How much money could a business in Greater Hobby Area make?

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, selecting one of the best locations in Greater Hobby Area could lead to making ~2% more than selecting an average location, and ~4% more than one of the worst locations.

What are the best businesses to open in Greater Hobby Area?

The top businesses to open in Greater Hobby Area include American Restaurant with a ~87% chance on average of surviving more than 2 years, best-case locations reaching ~88%, followed by Italian Restaurant and Indian Restaurant.

Is Greater Hobby Area a good place to start a business?

Greater Hobby Area is ranked number 13 across neighborhoods in and around Houston to start a business, with an average Survivability Score of ~78%. The top business types in Greater Hobby Area, when placed at their ideal addresses, achieve survivability rates ~2% above the neighborhood-wide average.

What businesses are most in demand in Greater Hobby Area?

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 survivability analysis, the most in-demand business types in Greater Hobby Area are American Restaurants, Italian Restaurants, and Indian Restaurants.

Business Survivability in Greater Hobby Area, Houston

StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Greater Hobby Area is an American Restaurant with a ~87% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average.

April 24, 2026•17 min read

Quick Summary

Best business: an American Restaurant in Greater Hobby Area (~87% average survival rate, ~88% at best locations)

Neighborhood rank: #13 across all neighborhoods in and around Houston

Neighborhood average: ~78% two-year survival across all business types

Rankings updated quarterly with latest market data

Detailed methodology

Last reviewed: May 2, 2026 by Bobby Koons, StreetSpring founder — updated weekly

In this article:

Summary
Is Greater Hobby Area 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 Greater Hobby Area is an American Restaurant with a ~87% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, with the best locations offering a ~88% chance; next is an Italian Restaurant with a ~86% chance, followed by an Indian Restaurant with a ~86% chance.

Is Greater Hobby Area the right neighborhood for a new business?

**How Greater Hobby Area compares:** Greater Hobby Area's profile most resembles **Clute (Houston)** and **Marine Creek (Dallas)** based on the demographic and density signatures we use to model location quality — all three share less college-educated, less transit-reliant, and few nearby parks. Patterns from those neighborhoods are directly relevant for businesses evaluating Greater Hobby Area.

**Failure pattern in Greater Hobby Area.** Across the 93 business subtypes we track here, the strongest is **American Restaurant** at 87% average survivability — but the best and worst sites for this subtype within Greater Hobby Area span **77% to 93%**, a 16-point gap. **The dominant failure mode in Greater Hobby Area isn't subtype choice — it's site selection within the neighborhood.** Saturation context: Filipino Restaurants are the most-concentrated tracked subtype in the area, with 17 competitors within a 0.5-mile radius.

StreetSpring's analysis places Greater Hobby Area at #13 in Houston for new business survival odds, with a neighborhood-wide average of ~78%.

The top business types in Greater Hobby Area, when placed at their ideal addresses, achieve survivability rates ~2% above the neighborhood-wide average.
That said, the same business types at the worst-fit addresses in Greater Hobby Area can drop substantially below average. The survivability gap between the best and worst addresses in a single neighborhood can be 20 points or more.
A 93.7% employment rate in Greater Hobby Area means a large share of local consumers have steady income — a strong underlying condition for discretionary spending businesses.

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

How can you find the best location to open a business in Greater Hobby Area?

StreetSpring narrows the decision down to the exact address — showing which blocks in Greater Hobby Area produce the highest survivability scores for your concept. Here is the top survivability address for an American Restaurant in Greater Hobby Area, per StreetSpring's 2026 model:

Anchor tenants that lift survival odds

Loading live map preview...

This map shows the optimal location for an American Restaurant in Greater Hobby Area based on StreetSpring's 2026 survivability analysis. Competition and spending patterns shift constantly; StreetSpring's live tool reflects the most current conditions for any specific address. The prediction model incorporates 100 location-specific factors, including competitive density, forecasted consumer spending, mobility patterns, and Revenue Capture Score.

Check if this location is still available →

The strongest business categories for Greater Hobby Area

#1-5: Highest Survivability in Greater Hobby Area

American Restaurant (Ranked #1): ~87% average in Greater Hobby Area. Best-case storefronts: ~88%. Challenging locations: ~85%.
Italian Restaurant is ranked #2 for top businesses to open in Greater Hobby Area: ~86% chance on average, best at ~87%, challenging at ~85%.
Indian Restaurant — ~84%–~88% survivability range, with an average of ~86% across Greater Hobby Area.
Opening a Bangladeshi Restaurant in Greater Hobby Area shows ~86% average survivability. Top locations reach ~88%; lower-end sites show ~84%.
South American Restaurant (Ranked #5): ~86% average in Greater Hobby Area. Best-case storefronts: ~87%. Challenging locations: ~84%.

#6-10: Strong Performers in Greater Hobby Area

Deli is ranked #6 for top businesses to open in Greater Hobby Area: ~86% chance on average, best at ~87%, challenging at ~84%.
Chinese Restaurant — ~84%–~87% survivability range, with an average of ~86% across Greater Hobby Area.
Opening an Indonesian Restaurant in Greater Hobby Area shows ~86% average survivability. Top locations reach ~88%; lower-end sites show ~84%.
Chicken Shop (Ranked #9): ~86% average in Greater Hobby Area. Best-case storefronts: ~88%. Challenging locations: ~84%.
Taiwanese Restaurant is ranked #10 for top businesses to open in Greater Hobby Area: ~86% chance on average, best at ~88%, challenging at ~84%.

