El Paso beats Houston, Austin for best place to raise kids

El Paso, TX. According to today's listing this is the third best place to raise kids in the country.

El Paso, TX. According to today's listing this is the third best place to raise kids in the country. Photo: Ivan Pierre Aguirre, STR Photo: Ivan Pierre Aguirre, STR Image 1 of / 20 Caption Close El Paso beats Houston, Austin for best place to raise kids 1 / 20 Back to Gallery

El Paso is the third best place in the country to raise kids, according to a national Real Estate report released Monday. Surprisingly, Houston didn't even crack the top 10.

The Texas border city also beat out gems like Austin and San Antonio, which came in at No. 8 and No. 10 respectively on the list compiled by Real Estate website Movoto.

The list prompted a slew of disgruntled comments online.

"Are you with the board of 'places no-one wants to live?'" wrote one reader in response to the survey.

Movoto rated cities according to park space, commute times, public school ranking, crime rate, home ownership, employment rates and cost of living.

We'll give it to El Paso. The city has the 24,000-acre Frankiln Mountains State Park right on its doorstep. But, Houston has more total outdoor space, with Houston Park and Recreation now maintaining almost 40,000 acres of park space.

It seems the biggest categories Houston lost out on were crime and commute times.

Houston is much more dangerous crime-wise, according to the report, with Houstonians twice as likely to be the victim of violent or property crimes than their far away neighbors in El Paso.

As for commute, Houston's average drive to work is 30 minutes (some on the Katy Freeway tonight at 5 might feel that number is a little optimistic). El Paso's is a mere 20 minutes.

Houston did do well in public schools though, ranked as having the fifth best public schools in the nation.

The Top 10 Places to Raise Kids (according to Movoto):

1. Omaha, NE

2. Oklahoma City, OK

3. El Paso, TX

4. Virginia Beach, VA

5. Albuquerque, NM

6. Kansas City, MO

7. Colorado Springs, CO

8. Austin, TX

9. Raleigh, NC

10. San Antonio, TX