Houston vs Hialeah: which should you move to?
Houston or Hialeah? Housing, rent, crime, climate, income, taxes and transit, side by side, from each city's own published figures. Written for someone deciding where to live, not for a ranking.
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Two cities that flood from rain more than from the sea, one of 2,397,315 people and one of 230,968 northwest of Miami, the most Cuban city in the country, pricing in US dollars in states with no income tax, so the figures net directly. The prices are different instruments: Houston's is the Houston Association of Realtors' median of single-family houses sold across Greater Houston, $330,000 in August 2026, because HAR's city breakdown could not be retrieved, and Hialeah's is Zillow's typical home value for the city, $445,331 in June, its row in this site's Miami-Dade layer, as Miami's is. On Zillow's index, the same measure in both, the City of Houston stood at $261,740, so the order holds and widens. Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $2,578 a month in Houston at Freddie Mac's 7.03% and $3,425 in Hialeah at August's 6.67%, or $3,510 at the same rate, roughly 48% of Houston's median household income of $64,361 and 72% of Hialeah's $57,151. Hialeah takes more in tax, about 1.69% of the price against 1.33%, and budgets a little more for insurance, $505 a month against $450; neither figure includes flood, which Harvey showed is the cost that matters in Houston and which about two in five Hialeah residents live exposed to on FEMA's map. Hialeah has the lower crime on every line of the same FBI counts, 178 violent offenses per 100,000 against 890 and 3 homicides against 270, and the lower unemployment, 3.7% across its metro against 5.1%. Choose Houston for energy, the Texas Medical Center, light rail, two airports and a job market more than twice Miami-Dade's, at about $932 a month less to own at the same rate and far less to rent. Choose Hialeah for far lower crime, a lower uninsured rate, a 19.7 C January and almost no 100F days, and check the street's flood zone and a flood quote first.
| Measure | Houston | Hialeah | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| City population | 2,397,315 (2025) | 230,968 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Metro population | 7,904,627 (2025) | 6,391,072 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Five-year growth Growth is pressure on rents and roads as much as it is opportunity, so it is reported without a winner. | 4.2% (2020-2025) | 3.5% (2020-2025) | Not directly comparable |
What a home costs in each
The figures the two cities' rent-versus-buy and mortgage calculators run on, read from the same tables.
| Measure | Houston | Hialeah | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Benchmark home price MLS® HPI or equivalent benchmark. Lower is treated as the advantage, which is the buyer's view rather than the owner's. | $330,000 (August 2026) | $445,331 (June 2026) | Houston |
| Detached house benchmark Houston and Hialeah publish a single house index rather than a composite, so the two rows repeat. | $330,000 | $445,331 | Houston |
| Apartment or condominium benchmark | Not published | Not published | Not directly comparable |
| Two-bedroom rent | $1,327/mo (median, September 2026) | $2,374/mo (median, June 2026) | Houston |
| One-bedroom rent | $1,120/mo | $2,042/mo | Houston |
| Two-bedroom rent against median income A year of two-bedroom rent as a share of the median household income below. A household paying the median rent out of the median income is a fiction, but it is the same fiction in both columns and it crosses currencies. | 24.7% of a year's income | 49.8% of a year's income | Houston |
| Mortgage payment on the benchmark, 20% down 30-year amortization on American monthly compounding, the convention in both. | $1,762/mo at 7.03% | $2,292/mo at 6.67% | Houston |
| Price to household income Benchmark price divided by the median household income below. A ratio is comparable across currencies; the dollars are not. | 5.1× | 7.8× | Houston |
| Property tax on the benchmark home The effective rate on market value, which is what the two rates have in common and what the Advantage column is decided on; the bills are in each city's own dollars. | $4,392/yr (1.331%, 2025) | $7,534/yr (1.692%, 2025) | Houston |
| Transfer tax on the benchmark home Compared as a share of the price. Where the seller pays it, it is a cost of leaving rather than arriving. | None | $2,672 (seller pays) | Houston |
| Rent control A cap protects a sitting tenant and does nothing for the next lease, so neither column is simply better. | Forbidden by state law | Forbidden by state law | Not directly comparable |
Houston: About 1.33% of value for a homesteaded owner, worked out on the $330,000 Greater Houston median single-family sale price. A house in the City of Houston and Houston ISD, in Harris County, is taxed by eight units for 2025, which add to 2.12522 per $100 before any exemption. Each takes its own homestead exemption off the appraised value first: Houston ISD the state's $140,000 and a further 20% of its own, Houston City College 17%, and Harris County, the Flood Control District, the Port of Houston Authority, the Hospital District, the Department of Education and the City 20% each. So Harris County levies 0.38096 per $100 on $264,000 after a $66,000 exemption, $1,006; Harris County Flood Control District levies 0.04966 per $100 on $264,000 after a $66,000 exemption, $131; Port of Houston Authority levies 0.0059 per $100 on $264,000 after a $66,000 exemption, $16; Harris County Hospital District levies 0.18761 per $100 on $264,000 after a $66,000 exemption, $495; Harris County Department of Education levies 0.004798 per $100 on $264,000 after a $66,000 exemption, $13; City of Houston levies 0.51919 per $100 on $264,000 after a $66,000 exemption, $1,371; Houston ISD levies 0.8783 per $100 on $124,000 after a $206,000 exemption, $1,089; Houston City College levies 0.098802 per $100 on $273,900 after a $56,100 exemption, $271. The eight come to $4,391 a year, 1.33% of the price. Without a homestead, as a landlord or a buyer who never files, the same house owes $7,013. The median is the region's, and a typical home inside the city is cheaper: on $261,740, Zillow's August 2026 value for a typical City of Houston home, the same eight units come to $3,228, 1.23%, lower because the school district's flat exemption is a larger share of a cheaper house. These are the 2025 rates, the bills due by 31 January 2026. When these figures were retrieved the Harris County Tax Office's table already listed 2026 rates for the county, the Flood Control District, the Hospital District and the Port, but not yet for the City, Houston ISD or the college, so the calculators stay on 2025 until all eight are published. Hialeah: About 1.69% of what you pay for the house, which is lower than the 18.6468 mills charged here, and the difference is Florida's homestead exemption rather than any assessment lag. The state assesses at full market value and a purchase resets the assessment to the price. What there is instead is an exemption: $25,000 of taxable value comes off for every taxing authority and a second slice comes off for all of them except the school district, which levies 6.4990 of the 18.6468. That second slice was $25,000 through the 2024 tax roll and has been adjusted for inflation every 1 January since, under the 2024 amendment to Article VII section 6 of the state constitution, so it is now somewhat more than $25,000. The figures here use the base amount, because the Department of Revenue sends the adjusted figure to the county property appraisers rather than publishing it. The difference is worth a few dollars a year on a bill, and the county property appraiser can tell you the amount in force. A homesteaded buyer's first-year bill is therefore about $7,534 on the $445,331 typical home value here. Hialeah runs its own fire department, so it pays none of the county's 2.3965-mill Fire Rescue district levy. One of only five municipalities in Miami-Dade in that position, and worth more than most municipal rates on this table. The exemption is not automatic: you file for it with the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser by 1 March of the year after you buy. The seller's tax bill is not a guide to yours. Save Our Homes caps a homesteaded property's assessed value at 3% growth a year, and that cap resets to full market value the January after the sale, so a long-tenured owner can be taxed on a fraction of what you will be taxed on for the same house. Ask the property appraiser what the assessment would be at your purchase price, not what the current bill is.
How safe each city is, by the numbers it publishes
Police-reported figures for the most recent year each force or statistics agency has released. Rates describe a whole city or metro area, and the spread between neighbourhoods inside one city is usually wider than the gap between the two cities.
| Measure | Houston | Hialeah | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crime Severity Index Statistics Canada's weighted index for the metropolitan area, where 100 is Canada in 2006. American cities have no equivalent series. | Not published | Not published | Not directly comparable |
| Violent crime per 100,000 | 890 (2025) | 178 (2025) | Hialeah |
| Property crime per 100,000 | 3,854 (2025) | 1,417 (2025) | Hialeah |
| Homicides Counts, not rates, and a single year in a small city moves a long way on chance alone. What each figure covers is under the table. | 270 (2025) | 3 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
On the FBI's definitions, violent offenses in Houston went from 28,850 in 2021 to 26,383 in 2022, 25,517 in 2023, 26,758 in 2024 and 21,345 in 2025, a 20% drop in the last year and 26% in four, and property offenses from 97,068 to a peak of 105,522 in 2022, then 104,829, 100,302 and 92,382, 12% below the peak. Motor vehicle theft rose from 15,694 in 2021 to 20,085 in 2023 and fell to 12,516 in 2025. In 2025 the CDE shows aggravated assaults down 19% (18,341 to 14,839), robberies down 24% (6,359 to 4,859), rapes down 20% (1,729 to 1,377) and murders down 18% (329 to 270). HPD's own year-end counts show the same direction: homicides down from 331 to 272, robberies from 6,438 to 4,987 and aggravated assaults from 18,590 to 15,378 (Major Cities Chiefs Association survey, as reported by the Houston Chronicle). The 2025 CDE counts were read on 30 September 2026 from a feed last refreshed on 15 September and can still be revised.
What the rates cover: Computed: 21,345 violent offenses (murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault) in the FBI Crime Data Explorer's summarized data for the Houston Police Department (ORI TXHPD0000) in calendar 2025, divided by the 2,397,315 Vintage 2025 city population. On the CDE's own agency population of 2,413,559 the rate is 884. HPD's year-end figures as reported to the Major Cities Chiefs Association and quoted by the Houston Chronicle run slightly higher than the CDE's: 272 homicides, 4,987 robberies and 15,378 aggravated assaults, against 270, 4,859 and 14,839. The Chronicle did not give HPD's rape count, so HPD's own total on the FBI definition could not be rebuilt.
Homicides: 270 murders and nonnegligent manslaughters in 2025 in the FBI CDE, against 329 in 2024, about 11.3 per 100,000 on the city population. HPD's own year-end count, obtained by the Houston Chronicle through an open records request, was 272 against 331 in 2024, a 17% drop; nothing fetched explains the gap of two cases in each year between the two series. The high point in the CDE series since 2021 is 474, in 2021.
Down for violent crime, and down for property crime by less than the FBI's totals suggest. On the FBI CDE's counts violent offenses went from 474 in 2022 to 431 in 2023, 415 in 2024 and 412 in 2025, about 210, 187, 178 and 178 per 100,000 on each year's Vintage 2025 population, and January to July 2026 brought 192 against 246 in the same months of 2025, a fall of 22%, mostly in aggravated assaults (165 against 214). Robberies halved, from 66 in 2022 to 31 in 2025. The CDE's property totals fell from 4,329 in 2022 to 3,273 in 2025, but about 500 of that fall is motor vehicle thefts the FBI's series stopped carrying in October 2023; without them property offenses went from 3,801 in 2022 to 3,621 in 2023, 3,610 in 2024 and 3,266 in 2025, a fall of 14% over three years, with larceny down from 3,565 to 3,018. FDLE's file, which kept counting car thefts, has them falling too, from 541 in 2022 and 566 in 2023 to 488 in 2024 and 337 in 2025. January to July 2026 property offenses (1,969) were level with 2025 (1,962). The CDE counts were read on 2 October 2026 from a feed last refreshed on 15 September 2026, whose August 2026 property count (139, about half a normal month) and September figures (none) are incomplete and are not used.