Top 3 Compared Nationally

American Restaurant — See how this compares to other cities →

The revenue potential of a Greater Hobby Area location

Best location vs. average location

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, identifying the optimal address for your business type in Greater Hobby Area could lead to you making ~2% more than if you selected an average location, and ~4% more than if you selected one of the worst locations.

How StreetSpring calculates location value

Location fit is business-type-specific: a spot that's ideal for a coffee shop may underperform for a nail salon at the same address.
Every site-selection decision starts and ends with location — it outweighs concept, brand, and execution combined.
StreetSpring has found that selecting the location with the highest survivability score for a business is the best way to maximize the amount of money you will make.
StreetSpring can pinpoint which blocks in each neighborhood or city maximize a business's chances of success.

What businesses should open next in Greater Hobby Area?

The top businesses to open next in Greater Hobby Area:

American Restaurants — ~87% average survival rate, up to ~88% at best locations
Italian Restaurants — ~86% average survival rate
Indian Restaurants — ~86% average survival rate

Competition and spending patterns shift constantly; StreetSpring's live tool reflects the most current conditions for any specific address. Our platform incorporates data from thousands of neighborhoods nationwide. Greater Hobby Area's employment rate (93.7%) and vacancy rate (4.1%) together define the economic context that StreetSpring's model uses to score survivability for each business type at each address. New competitors open and close every week, changing the survivability landscape for every address in Greater Hobby Area. StreetSpring's weekly updates mean you can always see the current score for any available storefront.

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 Greater Hobby Area.

What type of business should you rent your Greater Hobby Area storefront to?

Based on 2026 survivability scores across all business types in Greater Hobby Area, the top three tenant categories for landlords are American Restaurants, Italian Restaurants, and Indian Restaurants.

Every site-selection decision starts and ends with location — it outweighs concept, brand, and execution combined.
StreetSpring can pinpoint which blocks in each neighborhood or city maximize a business's chances of success. Use StreetSpring to see the survivability score for any business type at your exact storefront address before you sign a lease.

Should you rent your Greater Hobby Area storefront to an American Restaurant?

Yes — our 2026 model places an American Restaurant at the top of the survivability rankings for Greater Hobby Area storefronts, with a best-case score of ~88% and a floor of ~85% at the most challenging addresses.

StreetSpring can pinpoint which blocks in each neighborhood or city maximize a business's chances of success.

What should I consider when opening a business in Greater Hobby Area?

StreetSpring's Survivability Score for your Greater Hobby Area address is the clearest forward-looking indicator of whether your business will be operating two years from now — make it the first number you check.

Of all the variables StreetSpring analyzes, Revenue Capture Score has the strongest predictive power.
Each forecast is specific to the exact address and business type, generated by StreetSpring's internally developed prediction engine.
StreetSpring's live survivability scores are available for free — check your specific address now.

See the best place for your business at StreetSpring.

StreetSpring's AI platform has studied businesses serving more than 180 million+ Americans, giving its predictions a scale of validation unmatched in site-selection tools. Aggregated survivability rankings for Houston are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.

The hidden costs of operating in this neighborhood

Consideration	Common pitfall	What to verify before signing
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.
CAM + hidden costs	Stated rent looks great, then CAM fees, signage charges, and after-hours utilities add 15-30%.	Get the full operating expense breakdown for the past 2 years. Ask which costs are landlord-capped vs. uncapped.
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

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.

Dumbbell chart comparing best vs worst locations for businesses in Houston — Best vs worst neighborhood per business type in Houston — the gap shows how much location choice matters for each subtype.

How we measure this: Foot traffic measured at the city-block level using a combination of pedestrian-network analysis and Walk Score.

**Three local anchors for Greater Hobby Area:** **6.3%** neighborhood unemployment (above 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 Greater Hobby Area business operates within.

**BLS sector context:** Across the 11 industries StreetSpring tracks, 5-year survival rates from BLS Business Employment Dynamics, March 2025 release range from **47.8%** (Active Life — gyms, studios) to **61.8%** (Health & Medical). Restaurants — the largest single category in our corpus — average **50.0%** nationally, and retail averages **47.9%**.

Related:

Beyond the Numbers: Local Context

Local-context questions, answered with neighborhood-specific numbers.

Are storefronts and homes filling up or sitting empty in Greater Hobby Area?

Greater Hobby Area's housing vacancy rate is roughly 4%, 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.

What is the median age in Greater Hobby Area, and what does that mean for businesses?

The median age in Greater Hobby Area is 33, younger by the Houston metro median (36) by 3 years. A younger profile tends to drive demand for nightlife, fitness, and casual dining over family-oriented services.

What's the home ownership rate in Greater Hobby Area, and why does it matter?

ACS housing data shows 67% home ownership in Greater Hobby Area, compared to 53% metro-wide. High ownership usually signals longer resident tenure and steadier local spending — favorable for sticky service-oriented businesses.

What's the typical household size in Greater Hobby Area, and what does it tell us?

Average household size in Greater Hobby Area is 3.1, versus 2.7 across the Houston metro. Larger households suggest more families — favorable for family dining, kid-oriented retail, and household services.