How can you find the best location to open a business in Clear Lake?

StreetSpring's prediction model analyzes 100 factors across competition, spending on the specific potential business, projected revenue, projected market share, Revenue Capture Score, and mobility patterns to pinpoint which blocks in Clear Lake maximize success.

How much money could a business in Clear Lake make?

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, selecting one of the best locations in Clear Lake could lead to making ~2% more than selecting an average location, and ~5% more than one of the worst locations.

Is Clear Lake a good place to start a business?

Clear Lake is ranked number 50 across neighborhoods in and around Houston to start a business, with an average Survivability Score of ~75%. The survivability gap between the best and average addresses in Clear Lake reaches ~2% for the strongest-performing business categories.

What are the best businesses to open in Clear Lake?

The top businesses to open in Clear Lake include Pet Grooming Shop with a ~83% chance on average of surviving more than 2 years, best-case locations reaching ~85%, followed by Russian Restaurant and Indonesian Restaurant.

What businesses are most in demand in Clear Lake?

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 survivability analysis, the most in-demand business types in Clear Lake are Pet Grooming Shops, Russian Restaurants, and Indonesian Restaurants.

Business Survivability in Clear Lake, Houston

StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Clear Lake is a Pet Grooming Shop with a ~83% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average.

April 24, 2026•17 min read

Quick Summary

Best business: a Pet Grooming Shop in Clear Lake (~83% average survival rate, ~85% at best locations)

Neighborhood rank: #50 across all neighborhoods in and around Houston

Neighborhood average: ~75% two-year survival across all business types

Rankings updated quarterly with latest market data

Detailed methodology

Reviewed: May 1, 2026 by Bobby Koons, StreetSpring founder

In this article:

Summary
Is Clear Lake a good place to start a business?
How to find the best location
Best businesses to open
How much money could a business make?
What businesses should open next?
Frequently Asked Questions

Summary

StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Clear Lake is a Pet Grooming Shop with a ~83% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, with the best locations offering a ~85% chance; next is a Russian Restaurant with a ~83% chance, followed by an Indonesian Restaurant with a ~83% chance.

Should you open a business in Clear Lake?

**Peer neighborhoods:** Looking at demographic mix and amenity density across the 24 metros StreetSpring covers, Clear Lake clusters most tightly with **Bear Valley (Denver)** and **Evanston (Chicago)**. Common thread: less transit-reliant, less walkable commutes, and few nearby parks. Survival outcomes for those neighborhoods provide a useful comparison set for Clear Lake.

**Where Clear Lake businesses actually fail.** Among the 93 tracked subtypes, **Indonesian Restaurants** post the highest average survivability (83%). But across Clear Lake's sites, the spread for this subtype runs **66% to 92%** — a 26-point gap that says *the address matters more than the subtype*. For saturation context, Kosher Restaurants are the most densely-clustered tracked subtype in the neighborhood (9 competitors within 0.5 miles).

StreetSpring's analysis places Clear Lake at #50 in Houston for new business survival odds, with a neighborhood-wide average of ~75%.

The survivability gap between the best and average addresses in Clear Lake reaches ~2% for the strongest-performing business categories.
Even so, the weakest addresses in Clear Lake for those same business types can underperform considerably. StreetSpring's address-level scoring exists precisely to identify which specific storefronts make the difference.
Clear Lake's employment rate of 94.8% and commercial vacancy of 6.2% are two of the inputs StreetSpring's model uses to differentiate survivability within this neighborhood.

Employment and vacancy figures sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey.

Which blocks in Clear Lake offer the strongest survivability?

StreetSpring scores survivability at the exact address level in Clear Lake — so you can compare two storefronts on the same block before committing to a lease. The map below shows the highest-scoring storefront area for a Pet Grooming Shop in Clear Lake per 2026 data:

Reading visibility, frontage, and parking carefully

Loading live map preview...

The highlighted area represents the address in Clear Lake that StreetSpring's 2026 analysis ranks highest for a Pet Grooming Shop survivability. Competition and spending patterns shift constantly; StreetSpring's live tool reflects the most current conditions for any specific address. StreetSpring's scoring incorporates 100 inputs, including competitive quality and density, projected consumer spending, Revenue Capture Score, and mobility data.