What the rates cover: Computed: 412 violent offenses (murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault) in the FBI Crime Data Explorer's summarized data for the Hialeah Police Department (ORI FL0130400) in calendar 2025, divided by the 230,968 Vintage 2025 estimate for July 2025; on the CDE's own agency population of 238,769 the rate is 173. The department has reported to the FBI through the incident-based system since January 2021 and the CDE has every month from then to August 2026. 2025 is the year the Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville, Port St. Lucie and St. Petersburg profiles use. That is half Miami's 359, below Tampa's 376, St. Petersburg's 502 and Jacksonville's 514, and above Port St. Lucie's 130 and Cape Coral's 122 for 2023. Aggravated assault is 356 of the 412. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement's incident-based (FIBRS) file, which feeds the FBI and counts somewhat more broadly (its forcible sex offenses include fondling), has 432 violent offenses for the department in 2025, about 187 per 100,000.
Homicides: 3 murders and nonnegligent manslaughters in 2025 in the FBI CDE, about 1.3 per 100,000 on the city population; FDLE's file also has 3. The CDE series is 12 in 2021, 6 in 2022, 6 in 2023, 2 in 2024, 3 in 2025 and 2 in January to August 2026. Miami had 26 in 2025, Tampa 17, St. Petersburg 9 and Port St. Lucie 4.
Winters, summers and what the weather can do to a house
| Measure | Houston | Hialeah | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| January mean | 12.1 °C | 19.7 °C | Not directly comparable |
| July mean | 29.5 °C | 28.5 °C | Not directly comparable |
| Precipitation a year | 1,317 mm | 1,852 mm | Not directly comparable |
| Snowfall a year | 0 cm | 0 cm | Not directly comparable |
| Sunshine a year | 2,578 hours | 3,154 hours | Hialeah |
NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals for Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport (station USW00012960), inside the city about 23 miles north of downtown and the station where the National Weather Service keeps Houston's official record: January mean 53.8F, July mean 85.1F, annual mean 70.5F, 51.84 in of precipitation, 0.1 in of snow. August is the warmest month by a tenth of a degree at 85.2F, with a mean high of 94.9F; July's mean high is 94.5F and January's mean low is 43.7F. June (6.00 in) and October (5.46 in) are the wettest months and February (2.97 in) the driest, and rain is spread through the year with no dry season. The normals count 111.3 days a year at 90F or above, 7.0 at 100F or above and 10.1 nights at or below freezing. William P. Hobby Airport (USW00012918), about 7 miles southeast of downtown and nearer the Gulf, averages 55.0F in January and 84.8F in July with 55.62 in of rain, 2.9 days at 100F or above and 4.2 nights at or below freezing; its normals give no snowfall. Converted here to 12.1 C, 29.5 C, 1,317 mm and 0.3 cm. That precipitation is the most of any Texas city this site compares, 344 mm more than Dallas's at Love Field. Sunshine hours are the older 1961-1990 NCDC means (2,578 hours, 59% of possible, and 90 clear days), since the 1991-2020 normals do not include sunshine.
Hazards: Flooding is the defining hazard, from hurricanes, tropical storms and stalled rain alike. Hurricane Harvey made landfall near Port Aransas as a category 4 storm on 25 August 2017 and then stalled inland, and over four days 26 to 47 in (660 to 1,204 mm) of rain fell across Harris County, a maximum of 47.4 in at Clear Creek and I-45 and an average of 33.7 in (856 mm) over the county's 1,777 square miles, about 1 trillion gallons. The Harris County Flood Control District counted 154,170 homes flooded in the county, 68% of them outside the 100-year floodplain and 64% without flood insurance, 60,049 people rescued by government crews and 36 flood deaths in the county; statewide Harvey killed 68 people directly, the most from a landfalling hurricane in Texas since 1919. Bush Intercontinental recorded 31.26 in (794 mm) from 25 to 29 August, including 16.07 in (408 mm) on the 27th, the wettest day in its record since 1969, and Hobby 37.01 in (940 mm). NOAA puts Harvey's cost at $125 billion ($160 billion in 2024 dollars, second only to Katrina on its list). Harvey came after others: Tropical Storm Allison in June 2001 ($8.5 billion, 43 deaths), Hurricane Ike in September 2008 ($30.0 billion, 112 deaths), the Tax Day flood of 17 and 18 April 2016 ($2.7 billion, 8 deaths, with 9.92 in at Bush Intercontinental on the 18th) and Tropical Storm Imelda in September 2019 ($5.0 billion, 5 deaths). Wind and the power grid are the second hazard. On 16 May 2024 a derecho cut power to more than 900,000 customers in the Houston area and killed 8 people, and on 8 July 2024 Hurricane Beryl came ashore near Matagorda as a category 1 storm with 80 kt (92 mph) winds and crossed the western side of the metro, gusting to 72 kt (83 mph) at Bush Intercontinental and dropping 14.88 in (378 mm) at a gauge in western Houston. More than 2.2 million customers in the region lost power that afternoon (the National Hurricane Center cites media reports of 2.7 million across southeastern Texas), many of them for days in July heat. The NHC counted 11 direct deaths in Texas and 34 indirect ones, 14 of them from heat as the power stayed off, and NOAA puts the damage at $7.2 billion. Heat is the constant. The normals give only 7.0 days a year at or above 100F (37.8 C), far fewer than Dallas's 22.4, but 111.3 at or above 90F. Bush Intercontinental's record is 46 days of 100F in 2011, including 24 in a row from 1 to 24 August, and 45 in 2023, and its highest reading is 109F (42.8 C), on 4 September 2000, 27 August 2011 and 24 and 27 August 2023; 2026 had 9 such days through 21 September. Cold is rare and badly handled. Winter Storm Uri brought 1.0 in (2.5 cm) of snow to Bush Intercontinental on 15 February 2021 and a low of 13F (-10.6 C) on the 16th, above the station's record of 7F (-13.9 C) on 23 December 1989. ERCOT cut power across the state grid from 15 to 18 February and about 4.5 million customers lost it at the worst; Texas counted 246 deaths from the storm, 43 of them in Harris County, more than in any other county. On 20 and 21 January 2025 a Gulf Coast snowstorm left 1.4 in (3.6 cm) at the airport and a low of 20F (-6.7 C) on the 22nd.
NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals for the Hialeah cooperative station (USC00083909), about 3.8 miles south-southeast of the city's center and about half a mile outside its southern limit. It is used rather than Miami International Airport (USW00012839), 5.5 miles south, because it is closer and has a complete set of 1991-2020 monthly and annual normals for temperature, precipitation and snowfall. Its temperature normals rest on 27 to 29 years of the 30 and meet NCEI's standard completeness in every month; five months of its precipitation normals (April and July to October) are flagged representative, from 21 to 23 years, while the airport's precipitation rests on all 30. The nearer Opa-locka airport (USW00012882, 2.9 miles) has no snowfall normal and only 18 to 23 years in any element. January mean 67.4F, July mean 83.3F, annual mean 76.6F, 72.93 in of precipitation and 0.0 in of snow. August is the warmest month at 83.5F, with a mean high of 90.1F; January's mean low is 59.1F. September (11.53 in) and June (11.45 in) are the wettest months, June through September bring 40.88 in, 56% of the year, and May through October 76%; January (2.03 in) is the driest. The normals count 91.0 days a year at 90F or above, 0.2 at 100F and none at or below freezing. Converted here to 19.7 C, 28.5 C, 1,852 mm and 0 cm. Miami International, whose normals the Miami profile stores, is a little warmer and drier: 68.6F in January, 84.1F in July and 67.41 in a year, with 91.4 days at 90F. Hialeah's January is the second warmest of the Florida cities this site compares after Miami's, and its rain is the most of any of them. Sunshine is Miami's: the normals carry none, and the 3,154 hours stored here, 70% of possible with 74 clear days, are Current Results' figure for Miami from NCDC's 1961-1990 Comparative Climatic Data, the source of the other US profiles' sunshine hours; Current Results lists no Hialeah station.
Hazards: Hurricanes, rain flooding and heat. The last hurricane to bring hurricane-force gusts was Irma, which came ashore at Cudjoe Key and then Marco Island on 10 September 2017, well to the southwest: nearly every inland station in the Miami-Dade and Broward metro area reported sustained winds just below hurricane force, Opa-locka Airport, 2.9 miles north of the city's center, recorded 56 kt (64 mph) sustained with a gust of 74 kt (85 mph), Miami International a gust of 63 kt (72 mph), and about 1,000 homes in Miami-Dade had major damage (National Hurricane Center). That 72 mph gust is the airport's strongest since 2010, and it had 5.18 in of rain that day. Rain is the more frequent problem in a flat, low city: the airport's wettest day since 2010 was 9.70 in on 22 May 2012, and it had 7.53 in on 15 November 2023 and 6.25 in on 12 June 2024. FEMA's flood map puts City Hall in zone AH, a special flood hazard area for shallow ponding, with a base flood elevation of 8 ft (panel 12086C0284L, effective 11 September 2009), so flood insurance can be a lender's requirement well inland from the coast. Heat: 91.0 days a year at 90F or above on the Hialeah normals; the airport recorded 139 such days in 2023, the most since 2010, and 115 in 2026 through 29 September, and reached 100F (37.8 C) on 18 August 2026, its only reading that high since 2010. Cold is brief: the airport's lowest reading since 2010 is 35F, on 10 January 2010 and again on 1 February 2026, and the normals count no nights at or below freezing.
What people earn and what the government takes
| Measure | Houston | Hialeah | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $64,361 USD (2024) | $57,151 USD (2024) | Houston |
| Unemployment rate | 5.1% (July 2026) | 3.7% (July 2026) | Hialeah |
| Sales tax | 8.25% | 7% | Hialeah |
| Top marginal income tax Federal plus provincial or state. The American figure leaves out payroll taxes and the cost of health insurance, both of which a Canadian household covers through the tax it pays here. | 37% | 37% | Even |
| Income tax on $100,000, single filer Computed from each jurisdiction's brackets at a single filer's $100,000 and rounded to the dollar, so a gap of a dollar is rounding rather than tax. Two cities in one province or state are shown as Even, because there the two cells describe the same tax and whatever separates them is method. | $13,449 USD | $13,449 USD | Even |
BLS counted 3,495,300 nonfarm jobs in the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands MSA in August 2026 (not seasonally adjusted, preliminary), up 44,700 or 1.3% on the year. Construction grew fastest (+5.5%, to 269,000), then professional and business services (+2.6%, to 581,300) and government (+1.9%), with education and health services and leisure and hospitality both up 1.3%, while information (-5.9%), financial activities (-1.2%), mining and logging (-0.5%, to 73,300) and manufacturing (-0.2%, to 240,400) shrank. Trade, transportation and utilities is the largest sector at 695,600 jobs, unchanged on the year. The seasonally adjusted series (SMS48264200000000001) was 3,510,100 in August 2026, 1.2% above August 2025. The Greater Houston Partnership counts 27 Fortune 500 headquarters in the region on the 2026 list, tied with Chicago for second among US metros behind New York and ahead of Dallas-Fort Worth's 24, with a 28th due when Expand Energy moves to Spring; ExxonMobil (No. 9) and Chevron (No. 21) lead them. Port Houston calls the Houston Ship Channel complex the nation's largest port for waterborne tonnage (309.5 million tons in 2023, USACE) and the fifth-ranked US container port by TEUs.
