⚖️ Side by side

Katy vs Midtown

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

Should you live in Katy or Midtown? Katy and Midtown are both communities in the Greater Houston metro area. They sit about 28 straight-line miles apart, a sample-point floor that converts to an estimated 63-78 minute drive. Katy is $376,800 against $384,100 for Midtown. 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 Midtown's is a population-weighted average of ZCTA medians (ZIP/ZCTA proxy). On FEMA maps Katy is not one single zone and Midtown is Zone X (AREA OF MINIMAL FLOOD HAZARD). 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 Midtown'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.

MetricKatyMidtownSource
Median owner-occupied home value (ACS)$376,800 (2023)$384,100 (2023)US Census ACS, US Census ACS
Median gross rent (ACS)$1,609 (2023)$1,320 (2023)US Census ACS, US Census ACS
Median household income$107,332 (2023)$65,901 (2023)US Census ACS, US Census ACS
Population23,900 (2023)35,866 (2023)US Census ACS, US Census ACS

Flood Zone in Each Community

FEMA maps Katy as more than one flood zone and Midtown as Zone X (AREA OF MINIMAL FLOOD HAZARD). 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 OF MINIMAL FLOOD HAZARD)
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 centerKatyMidtownCloser
Chevron63 min3 minMidtown
NRG Energy64 min3 minMidtown
Memorial Hermann60 min4 minMidtown
Houston Methodist60 min5 minMidtown
MD Anderson61 min6 minMidtown
Devon Energy40 min23 minMidtown
Baker Hughes30 min33 minKaty
ConocoPhillips30 min33 minKaty
McDermott International30 min33 minKaty
Sysco30 min33 minKaty
Halliburton70 min31 minMidtown
SLB32 min31 minMidtown
United Airlines73 min38 minMidtown
Daikin40 min80 minKaty
NASA107 min48 minMidtown
HPE71 min56 minMidtown
ExxonMobil71 min57 minMidtown

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 Midtown?

About 28 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 63-78 minute one-way drive. See how the estimate is built

Which is cheaper, Katy or Midtown?

Both home-value figures are in the table above ($376,800 for Katy, $384,100 for Midtown, 2023 ACS 5-year estimates), but they are not directly comparable: Katy's is a figure whose derivation method is not recorded, while Midtown'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 Midtown?

KATY ISD (TEA B) serves Katy; HOUSTON ISD (TEA B) serves Midtown. 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 Midtown data