⚖️ Side by side

Midtown vs Sugar Land

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

Should you live in Midtown or Sugar Land? Midtown and Sugar Land are both communities in the Greater Houston metro area. They sit about 18 straight-line miles apart, a sample-point floor that converts to an estimated 41-51 minute drive. Midtown is $384,100 against $406,600 for Sugar Land. The two home-value figures are not directly comparable, so no percentage gap is claimed: Midtown'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 Midtown is Zone X (AREA OF MINIMAL FLOOD HAZARD) 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.Midtown'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.

MetricMidtownSugar LandSource
Median owner-occupied home value (ACS)$384,100 (2023)$406,600 (2023)US Census ACS, US Census ACS
Median gross rent (ACS)$1,320 (2023)$1,939 (2023)US Census ACS, US Census ACS
Median household income$65,901 (2023)$137,511 (2023)US Census ACS, US Census ACS
Population35,866 (2023)109,735 (2023)US Census ACS, US Census ACS

Flood Zone in Each Community

FEMA maps Midtown as Zone X (AREA OF MINIMAL FLOOD HAZARD) and Sugar Land as Zone X (AREA WITH REDUCED FLOOD RISK DUE TO LEVEE).

FEMA flood zoneX (AREA OF MINIMAL FLOOD HAZARD)X (AREA WITH REDUCED FLOOD RISK DUE TO LEVEE)
Special Flood Hazard AreaNoNo

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 centerMidtownSugar LandCloser
Chevron3 min43 minMidtown
NRG Energy3 min43 minMidtown
Memorial Hermann4 min36 minMidtown
Houston Methodist5 min36 minMidtown
MD Anderson6 min36 minMidtown
Devon Energy23 min30 minMidtown
SLB31 min25 minSugar Land
Sysco33 min25 minSugar Land
Baker Hughes33 min29 minSugar Land
ConocoPhillips33 min29 minSugar Land
McDermott International33 min29 minSugar Land
Halliburton31 min65 minMidtown
United Airlines38 min71 minMidtown
NASA48 min73 minMidtown
HPE56 min81 minMidtown
ExxonMobil57 min82 minMidtown
Daikin80 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 Midtown from Sugar Land?

About 18 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 41-51 minute one-way drive. See how the estimate is built

Which is cheaper, Midtown or Sugar Land?

Both home-value figures are in the table above ($384,100 for Midtown, $406,600 for Sugar Land, 2023 ACS 5-year estimates), but they are not directly comparable: Midtown'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 Midtown and Sugar Land?

HOUSTON ISD (TEA B) serves Midtown; 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 Midtown data · Full Sugar Land data