Main sectors: Energy: oil and gas producers, refiners, pipelines and oilfield services (ExxonMobil, Chevron, Phillips 66, ConocoPhillips, Enterprise Products Partners, Baker Hughes, Halliburton, Cheniere Energy), Trade, transportation and utilities, the metro's largest sector (the Port of Houston, the nation's largest port by waterborne tonnage; Sysco; United Airlines at Bush Intercontinental; CenterPoint Energy, NRG Energy), Professional and business services, including engineering and construction (KBR, Quanta Services, Comfort Systems USA, Waste Management), Health care and life sciences (the Texas Medical Center, Memorial Hermann, Houston Methodist, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Texas Children's Hospital), Petrochemicals and advanced manufacturing along the Houston Ship Channel (Westlake, NOV).
Property tax is the local levy that matters. Tax Foundation puts Texas's effective property tax rate on owner-occupied homes at 1.40%, and school districts must exempt $140,000 of a homestead's value from their tax. The City of Houston's own rate for tax year 2025 is 51.919 cents per $100 of taxable value, left unchanged by an 11-3 council vote on 15 October 2025 although the city controller warned it would open a $53 million gap in the $7 billion fiscal 2026 budget; the budget committee chair, who voted against, said there was still room under both the state's and the city's own revenue caps. On 10 June 2026 the council passed a $7.5 billion budget for fiscal 2027 by 15 to 1, closing a projected deficit of more than $200 million with no increase in the property tax rate and a new $5 monthly solid waste fee on residential water bills. The rate for tax year 2026 had not been published in anything fetched. The county, school district, METRO and other levies on the same bill belong to the housing layer.
BLS counted 1,349,400 nonfarm jobs in the Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall metropolitan division, which is Miami-Dade County, in August 2026 (not seasonally adjusted, preliminary), up 6,200 or 0.5% on the year. Professional and business services (+5,300, or 2.5%, to 221,300), private education and health services (+4,600, or 2.0%, to 229,600), leisure and hospitality (+2,900, or 1.9%, to 153,400) and wholesale trade (+1,500, or 1.8%, to 82,800) added the most, while financial activities lost 5,100 (-5.0%, to 96,700), government 1,100 and transportation, warehousing and utilities 1,000. Trade, transportation and utilities is the largest supersector at 324,900, 24% of the county's jobs. The City's 2025 financial report lists its ten principal employers, led by Palmetto General Hospital (1,635), the City (1,492), UPS (1,119) and Hialeah Hospital (1,032), at 8,995 jobs, 7.8% of employment in the city on the City's count; six of the ten carry exactly the headcount they had in 2016, so the list has not been recounted for most of them. Most residents work elsewhere in the county: 61.8% of the city's workers (74,100 of 119,984) worked outside Hialeah in 2024, but only 9.8% (11,754) outside Miami-Dade. 13.2% worked from home, and the mean commute for the rest was 30 minutes, with 11.4% spending an hour or more (ACS 2024 1-year, B08007, B08008, B08013, B08101 and B08303).
Main sectors: Health care: Palmetto General Hospital (1,635 staff) is the city's largest employer, and Hialeah Hospital (1,032), Larkin Community Hospital's Palm Springs campus (683) and La Colonia Medical Centers (527) are also among its ten largest, in a county sector (private education and health services, 229,600 jobs) that added 4,600 jobs over the year, Shipping, wholesale and warehousing: United Parcel Service (1,119) is the third-largest employer, in a city beside Miami International Airport; Miami-Dade's wholesale trade employs 82,800 and its transportation, warehousing and utilities 98,400, Groceries and retail: Publix (771), Fresco y Más (741) and Sedano's (545) among the ten largest employers, the many independent shops and supermarkets on the main streets that Wikipedia describes, and Westland Mall, in a county with 143,700 retail jobs, City government: the City of Hialeah (1,492, down from 1,755 in 2016), which runs its own police, fire department, library and free bus service, Light industry: the garment and manufacturing plants that made Hialeah an industrial city in the 1970s and 1980s have mostly gone, replaced in part by electronics and technology businesses (Wikipedia); Miami-Dade's manufacturing employs 46,800, 3.5% of its jobs.
Property tax is the local levy that matters. Tax Foundation puts Florida's effective property tax rate on owner-occupied homes at 0.78%, and a homestead exemption takes as much as $50,000 off a permanent residence's taxable value and brings the Save Our Homes limit on how fast its assessment can rise (Florida Department of Revenue). A property in the City of Hialeah (Miami-Dade millage code 0400) paid 18.6468 mills for 2025 on the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser's adopted chart, down from 18.6638 in 2024: the City's own 6.3018 plus the 12.3450 of school, county and regional levies every municipality in the county pays. Hialeah runs its own fire department and its own library, so it pays neither the county Fire Rescue district's 2.3965 mills nor the library district's 0.2812. The City has held its rate at 6.3018 for at least ten years while taxable value rose 11.0% in fiscal 2025 to $22.2 billion (City of Hialeah financial report), and the appraiser's proposed 2026 table keeps it there, for a total of 18.6134. Miami-Dade is also the one Florida county with its own deed tax: 60 cents per $100 rather than the statewide 70, plus a 45-cent surtax that is not due on a transfer of a single-family dwelling only (Florida Department of Revenue), so a house at Hialeah's typical value of $445,331 carries about $2,672 and a condominium or duplex at the same price about $4,676, the seller's by convention. Zillow's typical home value for the city was $445,331 in June 2026, down 1.5% on the year, and its observed rent $2,374; the bills, insurance and flood exposure that follow belong to the housing layer.
Whether you need a car
| Measure | Houston | Hialeah | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| System | METRO buses (more than 80 local routes plus Park & Ride commuter buses on the HOV and HOT lanes), three METRORail light rail lines on 22.7 miles of track (the Red Line, opened in 2004, and the Green and Purple lines, opened in 2015), the Silver Line bus rapid transit in Uptown, METRO curb2curb on-demand service and METROLift paratransit, across a service area of about 1,300 square miles | Miami-Dade County's Department of Transportation and Public Works runs Metrobus across the city and Metrorail's Green Line, which stops at Okeechobee and Hialeah stations inside the city and at the Tri-Rail and Metrorail Transfer Station on its southern edge; Tri-Rail, the commuter railroad to Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, stops at the transfer station and at Hialeah Market (Wikipedia). The City runs its own free bus service, Hialeah Transit, which in 2023 ran two routes, Flamingo and Marlin, with a free on-demand service through the Freebee app from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends, most of its cost covered by a county half-penny tax (NBC 6 South Florida). By road the city is bounded or crossed by Interstate 75, the Palmetto Expressway (State Road 826), the Homestead Extension of Florida's Turnpike, Okeechobee Road (US 27) and the Gratigny Parkway (Wikipedia). | Not directly comparable |
| Commute by public transit | 3.4% (2024) | 1.4% (2024) | Houston |
| Walk or cycle to work | 2.9% (2024) | 2.3% (2024) | Houston |
| Airport | George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), about 23 miles north of downtown and a hub for United Airlines, handled 48,131,213 passengers in 2025, 0.6% fewer than the 48.4 million of 2024 (FAA figures as cited by Wikipedia; Houston Airports gave no per-airport total for 2025 in anything fetched), and a record 12.4 million international passengers, 2.5% more than in 2024. William P. Hobby Airport (HOU), about 7 miles southeast of downtown and an operating base for Southwest Airlines, handled 13,943,759, 4.5% fewer than 2024's 14.6 million; it kept Skytrax's 5-star rating for a fifth year, the only one in North America. Houston Airports puts the two together at 62 million passengers in 2025, below the record 63.1 million of 2024, and a record 562,809 metric tons of air cargo. | Miami International Airport (MIA), about 5.4 miles south of the city's center, handled 55,314,661 passengers in 2025, 1.1% below 2024's record 55,926,566 (Wikipedia, from the airport's traffic reports). Tri-Rail, from the Tri-Rail and Metrorail Transfer Station on the city's southern edge, connects the city to it and north to West Palm Beach (Wikipedia). | Not directly comparable |
METRO carried 77,996,900 unlinked trips in 2025, 63,315,900 of them by bus and 12,651,100 on light rail, and about 251,800 a weekday in the second quarter of 2026, 37,700 of them on light rail (APTA ridership reports, as cited by Wikipedia; APTA's PDFs refused the fetcher). METRO's own count for fiscal 2025 is 76.3 million boardings on bus and METRORail, 23.3 million riders on its HOV and HOT lanes and 1.9 million METROLift trips. The authority serves the City of Houston, much of unincorporated Harris County and 14 smaller cities, and is paid for by a 1% sales tax that voters created in 1978. Expansion has stalled: voters approved the METRONext plan in November 2019, including 16 miles of light rail extensions and 75 miles of bus rapid transit, but in June 2024 METRO indefinitely postponed the University Line, once the plan's cornerstone, and in February 2025 it adopted METRONow, which puts safety, cleanliness and reliability of the existing service first.
Miami-Dade's transit system carried 81,459,917 unlinked trips in 2025 on the National Transit Database's monthly ridership file (Federal Transit Administration): 55.6 million on Metrobus, 15.0 million on Metrorail, 7.8 million on the Metromover downtown, 290,161 on its new bus rapid transit and the rest on demand-response, vanpool and commuter bus service. That is 20% below the 102.1 million of 2019 and 4.3% below 2024's 85.2 million, and January to August 2026 ran 1.3% below the same months of 2025. The Miami profile's 80.8 million is APTA's count for the same year. Tri-Rail carried 4,552,250 commuter rail trips in 2025, level with 2024 and above 2019's 4,495,039 (same file). The City's own buses do not report monthly to the NTD; in October 2023 its transit manager put them at almost 30,000 riders a month, 11,000 of them on the on-demand service (NBC 6 South Florida).
Health care, schools and what each city is like
Health care
Care is paid for through employer or marketplace insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, and Texas is one of the ten states that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (KFF, August 2026). It had the highest uninsured rate of any state in 2024: 16.7%, or 5,152,427 of 30,799,312 people, against 8.2% nationally and 12.0% in Georgia, the next highest, on the ACS 2024 1-year estimates. The City of Houston's rate was 23.3% (553,576 of 2,370,907), Harris County's 20.8% and the metro's 18.4%. The Texas Medical Center, south of downtown, calls itself the largest medical complex in the world: by its own count 10,000 patient beds, more than 120,000 employees, 10 million patient encounters and 750,000 emergency visits a year, and among its members the world's largest children's hospital and largest cancer hospital (Texas Children's and MD Anderson). Harris Health's Ben Taub Hospital in the medical center, licensed for 402 beds, is the county's public Level I trauma center and treats more than 80,000 emergency patients a year; in May 2024 Harris Health broke ground on a $1.6 billion, 12-story hospital on its Lyndon B. Johnson campus in northeast Houston, due to open in late 2028 as the first Level I trauma center in the county outside the medical center. This file did not verify a wait time figure for primary or specialist care.