Check if this location is still available →

What kinds of businesses thrive in Clear Lake?

#1-5: Highest Survivability in Clear Lake

Pet Grooming Shop is ranked #1 for top businesses to open in Clear Lake: ~83% chance on average, best at ~85%, challenging at ~81%.
Russian Restaurant — ~82%–~85% survivability range, with an average of ~83% across Clear Lake.
Opening an Indonesian Restaurant in Clear Lake shows ~83% average survivability. Top locations reach ~85%; lower-end sites show ~81%.
Italian Restaurant (Ranked #4): ~82% average in Clear Lake. Best-case storefronts: ~84%. Challenging locations: ~81%.
Salad Shop is ranked #5 for top businesses to open in Clear Lake: ~82% chance on average, best at ~84%, challenging at ~80%.

#6-10: Strong Performers in Clear Lake

Kosher Restaurant — ~80%–~84% survivability range, with an average of ~82% across Clear Lake.
Opening a South American Restaurant in Clear Lake shows ~82% average survivability. Top locations reach ~84%; lower-end sites show ~80%.
Singaporean Restaurant (Ranked #8): ~82% average in Clear Lake. Best-case storefronts: ~84%. Challenging locations: ~81%.
Scandinavian Restaurant is ranked #9 for top businesses to open in Clear Lake: ~82% chance on average, best at ~83%, challenging at ~80%.
American Restaurant — ~80%–~83% survivability range, with an average of ~82% across Clear Lake.

Top 3 Compared Nationally

The revenue potential of a Clear Lake location

Best location vs. average location

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, choosing an address that maximizes your Revenue Capture Score in Clear Lake could lead to you making ~2% more than if you selected an average location, and ~5% more than if you selected one of the worst locations.

How StreetSpring calculates location value

Every business type has unique location requirements that must be considered.
Location is the biggest factor in a business's future success.
StreetSpring's analysis shows that businesses in top-scoring locations generate meaningfully more revenue and stay open longer than those in average locations.
Every survivability score StreetSpring produces is specific to the exact address and business type — not averaged across a zip code or neighborhood.

What businesses should open next in Clear Lake?

The top businesses to open next in Clear Lake:

Pet Grooming Shops — ~83% average survival rate, up to ~85% at best locations
Russian Restaurants — ~83% average survival rate
Indonesian Restaurants — ~83% average survival rate

Competition and spending patterns shift constantly; StreetSpring's live tool reflects the most current conditions for any specific address. Every prediction draws on a dataset of millions of business openings, closures, and lifecycle events across the U.S. The 6.2% commercial vacancy rate in Clear Lake means there is available space for new entrants — but it also signals that survivability depends heavily on choosing the right address within the neighborhood, not just the neighborhood itself. Survivability scores are recalculated weekly as new competitors open and spending patterns shift — visit StreetSpring to see the current score for any open location in Clear Lake right now.

See the Survivability Score for your new business

Related Articles:

See the Houston Business Survivability Rankings
See the Houston Neighborhood Survivability Rankings

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are the most common questions about opening a business in Clear Lake.

What type of business should you rent your Clear Lake storefront to?

Our 2026 survivability data for Clear Lake shows that Pet Grooming Shops, Russian Restaurants, and Indonesian Restaurants rank as the top tenant categories for minimizing vacancy risk.

Location is the biggest factor in a business's future success.
Every survivability score StreetSpring produces is specific to the exact address and business type — not averaged across a zip code or neighborhood. With StreetSpring, you can rank every potential tenant type by survivability score at your property address before committing to a lease.

Should you rent your Clear Lake storefront to a Pet Grooming Shop?

According to our 2026 survivability model, a Pet Grooming Shop leads all business categories for Clear Lake landlords — ~85% at the best addresses and ~81% at the most challenging ones in this neighborhood.

Every survivability score StreetSpring produces is specific to the exact address and business type — not averaged across a zip code or neighborhood.

