Halloween isn't much a destination holiday. But if you're going to invest the money to have a spooky good time, does Dallas deliver? That's the question personal finance website WalletHub hoped to answer in its annual ranking of best and worst American cities for Halloween.
There's good news for North Texans: Dallas, Fort Worth and several suburbs offer the most scare for your buck and rank higher than most other areas of the state. Irving, Garland and Plano even cracked the top 10 best places for Halloween in the country.
WalletHub analyzed a variety of factors, from the cost and abundance of local events to the number of costume stores per captia and even crime rates, to determine which of 100 cities throw the best Halloween celebrations. Unsurprisingly, North Texas scores were bolstered by the (usually? hopefully?) good weather that graces these parts late in the year, but they also proved to be some of the safest regions evaluated and hotspots for fun. (We could have told you that last bit.)
Here's how North Texas ranks:
- 6th: Irving
- 8th: Garland
- 10th: Plano
- 14th: Dallas
- 19th: Arlington
- 29th: Fort Worth
Consider Plano's Pine Lakes Halloween Haunt Home, this epic Dallas skyline pumpkin carving and the fabulous costumes of Oak Lawn's Block Party just a few examples of how much awesomeness is haunting the region.
New York took the crown as best Halloween city in the U.S., but Dallas-Fort Worth ranked above Austin (36th), Lubbock (60th), San Antonio (65th), Corpus Christi (85th) and Houston (91st). The study dubbed St. Petersburg, Fla. the worst place for Halloween in the U.S. for having the least safe environment and lack of things to do, followed by Memphis, Detroit, Winston-Salem, N.C., and Oakland, Calif. See trends on the interactive map below and view full results here.
According to WalletHub, Americans are expected to spend $6.9 billion (or $74.34 per person) on costumes, candy and Halloween decorations this year. That's down about $500 million from 2014.