Education
Houston ISD, the largest school district in Texas, has been run by a state-appointed board and superintendent, Mike Miles, since the Texas Education Agency took it over in 2023. It counted 168,810 students on its official snapshot of 31 October 2025, down 4.5% from 176,727 a year earlier, and just over 155,600 on 4 September 2026, nearly 10,000 fewer than in September 2025, and it is cutting staff and campus budgets as a result (Houston Chronicle). The Texas Tribune counts 21,000 students lost since the takeover began, a faster decline than any of its urban peers, and about $190 million in state funding with them. Under Miles the number of F-rated campuses fell from 56 to five, but voters rejected a $4.4 billion bond in 2024, the largest Texas school bond ever to fail, and in August 2026 Miles said the official end of the takeover may come at the end of the 2026-27 year. The University of Houston (48,950 students in fall 2025) and Rice University (8,880 in fall 2024) are both inside the city, and Houston Community College renamed itself Houston City College in 2025.
Living there
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the country and the energy capital of its fifth-largest metro, which added 126,720 people in 2024-25, more than any other. It spreads into four counties with 22.7 miles of light rail near the core, and 68.7% of its workers drive alone, though its 3.4% transit share is the highest of the Texas cities this site compares. Water is its hazard: Harvey flooded 154,170 homes in Harris County in 2017, most of them outside the mapped floodplain, and Beryl left more than two million customers without power in July heat in 2024. Summer is long and humid rather than extreme, with far fewer 100F days than Dallas but 111 days a year at 90F or above and 1,317 mm of rain. Texas takes no income tax, 23.3% of the city's residents have no health insurance, and the Texas Medical Center, the largest in the world by its own count, sits a few miles south of downtown. The open questions are fiscal and civic: the council held the property tax rate flat in October 2025 against its controller's warning and passed a fiscal 2027 budget that closes a deficit of more than $200 million without raising it, METRO has shelved the University Line that was once the cornerstone of its expansion plan, and Houston ISD, under state control since 2023, began 2026-27 with nearly 10,000 fewer students than the year before.
Health care
Care is paid for through employer or marketplace insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, and Florida is one of the ten states that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (KFF). The City of Hialeah's uninsured rate was 15.1% in 2024 (35,490 of 234,398, ACS 2024 1-year), above Miami-Dade's 12.4%, Florida's 10.9% and the national 8.2%. The city has two acute care hospitals, Hialeah Hospital and Palmetto General Hospital, which Steward Health Care bought from Tenet in August 2021 and lost in its bankruptcy: a court approved their sale to Healthcare Systems of America on 25 October 2024, and Hialeah Hospital is now owned by Medical Properties Trust and operated by that company (Wikipedia). Palmetto General is the city's largest employer (1,635 staff) and Hialeah Hospital its fourth (1,032), with Larkin Community Hospital's Palm Springs campus (683) and La Colonia Medical Centers (527) also among the ten largest (City of Hialeah). Wikipedia gives Hialeah Hospital 378 beds from the hospital's own site of 2015; this file did not verify a current bed count for either hospital, or a wait time figure for primary or specialist care.
Education
Miami-Dade County Public Schools runs the city's public schools. The district counted 18,910 fewer students on the first days of 2026-27 than at the end of 2025-26, a first-day snapshot it says the October count will refine, with private school vouchers, the cost of living and immigration enforcement among the reasons given; it had already closed or consolidated nine schools, and the 27 more it has put under review or reassessment do not include any named in Hialeah (WLRN; CBS News Miami). Wikipedia's list of the schools serving the city includes Hialeah Senior High, Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High and Westland Hialeah Senior High, with the José Martí MAST 6-12 magnet academy and the City of Hialeah Educational Academy, a charter school (Wikipedia). Miami Dade College has had a Hialeah campus since 1980. The City runs its own public library system, founded in 1924, a year before the city was incorporated, and outside the county's library district, which is why the county library levy does not appear on Hialeah tax bills (Wikipedia; Miami-Dade Property Appraiser).
Living there
Hialeah is the most Cuban city in the United States. It was laid out in 1921 by the aviator Glenn Curtiss and the cattleman James Bright on a prairie between Biscayne Bay and the Everglades, incorporated in 1925, the year Hialeah Park's racetrack opened, and became a working-class city after 1959 as successive waves of Cuban exiles settled there (Wikipedia). On the ACS 2024 1-year estimates 95.3% of its people are Hispanic, 72.7% are of Cuban origin and 77.1% were born outside the United States, against 55.3% for Miami-Dade; 91.9% speak Spanish at home and 59.5% speak English less than very well (2020-2024 5-year). It is dense, about 10,700 people per square mile of land, and one of the few places in the county with a street grid numbered separately from Miami's. It has the second-lowest household income of the Florida cities this site compares ($57,151, above only Tallahassee's) and, after Miami and Orlando, the lowest share of owners (42.8%), but its unemployment is low (2.3% in July 2026) and most of its workers have jobs inside Miami-Dade. It is also older than its reputation, with a median age of 46.0. It barely grew from 2020 to 2025 (3.5%) and lost people in the last year, as Miami-Dade did. Violent crime in 2025 was 178 per 100,000, half Miami's, with three homicides. Its own government does more than most: it runs its fire department, its library and free buses, and its property tax rate has not moved from 6.3018 mills in a decade.
Where each city wins, and where it loses
Both cities price in US dollars, so the figures net directly, though the headlines are different instruments priced at different rates. Houston's is the Houston Association of Realtors' median of single-family houses sold across Greater Houston, $330,000 in August 2026, 1.5% below a year earlier, a regional figure because HAR's city breakdown could not be retrieved. Hialeah's is Zillow's typical home value for the city across all homes, $445,331 in June 2026, 1.5% below a year earlier; it is the City's row in this site's Miami-Dade layer, which measures Miami, Hialeah and twenty-two other municipalities in the county on the same series, and no sale median is used beside it. On Zillow's index, the like-for-like measure, the City of Houston stood at $261,740 in August, 2.3% lower on the year, so the order holds and the gap widens, to about $183,600 from $115,331. At 20% down, Houston's $264,000 loan at 7.03%, Freddie Mac's rate for 24 September, costs about $1,762 a month, and Hialeah's $356,265 loan at 6.67%, the layer's August rate, about $2,292, or $2,377 at 7.03%. Property tax is $4,391 a year in Houston and about $7,534 in Hialeah with a homestead, 1.33% and 1.69% of the price, and insurance is budgeted at $450 and $505 a month, both for a coast that hurricanes reach, the Hialeah figure the layer's single-family policy for mainland Miami-Dade, against a county average of about $6,045 a year, and neither with a flood policy in it. The three lines come to about $2,578 and $3,425, roughly 48% and 72% of each city's 2024 median household income; at 7.03% Hialeah's would be about $3,510. Hialeah's $847 more is about $530 of mortgage, which would be $615 at the same rate, $262 of property tax and $55 of insurance. Renting favors Houston by more. Zillow's observed rent index, the same measure in both, was $2,374 in Hialeah in June 2026 and $1,542 in Houston in August, about 50% and 29% of median income, and Apartment List's September medians for the City of Houston, a one-bedroom at $1,120 and a two-bedroom at $1,327, sit far below this site's modeled split of Hialeah's index, $2,042 and $2,374, in a city where owners hold 42.8% of occupied homes and most households rent.
The definitions match: both cities' figures are the FBI's summarized counts for 2025, divided by Census Vintage 2025 populations and read on 30 September and 2 October 2026. Hialeah is the lower on every line, by a wide margin. Its 412 violent offenses come to 178 per 100,000 against Houston's 890 on 21,345, and its 3,273 property offenses to 1,417 against 3,854 on 92,382. Homicide was 3 in Hialeah, about 1.3 per 100,000, against 270 in Houston, about 11.3. One caution sits on Hialeah's property figure, and it understates rather than overstates: the FBI's copy of the department's reports carries 30 to 60 motor vehicle thefts a month until September 2023 and almost none since, 7 for all of 2025, where the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's file has 337. With the state's count the rate would be about 1,560, still about two-fifths of Houston's. Both are improving. Hialeah's violent offenses went from 474 in 2022 to 412 in 2025, its robberies halved, and January to July 2026 brought 22% fewer than the same months of 2025; its property offenses, leaving vehicle thefts out, fell 14% in three years. Houston's violent offenses dropped 20% in 2025 and 26% in four years, murders 18%, from 329 to 270, and motor vehicle theft from 20,085 in 2023 to 12,516. Both sets of counts come from a feed last refreshed on 15 September and can still be revised.
Hialeah has the warmer winter and the milder summer, and the more rain. January averages 19.7 C at the Hialeah cooperative station, about 3.8 miles south-southeast of the city's center and just outside its southern limit, and 12.1 C at Bush Intercontinental, inside Houston well north of downtown; July is 28.5 C against 29.5 C. Houston's normals count 111.3 days a year at 90F or above against 91.0, 7.0 at or above 37.8 C (100F) against 0.2, and 10.1 nights at or below freezing against none, with 0.3 cm of snow against none. Hialeah gets 1,852 mm of rain a year, 56% of it from June through September, the most of the Florida cities this site compares, and Houston 1,317 mm, the most of the Texas cities; on the 1961-1990 sunshine series, which has no Hialeah station, Miami's 3,154 hours stand against Houston's 2,578. Both are hurricane cities where the costly water has come from rain. Harvey stalled over the Houston region in August 2017, flooded 154,170 homes in Harris County, 68% of them outside the 100-year floodplain and 64% without flood insurance, and caused 36 flood deaths in the county; Beryl in July 2024 left more than 2.2 million customers in the region without power in summer heat. Hialeah's water ponds on flat, low ground far from the coast: Miami International's wettest day since 2010 brought 9.70 in on 22 May 2012, and 7.53 in fell on 15 November 2023, and FEMA's map puts City Hall in zone AH, a special flood hazard area for shallow ponding, with a base flood elevation of 8 ft. The last hurricane to bring hurricane-force gusts there was Irma in September 2017, which came ashore well to the southwest: Opa-locka Airport, 2.9 miles north of the city's center, recorded 56 kt (64 mph) sustained with a gust of 74 kt (85 mph), and about 1,000 homes in Miami-Dade had major damage. Cold is rare in both. Winter Storm Uri took Bush Intercontinental to 13F (-10.6 C) in February 2021 while ERCOT cut power across the state grid, and Texas counted 43 of the storm's 246 deaths in Harris County, more than in any other; Miami International's lowest reading since 2010 is 35F, on 10 January 2010 and again on 1 February 2026.
