⚖️ Side by side

Katy vs Kingwood

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

Should you live in Katy or Kingwood? Katy and Kingwood are both communities in the Greater Houston metro area. They sit about 42 straight-line miles apart, a sample-point floor that converts to an estimated 94-117 minute drive. Katy is $376,800 against $301,206 for Kingwood. The two home-value figures are not directly comparable, so no percentage gap is claimed: Katy's is a figure whose derivation method is not recorded, while Kingwood's is a population-weighted average of ZCTA medians (ZIP/ZCTA proxy). On FEMA maps Katy is not one single zone and Kingwood is not one single zone. 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.Katy's figures are a figure whose derivation method is not recorded, while Kingwood's are a population-weighted average of ZCTA medians (ZIP/ZCTA proxy). 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.

MetricKatyKingwoodSource
Median owner-occupied home value (ACS)$376,800 (2023)$301,206 (2023)US Census ACS, US Census ACS
Median gross rent (ACS)$1,609 (2023)$1,797 (2023)US Census ACS, US Census ACS
Median household income$107,332 (2023)$114,560 (2023)US Census ACS, US Census ACS
Population23,900 (2023)146,515 (2023)US Census ACS, US Census ACS

Flood Zone in Each Community

FEMA maps Katy as more than one flood zone and Kingwood as more than one flood zone. Where the zone varies, whether flood insurance is federally required depends on the specific address rather than the community.

FEMA flood zoneVARIES (AE, X)VARIES (AE, X)
Special Flood Hazard Areavariesvaries

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 centerKatyKingwoodCloser
United Airlines73 min21 minKingwood
Halliburton70 min25 minKingwood
Baker Hughes30 min67 minKaty
ConocoPhillips30 min68 minKaty
McDermott International30 min68 minKaty
Sysco30 min70 minKaty
SLB32 min69 minKaty
ExxonMobil71 min36 minKingwood
HPE71 min36 minKingwood
Daikin40 min89 minKaty
Devon Energy40 min61 minKaty
Chevron63 min47 minKingwood
NRG Energy64 min47 minKingwood
Memorial Hermann60 min54 minKingwood
Houston Methodist60 min55 minKingwood
MD Anderson61 min56 minKingwood
NASA107 min73 minKingwood

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 Katy from Kingwood?

About 42 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 94-117 minute one-way drive. See how the estimate is built

Which is cheaper, Katy or Kingwood?

Both home-value figures are in the table above ($376,800 for Katy, $301,206 for Kingwood, 2023 ACS 5-year estimates), but they are not directly comparable: Katy's is a figure whose derivation method is not recorded, while Kingwood's is a population-weighted average of ZCTA medians (ZIP/ZCTA proxy). 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 Katy and Kingwood?

KATY ISD (TEA B) serves Katy; HUMBLE ISD (TEA C) serves Kingwood. 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

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.

Full Katy data · Full Kingwood data