⚖️ Side by side

Cypress vs Sugar Land

Greater Houston, TX: ACS figures, FEMA flood zone, and commute for both

Should you live in Cypress or Sugar Land? Start with your workplace. If Cypress has the lower estimate for your job center in the table below, shortlist Cypress; if Sugar Land does, shortlist Sugar Land. Then check the actual route from each home at your travel hours. These are centroid-based estimates, not measured drive times. The ACS figures do not establish an affordability winner, and flood checks belong at the address level.

Choose around your workday

Find your workplace in the job-center table before comparing homes. A small difference in the estimates is a reason to test both routes. If your workplace is missing, check it directly; another employer's campus is not a substitute.

Your decisionHow to use this comparison
Commute matters mostUse the lower job-center estimate to build a shortlist. Confirm the route from the specific home, including any second household commute.
Budget matters mostCompare homes or rentals you could actually choose. ACS home values and gross rents provide context; different geography and incomplete Sugar Land derivation metadata prevent a like-for-like affordability verdict.
Schools shape your searchCheck the campus assigned to each address. The district letters below do not rate that home's zoned schools.
Flood exposure shapes your searchCheck each address on FEMA's map. The community samples below do not establish which area has lower flood risk.
Want this scored against your actual constraints? Run the match engine →. It scores commute, budget fit, and lifestyle. School and flood selections add research notes; they do not change the ranking.

Read the figures in context

Cypress and Sugar Land are both communities in the Greater Houston metro area. They sit about 26 straight-line miles apart, a sample-point floor that converts to an estimated 58-73 minute drive. Cypress is $364,996 against $406,600 for Sugar Land. The two home-value figures are not directly comparable, so no percentage gap is claimed: Cypress's is a population-weighted average of ZCTA medians (ZIP/ZCTA proxy), while Sugar Land's is a figure whose derivation method is not recorded. On FEMA maps Cypress is not one single zone and Sugar Land is Zone X (AREA WITH REDUCED FLOOD RISK DUE TO LEVEE). Every figure is sourced and linked.

Cost and Demographics

Both columns below come from the same Census ACS tables, and each side links its own source.Cypress's figures are a population-weighted average of ZCTA medians (ZIP/ZCTA proxy), while Sugar Land's are a figure whose derivation method is not recorded. Where the derivations differ, the columns sit side by side for context, not as a like-for-like comparison. This pair's home-value figures carry a specific limitation: a derivation method is not recorded.

MetricCypressSugar LandSource
Median owner-occupied home value (ACS)$364,996 (2023)US Census American Community Survey (data.census.gov tables)Cypress median owner-occupied home value shown in the comparison table and answer summary · Cypress proxy: ZCTA5 77429 + ZCTA5 77433, population-weighted · retrieved 2026-08-27$406,600 (2023)US Census American Community Survey (data.census.gov tables)Sugar Land median owner-occupied home value shown in the comparison table and answer summary · Sugar Land city, Texas (Census place 48/70808) · retrieved 2026-08-27US Census ACS, US Census ACS
Median gross rent (ACS)$1,803 (2023)US Census American Community Survey (data.census.gov tables)Cypress median gross rent shown in the comparison table · Cypress proxy: ZCTA5 77429 + ZCTA5 77433, population-weighted · retrieved 2026-08-27$1,939 (2023)US Census American Community Survey (data.census.gov tables)Sugar Land median gross rent shown in the comparison table · Sugar Land city, Texas (Census place 48/70808) · retrieved 2026-08-27US Census ACS, US Census ACS
Median household income$128,399 (2023)US Census American Community Survey (data.census.gov tables)Cypress median household income shown in the comparison table · Cypress proxy: ZCTA5 77429 + ZCTA5 77433, population-weighted · retrieved 2026-08-27$137,511 (2023)US Census American Community Survey (data.census.gov tables)Sugar Land median household income shown in the comparison table · Sugar Land city, Texas (Census place 48/70808) · retrieved 2026-08-27US Census ACS, US Census ACS
Population208,149 (2023)US Census American Community Survey (data.census.gov tables)Cypress population shown in the comparison table · Cypress proxy: ZCTA5 77429 + ZCTA5 77433, summed · retrieved 2026-08-27109,735 (2023)US Census American Community Survey (data.census.gov tables)Sugar Land population shown in the comparison table · Sugar Land city, Texas (Census place 48/70808) · retrieved 2026-08-27US Census ACS, US Census ACS

Flood Zone in Each Community

FEMA maps Cypress as more than one flood zone and Sugar Land as Zone X (AREA WITH REDUCED FLOOD RISK DUE TO LEVEE). Where the zone varies, whether flood insurance is federally required depends on the specific address rather than the community.

FEMA flood zoneVARIES (AE, X)X (AREA WITH REDUCED FLOOD RISK DUE TO LEVEE)
Special Flood Hazard AreavariesNo

Each designation was sampled at the community centroid and at four points about a mile out; "varies" means those samples disagreed, so the community genuinely has no single zone. Check a specific address on the FEMA Map Service Center before drawing an insurance conclusion either way.

Commute to Job Centers from Each

Estimated one-way minutes from each community's centroid to every major Houston employer campus, so the same commute is priced from both sides.

Job centerCypressSugar LandCloser
Daikin24 min76 minCypress
SLB35 min25 minSugar Land
Sysco34 min25 minSugar Land
Baker Hughes30 min29 minSugar Land
ConocoPhillips31 min29 minSugar Land
McDermott International31 min29 minSugar Land
Devon Energy36 min30 minSugar Land
Houston Methodist57 min36 minSugar Land
MD Anderson58 min36 minSugar Land
Memorial Hermann57 min36 minSugar Land
HPE40 min81 minCypress
ExxonMobil41 min82 minCypress
Chevron55 min43 minSugar Land
NRG Energy56 min43 minSugar Land
Halliburton48 min65 minCypress
United Airlines49 min71 minCypress
NASA104 min73 minSugar Land

Straight-line distance converted at ~27mph effective speed. Estimates are not measured drive times. Real I-10, 290 and 59 traffic can exceed them.

Questions people ask about this pair

How far is Cypress from Sugar Land?

About 26 straight-line miles between their map centroids, a sample-point floor rather than a door-to-door promise. Converted at ~27mph effective speed that is an estimated 58-73 minute one-way drive. See how the estimate is built

Which is cheaper, Cypress or Sugar Land?

Both home-value figures are in the table above ($364,996 for Cypress, $406,600 for Sugar Land, 2023 ACS 5-year estimates), but they are not directly comparable: Cypress's is a population-weighted average of ZCTA medians (ZIP/ZCTA proxy), while Sugar Land's is a figure whose derivation method is not recorded. Because the figures are not measured on the same geography basis, no like-for-like percentage gap is claimed between them.

Which school districts serve Cypress and Sugar Land?

CYPRESS-FAIRBANKS ISD (TEA B) serves Cypress; FORT BEND ISD (TEA B) serves Sugar Land. District letters are TEA 2024-25 accountability ratings: a district letter averages dozens of campuses and is never a rating of the schools one specific address is zoned to.

Which community is safer?

This site does not rank safety between communities. Crime varies block to block, and one number for a whole community hides that spread for both. The right question is address-level, and official incident data can answer it in about ten minutes. Read the ten-minute safety research method

Full Cypress data · Full Sugar Land data