Houston's metro has more than twice Miami-Dade's jobs, and Hialeah's metro the lower unemployment. BLS counted 3,495,300 nonfarm jobs around Houston in August 2026, 1.3% more than a year earlier, and 1,349,400 in the Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall division, which is Miami-Dade County alone and one of three counties in its metro, 6,200 more, a gain of 0.5%; Hialeah holds 8.2% of the county's people. On the same unadjusted basis unemployment in July was 5.1% around Houston and 3.7% across the Miami metro, the lowest of the Florida cities this site compares, against 4.4% nationally, and 2.3% in the City of Hialeah. Houston runs on energy, the port and the Texas Medical Center, and the Greater Houston Partnership counts 27 Fortune 500 headquarters in the region on the 2026 list, led by ExxonMobil and Chevron; Port Houston calls the Houston Ship Channel complex the nation's largest port by waterborne tonnage, 309.5 million tons in 2023. Hialeah's own employers are hospitals, shipping and grocers: Palmetto General Hospital, with 1,635 staff, is the largest, then the City itself with 1,492, UPS with 1,119, in a city beside Miami International Airport, and Hialeah Hospital with 1,032, and Publix, Fresco y Más and Sedano's are among the ten largest. In the county professional and business services added the most jobs in the year, 5,300, while financial activities lost 5,100; in Houston construction grew 5.5%. Most Hialeah residents work elsewhere in the county: 61.8% of the city's workers worked outside Hialeah in 2024, but only 9.8% outside Miami-Dade. Neither profile carries a wage figure. City median household income was $64,361 in Houston and $57,151 in Hialeah in 2024, the latter with a margin of error of $5,574 either way, and the metros' $81,417 and $80,625. Neither state taxes income, so $100,000 pays $13,449 in federal tax in both for 2025, and sales tax is 8.25% in Houston, a full cent of it METRO's, against 7% in Miami-Dade, whose county cent applies only to the first $5,000 of a single item. The property tax stacks are close in nominal rate and far apart in exemptions. Houston's eight units add to 2.12522 per $100, and Texas takes $140,000 off the school levy, Houston ISD adds 20% of its own and most of the other units take 20% too. A City of Hialeah address pays 18.6468 mills, about 1.86 per $100: the City's 6.3018, the school board's 6.499, the county's operating, debt service and Children's Trust levies 5.4549, and 0.3911 for the South Florida Water Management District and the Florida Inland Navigation District; because the City runs its own fire department and library, it pays neither the county's Fire Rescue district levy of 2.3965 mills nor its library levy of 0.2812. Florida takes $25,000 off every levy and a second slice, $25,000 before the inflation adjustment it has carried since 2025, off all but the schools. So on the same $445,331 house Houston's eight units would charge about $6,355 against $7,534, and on $330,000 the Hialeah stack would charge about $5,384 against Houston's $4,391.
The two transit systems carry about the same number of trips, and Houston's workers use theirs more. In 2024, 3.4% of Houston workers took transit and 2.9% walked or cycled, against 1.4% and 2.3% in Hialeah; 68.7% of Houston's workers drove alone against 68.5%, and 10.9% and 13.2% worked from home. METRO carried 77,996,900 trips in 2025, 12,651,100 of them on 22.7 miles of light rail, and is paid for by a 1% sales tax voters created in 1978, though it postponed the University Line indefinitely in June 2024. Miami-Dade's system carried 81,459,917 trips across the county in 2025, 15.0 million of them on Metrorail, whose Green Line stops at Okeechobee and Hialeah stations inside the city and at the Tri-Rail and Metrorail Transfer Station on its southern edge; Tri-Rail, the commuter railroad to Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, carried 4,552,250 and also stops at Hialeah Market. The City runs its own free buses, two routes and an on-demand service, which its transit manager put at almost 30,000 riders a month in October 2023. Two Metrorail stations have not made Hialeah a transit city: Miami-Dade's share is 3.7% and the City of Miami's 7.7%. Both have large international airports. Bush Intercontinental, United's hub, handled 48,131,213 passengers in 2025, a record 12.4 million of them international, and Hobby 13,943,759. Miami International, about 5.4 miles south of Hialeah's center and reached by Tri-Rail from the transfer station, handled 55,314,661.
Coverage is a state problem in both, and a far larger one in Houston. Neither Texas nor Florida has expanded Medicaid, but Texas had the highest uninsured rate of any state in 2024, 16.7%, and the City of Houston's was 23.3%, while Florida's was 10.9%, Miami-Dade's 12.4% and the City of Hialeah's 15.1%, against 8.2% nationally. The hospitals are of different orders. Houston has the Texas Medical Center, by its own count the largest medical complex in the world, with 10,000 patient beds, MD Anderson and Texas Children's, and Harris Health's Ben Taub Hospital, licensed for 402 beds, is the county's public Level I trauma center. Hialeah's two acute care hospitals, Hialeah Hospital and Palmetto General, have changed hands twice in five years: Steward Health Care bought them from Tenet in 2021 and lost them in its bankruptcy, and a court approved their sale to Healthcare Systems of America on 25 October 2024. They are also the city's largest and fourth-largest employers. Neither profile verified a wait time, and the Hialeah one carries no current bed count. The schools are shrinking in both. Houston ISD, the largest district in Texas and under a state-appointed board since 2023, counted just over 155,600 students on 4 September 2026, nearly 10,000 fewer than a year earlier. Miami-Dade County Public Schools counted 18,910 fewer students on the first days of 2026-27 than at the end of 2025-26, a first-day snapshot the district says its October count will refine; it had already closed or consolidated nine schools, and the 27 more it has put under review do not include any in Hialeah. The University of Houston enrolled 48,950 in fall 2025 and Rice 8,880 in fall 2024. Hialeah has a Miami Dade College campus, there since 1980, and the City runs its own library system, founded in 1924, a year before the city was incorporated.
What people underestimate is that flood is the risk in both and neither figure here includes it, and that the map is a different guide in each. Harvey flooded homes that were mostly outside the mapped floodplain and mostly uninsured for flood, and a homeowners policy covers wind and not rising water in either state. In Hialeah the map itself reaches far: on the City's own flood zone layer 90,311 of its 223,109 residents at the 2020 census, about two in five, lived in a FEMA special flood hazard area, 77,666 of them in zone AH, FEMA's designation for shallow flooding, and 12,645 in zone AE, and a lender can require a flood policy there however far the coast is. The exposure runs from under a tenth of the residents in some parts of the city to all of the newest ground west of Interstate 75, so the street matters more than the city's average, and the Miami-Dade layer notes that unpermitted additions and garage conversions are common enough here that a permit search is a standard step. The Houston bill carries charges its rate does not show: newer subdivisions often pay a municipal utility district, at a median of about 0.54 per $100 in 2025, and Houston has added a $5 monthly solid waste fee on residential water bills. Both bills reset on a sale: Save Our Homes caps a homesteaded Florida assessment at 3% a year and resets it to market value the January after a sale, the Texas 10% cap lapses on one, and in both the exemption has to be filed, in Florida with the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser by 1 March of the year after you buy; without one the two would owe $7,013 in Houston and $8,304 in Hialeah. At closing Texas has no transfer tax and no tax on the loan, and the seller customarily buys the buyer's owner's title policy, $1,916 on Houston's median. Miami-Dade is the one Florida county with its own deed tax, 60 cents per $100 rather than the statewide 70, plus a 45-cent surtax that is not due on a single-family house, so a house at Hialeah's typical value carries about $2,672 and a condominium or duplex at the same price about $4,676, the seller's by convention, and the buyer pays 0.55% of the loan in stamp and intangible tax, about $1,959 at 20% down. A condominium is a different budget again: this site estimates Hialeah's association fee at $850 a month against $350 in Houston, because no authority publishes a Hialeah average and an older low-rise building in the old city and a new master-planned community west of Interstate 75 are not comparable. Both cities have held their own rates: Houston at 51.919 cents since 2023 under a charter cap on its revenue, and Hialeah at 6.3018 mills for at least ten years, which the appraiser's proposed 2026 table keeps. And the populations are moving apart. Houston added 11,515 residents in 2024-25 and has grown 4.2% since 2020. Hialeah lost 2,210 and has grown 3.5% since 2020, in a county whose growth came entirely from abroad: Miami-Dade lost 72,254 more people to the rest of the country than it gained from it in 2024-25, and with international arrivals down to 54,204 it shrank by 10,115. On the census's estimates 95.3% of Hialeah's people are Hispanic, 72.7% of Cuban origin and 77.1% born outside the United States, 91.9% speak Spanish at home, and the city's median age is 46.0.
Better here
- Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $2,578 a month on Greater Houston's median, roughly 48% of the city's median household income, against $3,425 and 72% in Hialeah, or $3,510 there at the same 7.03% rate.
- A homesteaded owner pays about 1.33% of the median in property tax against 1.69%, and on the same $445,331 house the eight units would take about $6,355 against $7,534.
- The metro's 3,495,300 nonfarm jobs grew 1.3% in the year to August 2026, against 0.5% for Miami-Dade's 1,349,400, and the region counts 27 Fortune 500 headquarters.
- Zillow's observed rent index was $1,542 in August against $2,374 in Hialeah, and a median two-bedroom in the city rented for $1,327 in September.
- METRO runs 22.7 miles of light rail, 3.4% of workers took transit in 2024 against 1.4%, and Bush Intercontinental, United's hub, handled 48,131,213 passengers in 2025 and Hobby 13,943,759.
- The Texas Medical Center, with MD Anderson and Texas Children's, is by its own count the largest medical complex in the world, and Ben Taub is a Level I trauma center.
Worse here
- Violent crime ran 890 per 100,000 in 2025 against 178 in Hialeah, property crime 3,854 against 1,417, and there were 270 homicides against 3, on the same FBI counts.
- The City of Houston's uninsured rate was 23.3% in 2024 against 15.1% in the City of Hialeah.
- Harvey flooded 154,170 homes in Harris County in 2017, 68% of them outside the 100-year floodplain and 64% without flood insurance.
- Unemployment was 5.1% in July 2026 against 3.7% across the Miami metro on the same unadjusted basis.
- The normals count 7.0 days a year at or above 37.8 C (100F) against 0.2 in Hialeah, and 10.1 freezing nights against none.
- Texas counted 43 of Winter Storm Uri's 246 deaths in Harris County in February 2021, more than in any other county, while ERCOT cut power.
Choose Houston if
- you work in energy, petrochemicals, engineering, the port or at the Texas Medical Center
- you want to own for about $932 a month less at the same rate, or rent for about $832 a month less on Zillow's index
- you want light rail and a hub airport with international reach
- you will take a hotter summer and a harder freeze, and will check an address's flood history whatever the floodplain map says
The Houston guide · Neighborhoods · Houston rent vs buy · Houston mortgage calculator
Better here
- Violent crime ran 178 per 100,000 in 2025 against 890 in Houston, property crime 1,417 against 3,854, and there were 3 homicides, about 1.3 per 100,000, against 270.
- The City of Hialeah's uninsured rate was 15.1% in 2024 against 23.3% in the City of Houston.
- Unemployment was 3.7% across the Miami metro in July 2026, the lowest of the Florida cities this site compares, against 5.1% around Houston, and 2.3% in the City of Hialeah.
- January averages 19.7 C with no freezing nights on the normals, against 12.1 C and 10.1 at Bush Intercontinental, and 0.2 days a year reach 100F against 7.0.
- Sales tax is 7% against 8.25%, and the City has held its own property tax rate at 6.3018 mills for at least ten years.
- Two Metrorail stations and Tri-Rail serve the city, and Miami International, about 5.4 miles south, handled 55,314,661 passengers in 2025.
