⚖️ Side by side

Kingwood vs Montrose

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

Should you live in Kingwood or Montrose? Kingwood and Montrose are both communities in the Greater Houston metro area. They sit about 23 straight-line miles apart, a sample-point floor that converts to an estimated 51-63 minute drive. Kingwood has the lower ACS median owner-occupied home value, by about 50%. Kingwood is $301,206 against $599,500 for Montrose. On FEMA maps Kingwood is not one single zone and Montrose 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.Both sides derive their figures the same way: a population-weighted average of ZCTA medians (ZIP/ZCTA proxy).

MetricKingwoodMontroseSource
Median owner-occupied home value (ACS)$301,206 (2023)$599,500 (2023)US Census ACS, US Census ACS
Median gross rent (ACS)$1,797 (2023)$1,761 (2023)US Census ACS, US Census ACS
Median household income$114,560 (2023)$102,003 (2023)US Census ACS, US Census ACS
Population146,515 (2023)23,927 (2023)US Census ACS, US Census ACS

Flood Zone in Each Community

FEMA maps Kingwood as more than one flood zone and Montrose 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 centerKingwoodMontroseCloser
Chevron47 min4 minMontrose
Memorial Hermann54 min4 minMontrose
NRG Energy47 min4 minMontrose
Houston Methodist55 min5 minMontrose
MD Anderson56 min5 minMontrose
Devon Energy61 min21 minMontrose
United Airlines21 min38 minKingwood
Halliburton25 min31 minKingwood
SLB69 min29 minMontrose
Sysco70 min30 minMontrose
Baker Hughes67 min31 minMontrose
ConocoPhillips68 min31 minMontrose
McDermott International68 min31 minMontrose
ExxonMobil36 min56 minKingwood
HPE36 min55 minKingwood
NASA73 min50 minMontrose
Daikin89 min78 minMontrose

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 Kingwood from Montrose?

About 23 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 51-63 minute one-way drive. See how the estimate is built

Which is cheaper, Kingwood or Montrose?

Kingwood has the lower ACS median owner-occupied home value, by about 50%: $301,206 for Kingwood against $599,500 for Montrose (2023 ACS 5-year estimates). Rent and income sit in the table above on the same basis.

Which school districts serve Kingwood and Montrose?

HUMBLE ISD (TEA C) serves Kingwood; HOUSTON ISD (TEA B) serves Montrose. 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 Kingwood data · Full Montrose data