What should I consider when opening a business in Clear Lake?

Among all the criteria to weigh when opening a business in Clear Lake, Survivability Score carries the most predictive weight — choose the address with the highest score your budget allows.

Revenue Capture Score is the single best indicator of whether a business will thrive at a location.
Each forecast is specific to the exact address and business type, generated by StreetSpring's internally developed prediction engine.
StreetSpring's live scoring tool is free: enter any address in Clear Lake to see its current Survivability Score for your business type.

See the best place for your business at StreetSpring.

StreetSpring combines proprietary data with advanced analytics to predict which businesses will succeed. Aggregated survivability rankings for Houston are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.

Lease structure questions to ask first

Factor	Where new owners get tripped up	Questions to ask before you sign
Permits & licensing	Assuming a 30-day permit timeline, hitting 90+ days, paying rent on a non-operating storefront.	Call the local zoning office before signing. Confirm your use is already permitted; if not, factor a 2-3 month variance timeline.
Foot traffic seasonality	Looking at a peak-summer Tuesday and assuming year-round volume.	Walk the block at 3 different times across 2 different weeks. Ask neighboring tenants for their slow-season % drop.
Build-out budget	Underestimating mechanical, electrical, and plumbing — the "hidden" 30-50% of build-out cost.	Get 3 quotes from licensed contractors and pad budget by +20% for surprises. Confirm landlord TI allowance in writing.

Full dataset for Houston: /resources/data/houston-survivability-scores-2026.csv — includes all business subtypes, all neighborhoods, survivability scores, and tier assignments. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Visual Data

Radar chart of business-subtype survivability in Clear Lake, Houston — Top business types scored in Clear Lake, Houston — each axis is a subtype, taller = stronger survival rate.

Bubble chart of business subtypes in Houston by survivability score and location density — Every business subtype in Houston plotted by score vs location count — bubble size shows market depth.

How we measure this: Most retail competition operates within a 500-meter radius — outside that, behavioral economics show customers don't routinely switch.

**LEHD demand-pattern signal (Clear Lake):** Median 1-mile workplace jobs across Clear Lake: **2,439** (LEHD LODES 2022). That works out to a **0.0:1 daytime-to-resident ratio** — a primarily-residential neighborhood with minimal daytime worker traffic. Of those workplace jobs, **327** are retail-sector. Use this to gauge whether your concept is weekday-commuter-driven or evening-and-weekend-driven.

Landmark anchor: Clear Lake hosts Rocket Park, a history-museum that gives the neighborhood a cultural-destination layer most blocks don't have.

**Three local anchors for Clear Lake:** **5.2%** neighborhood unemployment (in line with the 24-metro median, ACS), **$1,396/week** average wage in the Houston area (in line with our metro median, BLS QCEW), and **30,879** new residential units permitted in Harris County in 2025 (Census BPS). These three together describe the demand-and-labor environment any new Clear Lake business operates within.

**Authoritative baseline:** BLS Business Employment Dynamics, March 2025 release publishes 5-year survival rates by industry. For sectors StreetSpring covers, the range runs from **47.8%** (Active Life) to **61.8%** (Health & Medical), with restaurants at **50.0%** and retail at **47.9%**. Location-specific factors drive the actual variance around these baselines.

Related:

Local Data Questions

Beyond the general FAQ — data-anchored answers for this specific location.

Is Clear Lake mostly renters or owners?

ACS housing data shows 58% home ownership in Clear Lake, compared to 53% metro-wide. The ownership profile is typical for the metro.

What survival rates does the federal government track for small businesses?

Per BLS Business Employment Dynamics (March 2025), 5-year survival rates by sector range from 47.8% (Active Life — gyms, studios) to 61.8% (Health & Medical), with Restaurants at 50% and Retail at 47.9%. Houston-specific factors layer on top of these national baselines.

How does Clear Lake's vacancy rate affect commercial demand?

Clear Lake's housing vacancy rate is roughly 6%, compared to 9% across the Houston metro. Low vacancy signals strong demand for space, which usually translates to competitive lease pricing and lower negotiation leverage.