Worse here
- Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $3,425 a month on the June 2026 typical home, roughly 72% of the city's median household income, against $2,578 and 48% in Houston.
- A homesteaded owner pays about 1.69% of the price in property tax against 1.33% in Houston, and insurance is budgeted at $505 a month with no flood cover in it.
- About two in five residents live in a FEMA special flood hazard area, most of them in zone AH, where a lender can require a flood policy.
- Zillow's observed rent index was $2,374 in June 2026, about 50% of median income, against $1,542 and 29% in Houston.
- City median household income was $57,151 in 2024 against $64,361 in Houston, and Miami-Dade's jobs grew 0.5% in the year to August 2026 against 1.3%.
- The seller pays Miami-Dade's deed tax of about $2,672 on a house at the typical value, or $4,676 on a condominium, and the buyer about $1,959 in stamp and intangible tax on the loan, where Texas taxes neither the deed nor the loan.
Choose Hialeah if
- you want far lower crime and a lower uninsured rate
- you want a 19.7 C January and almost no 100F days, and will price flood cover on the street first
- you work in health care, shipping, wholesale or retail in Miami-Dade, or near the airport
- you would pay about $847 a month more to own for a dense, Spanish-speaking city with Metrorail into Miami
The Hialeah guide · Neighborhoods · Hialeah rent vs buy · Hialeah mortgage calculator
Houston or Hialeah, in short
Is Houston or Hialeah cheaper to live in?
Houston, to own and to rent, by a wide margin. Both cities price in US dollars, though the headlines are different instruments: the Houston Association of Realtors' median of single-family houses sold across Greater Houston, $330,000 in August 2026, and Zillow's typical home value for Hialeah, $445,331 in June, the City's row in this site's Miami-Dade layer. On Zillow's index, the same measure in both, the City of Houston stood at $261,740. The mortgage at 20% down is about $1,762 against $2,292, though Houston's uses September's 7.03% rate and Hialeah's August's 6.67%. Property tax is $4,391 a year against about $7,534 with a homestead and insurance $450 a month against $505, so the three lines come to about $2,578 in Houston and $3,425 in Hialeah, or $3,510 at the same 7.03%, roughly 48% and 72% of each city's median household income, $64,361 and $57,151. Neither includes flood cover. Zillow's observed rent index was $1,542 in Houston in August and $2,374 in Hialeah in June. Neither state taxes income, and sales tax is 8.25% in Houston against 7% in Miami-Dade.
Is Houston or Hialeah safer?
Hialeah, on every line and by a wide margin, on figures built the same way. Both are the FBI's summarized counts for 2025 divided by Census estimates, read on 30 September and 2 October 2026. Violent offenses ran 178 per 100,000 in Hialeah against 890 in Houston, property offenses 1,417 against 3,854, and homicide was 3 in Hialeah, about 1.3 per 100,000, against 270 in Houston, about 11.3. Hialeah's property rate is understated: the FBI's copy of its reports has almost no motor vehicle thefts since October 2023, and with the state's count of 337 for 2025 the rate would be about 1,560. Both are improving: Houston's violent offenses dropped 20% in 2025 and its murders fell from 329, and Hialeah's violent offenses were 22% lower in January to July 2026 than a year earlier. Every rate here is a count divided by a Census estimate rather than a published rate, and the counts can still be revised.
How do hurricanes and flooding compare in Houston and Hialeah?
Both are exposed, mostly to rain, and neither carry here includes flood insurance. Harvey stalled over the Houston region in August 2017 and flooded 154,170 homes in Harris County, 68% of them outside the 100-year floodplain and 64% without flood insurance, and Beryl left more than 2.2 million customers in the region without power in July 2024. Hialeah is flat, low and inland: on the City's flood zone layer about two in five residents live in a FEMA special flood hazard area, most of them in zone AH, FEMA's designation for shallow flooding, and City Hall sits in AH with a base flood elevation of 8 ft, so a lender can require a flood policy well away from the coast. Irma in 2017 brought a gust of 74 kt (85 mph) at Opa-locka Airport, just north of the city. Homeowners insurance is budgeted at $450 a month in Houston and $505 in Hialeah. Get a flood quote and the elevation certificate on the address in either city before comparing.
Which has the better job market, Houston or Hialeah?
Houston's is more than twice the size and growing faster, though Hialeah's metro has the lower unemployment. BLS counted 3,495,300 nonfarm jobs around Houston in August 2026, 1.3% more than a year earlier, and 1,349,400 in Miami-Dade County, 0.5% more. On the same unadjusted basis unemployment was 5.1% around Houston and 3.7% across the Miami metro in July, and 2.3% in the City of Hialeah. Houston's work leans on energy, the Port of Houston, engineering and the Texas Medical Center, with 27 Fortune 500 headquarters in the region. Hialeah's leans on its two hospitals, UPS and the shipping and wholesale trade around the airport, and its grocers, and most of its workers commute elsewhere in Miami-Dade. Metro median household income was $81,417 around Houston in 2024 and $80,625 around Miami.
Where the figures come from
Housing figures are the ones behind each city's calculators, dated on those pages. The rest are listed here with the date they were retrieved. See the methodology for how facts, estimates and opinion are kept apart.
- Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places in Texas: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025 (SUB-EST2025) · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: City population, Five-year growth, Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Character
- Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places of 50,000 or More (all states, SUB-EST2025) · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: City population, Character
- Annual Resident Population Estimates and Components of Change for Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas and Their Counties: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025 (CBSA-EST2025-ALLDATA) · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: Metro population, Five-year growth, Character
- Crime Data Explorer summarized agency data, Houston Police Department (TXHPD0000): violent crime, property crime, homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and arson, 2021-2025 · FBI · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend
- Houston homicides drop 17% in 2025, as experts say multiple factors drive national trend · Houston Chronicle · retrieved Supports: Homicides, Crime trend
- Crime continues downward surge in 2025 in Houston and nationwide (Major Cities Chiefs Association year-end survey) · Houston Chronicle · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Crime trend
- US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00012960 Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: January mean, July mean, Annual precipitation, Annual snowfall, Climate normals, Climate hazards, Character, January 53.8F, July 85.1F and August 85.2F from the monthly series, and annual mean 70.5F, precipitation 51.84 in, snowfall 0.1 in and the counts of days at 90F and 100F and nights at freezing from dataset=normals-annualseasonal-1991-2020 for the same station
- US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00012918 Houston William P. Hobby Airport (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate normals
- Global Historical Climatology Network daily summaries, Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport (USW00012960), 1969-2026 · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, 31.26 in from 25 to 29 August 2017 and 16.07 in on 27 August 2017, 9.92 in on 18 April 2016, 46 days at or above 100F in 2011 and 24 in a row from 1 to 24 August 2011, 45 in 2023, 9 in 2026 through 21 September, 109F on 4 September 2000, 27 August 2011 and 24 and 27 August 2023, 1.0 in of snow on 15 February 2021 and 13F on 16 February 2021, 7F on 23 December 1989, 1.4 in of snow on 20 and 21 January 2025 and 20F on 22 January 2025
- Global Historical Climatology Network daily summaries, Houston William P. Hobby Airport (USW00012918), 1930-2026 · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, 37.01 in from 25 to 29 August 2017
- Average Annual Sunshine in US Cities · Current Results (NCDC Comparative Climatic Data, 1961-1990) · retrieved Supports: Sunshine hours, Climate normals
- Weather and Climate Billion-Dollar Disasters to affect the U.S. from 1980-2024 (events list) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Hurricane Harvey & Its Impacts on Southeast Texas (August 25-29, 2017) · National Weather Service, Houston/Galveston · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Immediate Flood Report, Final Report: Hurricane Harvey, 2017 · Harris County Flood Control District · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, Character
- National Hurricane Center Tropical Cyclone Report: Hurricane Beryl (AL022024) · NOAA National Hurricane Center · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Houston power outages: Hurricane Beryl plunges 2.2 million into the dark · Houston Public Media · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, Character
- Public Utility Commission releases investigative report on CenterPoint's response to Hurricane Beryl · The Texas Tribune · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- February 2021 Winter Storm-Related Deaths, Texas (mortality surveillance report) · Texas Department of State Health Services · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- The Timeline and Events of the February 2021 Texas Electric Grid Blackouts · The University of Texas at Austin Energy Institute · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- ACS 2024 1-year tables B08301 and B19013 for Houston city and the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands MSA · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Median household income, Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share, Character
- ACS 2024 1-year table B27001 (health insurance coverage) for the 50 states, DC, the US, Harris County, Houston city and the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands MSA · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Health care, Character
- Local Area Unemployment Statistics, Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX MSA (LAUMT482642000000003), Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties, and the US rate (LNU04000000), not seasonally adjusted · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate
- Current Employment Statistics, Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX MSA: total nonfarm (SMU48264200000000001, SMS48264200000000001) and supersectors (SMU4826420xx00000001) · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- Fortune 500 Companies (Houston ranks second among US metro areas in Fortune 500 headquarters) · Greater Houston Partnership · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- 27 Houston companies make Fortune 500 for 2026, led by energy giants · CultureMap Houston (InnovationMap) · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- Port Houston Statistics · Port Houston · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- City Sales and Use Tax (city rate table) · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Sales tax
- Transit Sales and Use Tax (Houston MTA, effective October 1, 1978) · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Sales tax, Transit ridership
- Texas Tax Rates & Rankings · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000, Tax notes, Character
- 2025 Tax Brackets and Federal Income Tax Rates · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
- 2026 Tax Brackets and Federal Income Tax Rates · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
- Property Tax Exemptions · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Tax notes
- Houston won't raise property tax rate despite budget concerns · The Bond Buyer · retrieved Supports: Tax notes, Character
- City of Houston passes Whitmire's $7.5 billion budget for fiscal year 2027 · Houston Public Media · retrieved Supports: Tax notes, Character
- About METRO · Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO) · retrieved Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership
- Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (citing the APTA Transit Ridership Reports, Q4 2025 and Q2 2026, through Template:American transit ridership) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership, Character
- Houston Airports closes 2025 with strong international growth, record cargo performance · Houston Airports · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- Houston Airports earns global honors as record travel powers momentum · Houston Airports · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- Houston Airports shatters passenger record with 63.1 million travelers in 2024 · Houston Airports · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- George Bush Intercontinental Airport (2025 passenger totals from the FAA, location, United Airlines hub) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers, Climate normals
