balch Springs, most likely you struggle to make ends meet every month. It ranks as the 4th lowest Garland suburb when it comes to residents making money.
Not only that, but this is the worst unemployed suburb you can live in if you choose to live near Garland. Remember, we looked at 68 cities for this study.
Balch Springs is about 13.5 miles to downtown.
/10
Terrell has the distinction of being a Garland suburb. Which means that's about all it has going for it.
All snarkiness aside, Terrell has the 7th lowest home values in the metro Garland area, where the median price is $135,100. To put that into perspective, in Highland Park, the median income is $247,716, which is the best in the area.
Terrell has an unemployment rate of 6.84% which ranks 5th worst.
/10
Combine has 2,535 residents that probably know it's a pretty crummy place to live when you look at the data. (Or, if you've ever been there, you don't need to look at the data.)
Incomes are towards the bottom and the poverty rate sits at 8.566916699565732%.
/10
Population: 2,535
Rank Last Year: 15 (Up 9)
Median Income: $76,989 (26th lowest)
Unemployment Rate: 6.5% (10th highest)
Median Home Value: $171,900 (13th lowest)
More on Combine: Data
Ah, Wilmer. You rank as the 7th worst place to live around Garland.
It's the place with the 56th most out of work residents in the Garland metro area (2.75%).
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Lancaster is a city about 23.4 miles from Garland, but Garland probably wishes it was further away. It ranks as the 8th worst burb for 2018.
You'd be hard pressed to find a worse place to live. Lancaster has the 29th most uninsured people, 10th worst incomes, and has the 9th highest unemployment rate (6.5%) in the entire Garland metro area.
Homes only cost $154,900 for a reason. That's cheap for Garland standards.
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If you absolutely have to live near Garland, then Cockrell Hill might be a place for you to consider as it's only the 9th worst Garland suburb.
About 5.14% of residents are out of work.
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Rounding out the ten worst Garland suburbs to call home is Duncanville.
Located 24.6 miles outside the city, Duncanvilles is a real pit when you look at the data. Its residents have the 2nd highest unemployment rate (9.05%), and poverty is far above the area average.
/10
Methodology: Determining The Worst Suburbs Around Garland for 2022
To figure out how bad a place is to live in, we only needed to know what kinds of things people like and then decide what cities have the least amount of those things.
We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible. Using the most recent American Community Survey data from 2016-2020, this is the criteria we used:
- High unemployment rate
- Low median household incomes
- Low population density (no things to do)
- Low home values
- A lot of high school drop outs
- High poverty
- High rate of uninsured families
FYI: We defined a suburb as being within 30 miles of Garland.
Additionally, we limited the analysis to places that have over 2,000 people. This left us with a grand total of 68 suburbs to evaluate around Garland.
We ranked each place with scores from 1 to 68 in each category, where 1 was the "worst".
Next, we averaged the rankings for each place to create a quality of life index.
And finally, we crowned the city with the worst quality of life index the "Worst Suburb near Garland." We're lookin' at you, Hutchins. You can download the data here.
Read on below to learn more about what it's like to live in the worst of the worst. Or skip to the end to see the list of all the suburbs ranked from worst to best.
Summary: The areas around Garland where the dream is more of a nightmare for 2022
Well there you have it -- the worst of the 'burbs surrounding Garland with Hutchins casting itself ahead of the pack.
As we mentioned earlier, the suburbs around Garland aren't all bad. Highland Park takes the cake as the best place to live around Garland.
- Highland Park
- University Park
- Highland
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Detailed List Of The Worst Garland Suburbs
Rank | City | Population |
---|---|---|
1 | Hutchins | 5,804 |
2 | Seagoville | 16,726 |
3 | Kaufman | 7,646 |
4 | Balch Springs | 25,123 |
5 | Terrell | 18,513 |
6 | Combine | 2,535 |
7 | Wilmer | 4,698 |
8 | Lancaster | 39,264 |
9 | Cockrell Hill | 4,200 |
10 | Duncanville | 39,096 |
11 | Glenn Heights | 13,228 |
12 | Grand Prairie | 193,835 |
13 | Mesquite | 142,429 |
14 | Dallas | 1,338,846 |
15 | Ferris | 2,842 |
16 | Farmersville | 3,560 |
17 | Irving | 240,475 |
18 | Cedar Hill | 48,337 |
19 | Desoto | 53,170 |
20 | Lake Dallas | 8,004 |
21 | Princeton | 12,208 |
22 | Lakewood | 60,564 |
23 | Lewisville | 107,740 |
24 | Euless | 56,334 |
25 | Farmers Branch | 42,659 |
26 | Little Elm | 49,792 |
27 | Forney | 23,871 |
28 | Wylie | 51,251 |
29 | Richardson | 118,583 |
30 | Carrollton | 137,319 |
31 | Red Oak | 13,010 |
32 | Crandall | 3,848 |
33 | Hackberry | 2,426 |
34 | Grapevine | 54,151 |
35 | Sunnyvale | 6,664 |
36 | Shady Shores | 2,888 |
37 | Ovilla | 4,010 |
38 | Rowlett | 65,426 |
39 | Sachse | 25,888 |
40 | The Colony | 43,791 |
41 | Melissa | 10,774 |
42 | Addison | 15,428 |
43 | Celina | 13,608 |
44 | Mckinney | 191,197 |
45 | Bedford | 49,145 |
46 | Rockwall | 45,168 |
47 | Fate | 14,300 |
48 | Oak Point | 5,077 |
49 | Fairview | 8,998 |
50 | Hickory Creek | 4,716 |
51 | Plano | 288,870 |
52 | Allen | 104,040 |
53 | Parker | 4,920 |
54 | Lavon | 3,504 |
55 | Murphy | 20,711 |
56 | Heath | 9,069 |
57 | Providence | 7,732 |
58 | Talty | 2,597 |
59 | Frisco | 188,387 |
60 | Double Oak | 3,099 |
61 | Prosper | 25,887 |
62 | Mclendon-Chisholm | 3,521 |
63 | Flower Mound | 78,854 |
64 | Lucas | 8,137 |
65 | Coppell | 41,494 |
66 | Highland | 19,012 |
67 | University Park | 25,027 |
68 | Highland Park | 9,143 |