Relocation to Plano Texas

[stan4]

$180k will do ok around here (West Plano), but depending on how much you have to put down on a home, it may or may not get you a really great house. And be aware, you're looking at pretty steep property taxes (though no state income tax). So that $500k home (my idea of minimum so-so home in West Plano) may run you $10k in property taxes. There are, of course, cheaper homes...but, uh, it'll be evident.

There are many different places to live in Plano, however, and the schools are good.
If you head to Frisco or Allen, your commute will be with traffic, and that could be painful, but it does open up better value and more options on housing.

There don't tend to be very many homes for rent in this area (West Plano), though there are apartments.

[carroll4628]

$180k per year - Here on city-data, they have the Estimated median household income in 2009: $77,140 for Plano. So you'd be well about the median income for the area. Will people around you make more - yes. Will families at the school you attend make 1/2 of what you make - absolutely. You can go to the City-Data website and scroll down and there's a neat map that has "Data Type" and you can pick Median Family Income and see where all the folks making more than $150k live http://www.city-data.com/city/Plano-Texas.html then you can "click" on the tract. So most of the 'rich' folks in Plano live out west.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by carroll4628

$180k per year - Here on city-data, they have the Estimated median household income in 2009: $77,140 for Plano. So you'd be well about the median income for the area. Will people around you make more - yes. Will families at the school you attend make 1/2 of what you make - absolutely. You can go to the City-Data website and scroll down and there's a neat map that has "Data Type" and you can pick Median Family Income and see where all the folks making more than $150k live http://www.city-data.com/city/Plano-Texas.html then you can "click" on the tract. So most of the 'rich' folks in Plano live out west.

That $77k income is true for the whole city of Plano. However, the AGI for 75093 West Plano (the part of Plano being discussed here) is in the $135k-145k range. I linked a few AGI data tables; none are current (2011 taxes) but give a good idea of where the income range lies. It is about double the entire city of Plano's HH income. OP's $180k is solidly above the average, but it isn't 2.2X his West Plano neighbor's salary as the your $77k stated income for the whole city could leave one to believe. As you said, in Plano most of the money is on the west side of town. Of course, within 75093, there are people living in $5M homes, $1.5 homes, $350k homes, and apartments and condos which cost much less.


100 richest zip codes in the United States
This one splits out income from salary & total income....very interesting to look at many zips' breakouts.

http://www.city-data.com/zips/75093.html#b
City-Data's most current tax year was 2004 (?!?!)....

ZIP Code 75093 IRS Income Tax Statistics PLANO, TX
This one lists per person, not per household, so the accurate hh income is X 1.5-2 range.