- William P. Hobby Airport (2025 passenger totals from the FAA, location, Southwest Airlines) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers, Climate normals
- Status of State Medicaid Expansion Decisions · KFF · retrieved Supports: Health care
- About Us (TMC at a Glance) · Texas Medical Center · retrieved Supports: Health care, Character
- Harris Health Ben Taub Hospital · Harris Health · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Harris Health System Breaks Ground on Northeast Houston Hospital · Harris Health · retrieved Supports: Health care
- HISD cuts staff, campus budgets after enrollment drops nearly 10,000 from last September · Houston Chronicle · retrieved Supports: Education, Character
- HISD reports about 168,800 students enrolled in 2025-26 school year, a loss of 4.5% · Houston Chronicle · retrieved Supports: Education
- Mike Miles expects HISD's state takeover to end after this school year · Houston Chronicle · retrieved Supports: Education
- High costs, dwindling enrollment: Is Houston ISD's playbook under takeover sustainable? · The Texas Tribune · retrieved Supports: Education, Character
- University of Houston (fall 2025 enrollment) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Education
- Rice University (fall 2024 enrollment) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Education
- Houston City College (formerly Houston Community College, 1971-2025) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Education
- 2025 Gazetteer Files: Places, Florida · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: point, City population, Character, Climate normals, Airport passengers, Hialeah city: 21.592 sq mi of land, 1.224 sq mi of water, internal point 25.869941, -80.302865; Miami city 35.997 sq mi of land
- Hialeah, Florida (history, demographics, economy, education, library, transportation) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: City population, Main sectors, Transit system, Education, Character
- Crime Data Explorer summarized agency data, Hialeah Police Department (FL0130400): violent crime, property crime, homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and arson, January 2021 to September 2026 · FBI · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend, Character, 2025: 412 violent (3 + 22 + 31 + 356), 3,273 property (236 + 3,018 + 7 + 12); 2022 to 2024 violent 474, 431 and 415, property 4,329, 4,017 and 3,632; motor vehicle thefts 528, 396, 22 and 7 for 2022 to 2025; agency population 238,769 for 2025; data refreshed 15 September 2026
- FIBRS offense data by agency and month, 2021 to August 2026 · Florida Department of Law Enforcement · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend, Hialeah Police Department, every month of 2021 to 2025 and January to August 2026: 432 violent and 3,667 property offenses in 2025; motor vehicle thefts 541, 566, 488 and 337 for 2022 to 2025; homicides 3 in 2025
- US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USC00083909 Hialeah (cooperative station) (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: January mean, July mean, Annual precipitation, Annual snowfall, Climate normals, Climate hazards, January 67.4F, July 83.3F and August 83.5F, the monthly highs, lows, rain and snow with their completeness flags and years, and annual mean 76.6F, 72.93 in of precipitation, 0.0 in of snow, 91.0 days at 90F, 0.2 at 100F and none at freezing from dataset=normals-annualseasonal-1991-2020 for the same station
- US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00012839 Miami International Airport (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate normals, January 68.6F, July 84.1F, 67.41 in of precipitation from 30 years, 91.4 days at 90F
- US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00012882 Miami Opa Locka Airport (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate normals, No snowfall normal; temperature and precipitation normals flagged representative, from 18 to 23 years
- NCEI data search, normals-monthly-1991-2020 stations within 26.0N to 25.7N and 80.45W to 80.15W · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate normals, USC00083909 Hialeah at 25.8175N, 80.2858W, USW00012839 at 25.7906N, 80.3164W and USW00012882 at 25.9069N, 80.2803W among ten stations, the rest farther or precipitation only
- Global Historical Climatology Network daily summaries, Miami International Airport (USW00012839), 2010-2026 · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, 72.0 mph gust and 5.18 in of rain on 10 September 2017; 9.70 in on 22 May 2012, 7.53 in on 15 November 2023, 6.25 in on 12 June 2024; 139 days at or above 90F in 2023 and 115 in 2026 through 29 September; 100F on 18 August 2026; 35F on 10 January 2010 and 1 February 2026
- Tropical Cyclone Report: Hurricane Irma (AL112017) · NOAA National Hurricane Center · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, Landfalls near Cudjoe Key at 1300 UTC and Marco Island at 1930 UTC 10 September 2017; inland Miami-Dade and Broward stations just below hurricane force; Opa Locka Airport 56 kt sustained and 74 kt gust at 1903 UTC; Miami International gust 63 kt; about 1,000 Miami-Dade homes with major damage
- National Flood Hazard Layer: flood hazard zones and FIRM panels at Hialeah City Hall · Federal Emergency Management Agency · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, Zone AH with a static base flood elevation of 8 ft; panel 12086C0284L, effective 11 September 2009 (layer 3)
- ACS 2024 1-year tables B19013, B25003 and B01002 for Hialeah and the other Florida cities this site compares, Miami-Dade County, the Miami MSA, Florida and the US · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Median household income, Character
- ACS 2024 1-year table B08301 (means of transportation) for Hialeah city, and the 2020-2024 5-year table for Hialeah city and Miami-Dade County · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share, Labour market
- ACS 2024 1-year table B08301 (means of transportation) for Miami-Dade County · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share
- ACS 2024 1-year tables B08007 (place of work by county), B08008 (place of work by place), B08013 (aggregate travel time), B08101 (means of transportation by age) and B08303 (travel time to work) for Hialeah city and Miami-Dade County · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Labour market, Character
- ACS 2024 1-year table B27001 (health insurance coverage) for Hialeah city, Miami-Dade County, the Miami MSA, Florida and the US · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Health care
- ACS 2024 1-year tables B03001 (Hispanic or Latino origin by specific origin) and B05002 (place of birth by nativity) for Hialeah, Miami, Miami-Dade County and Florida · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Character, Hialeah: 95.3% Hispanic or Latino, 72.7% Cuban, 77.1% foreign-born
- ACS 2020-2024 5-year table C16001 (language spoken at home) for Hialeah, Miami and Miami-Dade County · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Character, Hialeah: 91.9% speak Spanish at home, 59.5% speak English less than very well; the 1-year release has no language table for the city
- Local Area Unemployment Statistics, Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL MSA (LAUMT123310000000003), Miami-Dade County (LAUCN120860000000003) and Hialeah city (LAUCT123000000000003), not seasonally adjusted · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate, Character
- Current Employment Statistics, Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL Metropolitan Division: total nonfarm (SMU12331240000000001), construction, manufacturing, supersectors (SMU1233124xx00000001), wholesale, retail, transportation and local government · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- FY2025 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, including Principal Employers (Current Year and Nine Years Ago), Property Tax Rates (Direct and Overlapping) and Assessed Values · City of Hialeah (filed with the Florida Auditor General) · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market, Tax notes, Health care, Character, Principal employers 2025: Palmetto General Hospital 1,635, City of Hialeah 1,492, United Parcel Service 1,119, Hialeah Hospital 1,032, Publix 771, Fresco y Mas 741, Larkin Community Hospital Palm Springs Campus 683, Sedano's 545, La Colonia Medical Centers 527, Bullet Line 450 (7.79% of city employment together); the 2016 list; a City operating rate of 6.3018 in every year from 2016 to 2025; taxable value $22.18 billion in 2025, up 11.0%
- Discretionary Sales Surtax Information for Calendar Year 2026 (DR-15DSS) · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: Sales tax, Miami-Dade 1%: 0.5% from January 1, 1992 and 0.5% from January 1, 2003, no expiration
- Discretionary Sales Surtax · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: Sales tax, The surtax applies to the first $5,000 of the sales amount of an item of tangible personal property
- Florida Tax Rates & Rankings · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000, Tax notes
- Property Tax Exemptions and Additional Benefits · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: Tax notes
- 2025 adopted millage rates and 2026 proposed millage rate table · Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser · retrieved Supports: Tax notes, Education, Millage code 0400 Hialeah: 18.6468 for 2025 and 18.6638 for 2024, with a City rate of 6.3018 and blank Fire Rescue and Library columns (as carried in lib/metro-miami/market.ts); 18.6134 proposed for 2026 at the same City rate
- Documentary Stamp Tax · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: Tax notes, 60 cents per $100 in Miami-Dade against 70 cents elsewhere, plus a 45-cent surtax not due on a document that transfers only a single-family dwelling
- Zillow Home Value Index and Observed Rent Index, city files, June 2026 · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: Tax notes, Hialeah all-homes value $445,331, down 1.5% on the year, and observed rent $2,374 (as carried in lib/metro-miami/market.ts)
- Monthly Module Adjusted Data Release, complete monthly ridership with adjustments and estimates (County of Miami-Dade, NTD 40034, and South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, NTD 40077) · Federal Transit Administration, National Transit Database (via data.transportation.gov) · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership
- Getting around Hialeah? The city offers free public transportation options · NBC 6 South Florida · retrieved Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership
- Miami International Airport (annual passenger traffic, 2000 to 2025) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- Steward Health Care (Florida hospitals and their 2024 sale) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Health care, Hialeah Hospital and Palmetto General Hospital bought from Tenet in August 2021; sale to Healthcare Systems of America approved on October 25, 2024
- Hialeah Hospital · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Health care, 378 beds (from the hospital's site, 2015); owned by Medical Properties Trust and operated by Healthcare Systems of America
- Miami-Dade County School Board to review future of 27 schools amid sharp enrollment decline · WLRN · retrieved Supports: Education
- Miami-Dade schools report nearly 19,000-student enrollment drop on first day, district says count is not final · CBS News Miami · retrieved Supports: Education
- HAR.com reports more choices and steady prices in Houston's August housing market · My Neighborhood News, republishing the Houston Association of REALTORS' August 2026 release · retrieved Supports: 7,100 single-family sales in Greater Houston in August 2026, down 11.5% from August 2025, A median single-family sale price of $330,000, down 1.5% or $5,000 from August 2025, and an average of $426,760, up 1.2%, A median of $330,000 for existing single-family homes, down 2.9%, 38,947 active single-family listings and a 5.3-month supply, 405 townhouse and condominium sales, unchanged, at a median of $195,000, down 7.1%, and an 8.8-month supply
- Greater Houston area home sales on the decline · Community Impact · retrieved Supports: From the August 2026 monthly housing update of the Houston Association of Realtors, published 16 September 2026, Single-family sales down 11.5% and the median single-family price down $5,000 to $330,000
- Monthly update: home sales, August 2026 · Greater Houston Partnership · retrieved Supports: 59,843 single-family sales in the region year to date through August 2026, according to the Houston Association of Realtors, A 12-month average of the median MLS sale price of roughly $331,000 in August 2026, down about one percent on a year earlier
- Zillow Home Value Index, all homes, middle tier, smoothed and seasonally adjusted, by city · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: A typical home value of $261,740 for the city of Houston (region 39051) in August 2026, $267,880 in August 2025, so a fall of 2.3% over the year
- Zillow Home Value Index, single-family and condominium series, by city · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: A typical single-family value of $267,956 in the city of Houston in August 2026, against $274,277 a year earlier, down 2.3%, A typical condominium value of $131,763 in the same month, against $140,224, down 6.0%, from the condominium file at https://files.zillowstatic.com/research/public_csvs/zhvi/City_zhvi_uc_condo_tier_0.33_0.67_sm_sa_month.csv
