⚖️ Side by side

Kingwood vs Sugar Land

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

Should you live in Kingwood or Sugar Land? Kingwood and Sugar Land are both communities in the Greater Houston metro area. They sit about 40 straight-line miles apart, a sample-point floor that converts to an estimated 88-110 minute drive. Kingwood is $301,206 against $406,600 for Sugar Land. The two home-value figures are not directly comparable, so no percentage gap is claimed: Kingwood'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 Kingwood 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.Kingwood'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.

MetricKingwoodSugar LandSource
Median owner-occupied home value (ACS)$301,206 (2023)$406,600 (2023)US Census ACS, US Census ACS
Median gross rent (ACS)$1,797 (2023)$1,939 (2023)US Census ACS, US Census ACS
Median household income$114,560 (2023)$137,511 (2023)US Census ACS, US Census ACS
Population146,515 (2023)109,735 (2023)US Census ACS, US Census ACS

Flood Zone in Each Community

FEMA maps Kingwood 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 centerKingwoodSugar LandCloser
United Airlines21 min71 minKingwood
Halliburton25 min65 minKingwood
SLB69 min25 minSugar Land
Sysco70 min25 minSugar Land
Baker Hughes67 min29 minSugar Land
ConocoPhillips68 min29 minSugar Land
McDermott International68 min29 minSugar Land
Devon Energy61 min30 minSugar Land
ExxonMobil36 min82 minKingwood
HPE36 min81 minKingwood
Houston Methodist55 min36 minSugar Land
MD Anderson56 min36 minSugar Land
Memorial Hermann54 min36 minSugar Land
Chevron47 min43 minSugar Land
NRG Energy47 min43 minSugar Land
NASA73 min73 mintie
Daikin89 min76 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 Kingwood from Sugar Land?

About 40 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 88-110 minute one-way drive. See how the estimate is built

Which is cheaper, Kingwood or Sugar Land?

Both home-value figures are in the table above ($301,206 for Kingwood, $406,600 for Sugar Land, 2023 ACS 5-year estimates), but they are not directly comparable: Kingwood'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 Kingwood and Sugar Land?

HUMBLE ISD (TEA C) serves Kingwood; 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

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 Sugar Land data