- Houston Rent Report, October 2026 · Apartment List · retrieved Supports: A median rent of $1,120 for a one-bedroom and $1,327 for a two-bedroom in the city of Houston, and $1,269 across all bedroom sizes, Rents flat over September and down 2.3% over the past 12 months, A metro-wide median of $1,335, 5.0% above the city's
- Apartments for rent in Houston, TX: average rent · Apartment List · retrieved Supports: Average listed rents of $1,299 and up for a studio, $1,309 and up for one bedroom, $1,630 and up for two, and $2,102 and up for three or more
- FY 2026 fair market rents, Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX HUD Metro FMR Area · United States Department of Housing and Urban Development · retrieved Supports: FY 2026 fair market rents of $1,323 for one bedroom, $1,573 for two and $2,116 for three, as gross rents including utilities
- Zillow Observed Rent Index, all homes plus multifamily, smoothed, by city · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: An observed rent index of $1,542 for the city of Houston in August 2026, against $1,544 a year earlier, down 0.13%
- Jurisdictions: homestead exemptions and tax rates · Harris Central Appraisal District · retrieved Supports: 2025 rates per $100: Harris County 0.380960, Harris County Flood Control District 0.049660, Harris County Port of Houston Authority 0.005900, Harris County Hospital District 0.187610, Harris County Department of Education 0.004798, City of Houston 0.519190, Houston ISD 0.878300, Houston City College 0.098802, Homestead exemptions of 20% for every one of those units except Houston City College, which grants 17%, and a flat $140,000 plus 20% for Houston ISD, No 2026 rate yet for any of the eight, from the table's data at https://hcad.org/actions/hcad-module/default/jurisdictions, More than 400 active utility districts in the appraisal district's list, at a median 2025 rate of about 0.54 per $100
- Tax rates · Harris County Tax Office · retrieved Supports: The same 2025 adopted rates with their maintenance and operations and debt parts: Harris County 0.33696 and 0.044, the Flood Control District 0.03826 and 0.0114, the Hospital District 0.17876 and 0.00885, the City of Houston 0.40326 and 0.11593, Houston ISD 0.7116 and 0.1667, and the Port's whole rate as debt, The City of Houston's rate at 0.51919 for the 2023, 2024 and 2025 tax years, 2026 rates already listed for Harris County (0.4175), the Flood Control District (0.05266), the Hospital District (0.19528) and the Port (0.00603), and none yet for the City, Houston ISD or the college
- FY2027 adopted budget: General Fund revenues · City of Houston Finance Department · retrieved Supports: Taxable values within the City set by the Harris, Montgomery or Fort Bend central appraisal district, A City tax rate of 51.919 cents per $100 for tax year 2025, and an estimate of the same for 2026, Proposition 1 of November 2004 capping the annual increase in total property tax revenue at the lower of inflation plus population growth or 4.5%, and Proposition H of November 2006 raising the limit by $90 million, Tax bills sent by the Harris County Tax Office around mid-November and due by 31 January
- FY2027 adopted budget: letter from the Mayor · City of Houston · retrieved Supports: Houston has operated for more than a decade under two revenue caps, which forced a nearly 20% reduction in the tax rate
- FY2026 adopted budget: letter from the Mayor · City of Houston · retrieved Supports: No other large Texas city is burdened by both a locally imposed revenue cap and the state cap or must fund solid waste operations without dedicated revenues
- Development regulations · City of Houston Planning and Development Department · retrieved Supports: The City of Houston does not have zoning, and its codes do not address land use, Development governed by ordinance codes on how property can be subdivided, chiefly Chapter 42, within the city and its extraterritorial jurisdiction
- Deed restrictions · City of Houston Legal Department · retrieved Supports: The City's authority to enforce residential deed restrictions under Chapter 212 of the Local Government Code and sections 10-551 through 10-555 of the City Code
- Harris County's flooding history · Harris County Flood Control District · retrieved Supports: A major flood somewhere in Harris County about every two years, mostly in areas developed before current regulations, More flood insurance funds paid in Harris County than in any other community in the National Flood Insurance Program
- Hurricane Harvey frequently asked questions · Harris County Flood Control District · retrieved Supports: Flooding outside the FEMA mapped floodplain, from ponding and overland sheet flow when rainfall overwhelms street drainage, The mapped floodplain is only an estimate of where flooding is predicted to occur from a bayou or creek, The City of Houston as one of the local floodplain administrators for the National Flood Insurance Program
- Home, flood, wind: which policies do you need? · Texas Department of Insurance · retrieved Supports: Most home policies do not cover floods; a flood policy covers damage from rising water
- Drainage utility charge FAQs · City of Houston, Rebuild Houston · retrieved Supports: A residential rate of $0.032 per square foot of impervious surface a year behind a curb and gutter and $0.026 on an open ditch, $48.00 a year, $4.00 a month, on 1,500 square feet behind a curb and gutter
- Valuing property: limitation on residence homestead value increases · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: A residence homestead's appraised value may not rise more than 10% a year once the owner has qualified in the preceding and current year
- Property tax protests and appeals · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: A protest deadline of 15 May or 30 days after the appraisal district mails the notice of appraised value, whichever is later
- Primary Mortgage Market Survey, 24 September 2026 · Freddie Mac · retrieved Supports: A 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 7.03%, up from 6.95% the week before and 6.30% a year earlier
- Texas homeowners insurance market overview · Texas Department of Insurance · retrieved Supports: A statewide average homeowners premium of $3,489 a year for 2025, from the Texas Statistical Plan for Residential Risks, Paid homeowners losses in 2024 of $4.93 billion from hail and $2.21 billion from wind
- How much is homeowners insurance in Houston, TX? · Insure.com · retrieved Supports: An average Houston premium of $5,391 a year for $300,000 of dwelling cover, $100,000 of liability and a $1,000 deductible, updated 27 May 2026, Standard home insurance policies generally exclude flood damage
- Texas homeowners insurance · NerdWallet · retrieved Supports: An average Houston premium of $9,095 a year and a Texas average of $5,910, for $500,000 of dwelling cover, updated 20 February 2026
- Renters insurance in Texas · NerdWallet · retrieved Supports: An average Houston renters premium of $167 a year for $30,000 of personal property
- Monthly homeowners' association and condominium fee, tables B25142 and B25143, 2024 American Community Survey 1-year estimates, Houston city · United States Census Bureau, via the Census Reporter API · retrieved Supports: A median monthly association fee of $144 among Houston owner-occupied units that pay one, 176,568 of 385,594 owner-occupied units, or 45.8%, paying such a fee, and 31,837 paying $500 or more a month
- Homebuyer Assistance Program · City of Houston Housing and Community Development Department · retrieved Supports: Up to $75,000 for income-qualified first-time homebuyers, or buyers who have not owned a home in the last three years, at or below 80% of area median income, The home must pay taxes to the City of Houston, A no-interest forgivable loan secured by a lien, fulfilled if the buyer lives in the home for eight years, with a portion repaid on a sale or move before then, No maximum home price, and less than $50,000 in liquid assets
- 2025 Gazetteer files: places, Texas · United States Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: A land area of 640.819 square miles and a water area of 31.222 square miles for Houston city
- About Houston: education · City of Houston · retrieved Supports: Houston ISD serves 312 square miles with 288 schools
- Local schools · City of Houston Mayor's Office of Education · retrieved Supports: Public school districts in the Houston area including Aldine, Alief, Cypress-Fairbanks, Fort Bend, Houston, Humble, Katy, Klein, Spring and Spring Branch, and North Forest annexed by Houston ISD in 2013
- 2025 was a year of transformation and change for HCC · Houston City College · retrieved Supports: The college publishing under the name Houston City College
- Table 1: Comparison of Taxes Levied, county and municipal governments, fiscal years 2024-25 and 2025-26: Miami-Dade · Florida Department of Revenue, Property Tax Oversight · retrieved Supports: The adopted 2025-26 millage rate for Miami-Dade County and every municipality in it, The county's own components: countywide 4.5740, Fire/Rescue 2.3965, Library 0.2812 and the Unincorporated Municipal Service Area at 1.9090, Municipal rates from Sunny Isles Beach's 1.7000 to Biscayne Park's 9.3000
- 2025 millage rates and taxing authorities, Miami-Dade County · Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser · retrieved Supports: A published combined rate for unincorporated Miami-Dade of 16.9317 mills, Its components: school district 6.4990, countywide 5.7361, regional water districts 0.3911, Fire Rescue 2.3965 and UMSA 1.9090, which this layer's stack reproduces exactly, Millage code 0100, the City of Miami, at 19.9878 mills for 2025: 7.1080 of city operating levy and 0.2536 of city debt service on the countywide 12.6262, Opa-locka's municipal operating levy of 8.9797, and a 2025 total of 24.0024 for millage code 0800, A city debt service column, which nine of the twenty-four municipalities here carry: Miami 0.2536, Miami Beach 0.2779, North Bay Village 1.1666, Golden Beach 0.6000, Miami Shores 0.1331, North Miami Beach 0.2000, Miami Gardens 0.4331, Doral 0.4810 and Homestead 0.2446, A blank library district column for Hialeah, North Miami, North Miami Beach, Homestead, Miami Shores, Bal Harbour and Surfside, which are outside the county library district, A blank Fire Rescue column for Miami, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Hialeah and Key Biscayne, which is the five this layer flags
- About Fire Rescue · Miami-Dade Fire Rescue · retrieved Supports: The Fire Rescue district covering the unincorporated county and twenty-nine municipalities, Miami, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Hialeah and Key Biscayne operating their own fire departments and lying outside the district
- Annual estimates of the resident population for incorporated places, 2020 to 2024 · United States Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program · retrieved Supports: 2020 census counts and 2024 estimates for each municipality, Miami at 487,014 and Hialeah at 235,388; Golden Beach at 1,034
- Average cost of home insurance in Florida, 2026 · MoneyGeek · retrieved Supports: A Miami-Dade County average of about $6,045 a year: below Palm Beach County's $6,614, A Florida average of about $3,815 and a national average of about $2,543
- Governmental leasehold intangible personal property tax and the non-recurring intangible tax on mortgages · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: A non-recurring intangible tax of 2 mills: 0.2%, on the obligation secured by a mortgage on Florida real property
- Chapter 2023-17, Laws of Florida: preemption of rent control · The Florida Senate · retrieved Supports: The repeal of the referendum exception that had allowed a local rent control ordinance in a declared housing emergency
- TIGERweb, Census 2020: census blocks, with the 2020 population and housing unit counts · United States Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: A 2020 census count of 223,109 residents and 77,475 housing units in Hialeah city, the sum of the blocks in the 2020 place, The resident counts by area and by flood zone on these pages, from the blocks whose internal point falls inside each line
- City Boundary layer (BaseMaps/Parcels_Map, layer 2) · City of Hialeah, ArcGIS Server · retrieved Supports: One feature, NAME HIALEAH, of 14,634 acres, taking in the same census blocks as the 2020 place
- Flood Zones layer (Environmental/Flood, layer 3) · City of Hialeah, ArcGIS Server · retrieved Supports: 90,311 of the city's 2020 residents in a special flood hazard area: 77,666 in zone AH and 12,645 in zone AE, Zone AH with a base flood elevation of 8 feet at City Hall, 501 Palm Avenue
- National Flood Hazard Layer · Federal Emergency Management Agency · retrieved Supports: The effective flood map for Hialeah, panel 12086C0284L, effective 11 September 2009, The same zone and base flood elevation as the City's layer at each point checked, including City Hall
- Hialeah 2050 Master Plan: District Master Plan Recommendations · Plusurbia for the City of Hialeah · retrieved Supports: Six areas and 29 numbered districts covering the whole city, drawn on street lines (Map 01, City of Hialeah Neighborhoods and Districts), Adoption by the City Council in June 2025