Whats up selling home(s) in Allen? Is Allen lost its Charm/Hype compared to Frisco/Plano, etc? (Dallas: HOA, new house)

[veuvegirl]

This thread has gone totally off the rails....

[Rakin]

Originally Posted by veuvegirl

This thread has gone totally off the rails....

OP was trolling to start

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by veuvegirl

This thread has gone totally off the rails....

Yes, let's talk about Allen again.

Here's my thoughts on Allen...from someone who is pretty much neutral on the subject.

West Allen (west of 75) to me seems clogged by traffic and hard to get around. I really dislike those giant power lines running right through the middle of that area with a bunch of apartments right next to it. Traffic in that part of Allen always seems chaotic.

East Allen (east of 75) reminds me of Garland. Sorry, but there it is. It seems really...well...choppy. You go from nice area to eh to nice to eh to nice to eh as you drive through it. Then there's the shops at Fairview/Allen development which, combined with the outlet center at 75 and Stacy Road, is a recipe for traffic chaos. I personally have sat through the light at Stacy 10+ times waiting to make a U-turn because I didn't know any other way through Allen. (My "hack" now is to turn east on Stacy, u-turn, turn left to go south on 75...it takes less time).

To me Allen really does look like a case of haves vs have-nots, even though there are some lovely developments east of 75. Parts of it really do look a little icky though.

Another thing that jumps out immediately about Allen is the relative lack of office buildings. Yeah, they have some...but not many. Seems like the DNT corridor is snatching up all the good stuff, right? That's what it seems like to me.

Another thing is the single high school plan. To me, that's a strike against Allen. It would be easy for a quiet, introverted kid to get swallowed up and not get any individual attention at all. To me it would be very strange to have a class so large that you don't know most peoples' names and are sitting next to complete strangers at the start of every semester. Of course that's just my opinion. (It's not like my local high school isn't enormous either. Richardson High School's campus is a monster. Not as big as Allen, but still...VERY big.)

Just driving through it, I can see why some people would skip it. I really can. No offense to anyone.

[DFWUser1]

BigDGeek - you are totally painting a wrong picture here may be putting your experiences few times you are here from Richardson and it's not neutral at all. If you are neutral - the things you mentioned are not specific to Allen, same things all over Collin county and no reason to say pin point against Allen.

West Allen: Clogged by traffic and power lines?? Where do you not see power lines and apartments? There are there every where in Richardson, Plano, Frisco, McKinney. They expanded exchange parkway and Alma expansion is on the cards. West of Allen is one of the cleanest areas I have seen in the surrounding areas (not counting on exclusive neighborhoods) - Watters Creek, Montgomery Farms, Twin Creeks, Exchange Pkwy are some of the finest areas.

East Allen: While it is not as new or may be not affluent than West Allen - It is no where as bad as some parts of East Plano or some parts of your own Richardson. At least I haven't seen any icky places like you claim. Overall it's a clean, decent area with lots of parks - celebration park, Joe Farmer recreation, Natatorium etc. It's only outrageous that you compare it to Garland while it is no where near to it on any parameters.

Lack of Office Buildings: Allen is not into commercial like other big cities say Plano. It's mainly Residential and we like it that way.

Reg. high school - Again you are painting a wrong picture. Do you know that even though overall high school may be large - individual class size still should be the same size or teacher/student ration? So, how an introverted kid can get swallowed and not get any individual attention?? In fact I see it as an advantage where such kind of kids can get exposed to large environments and may prepare them better for College. Otherwise what happens if they don't get used to and go to college all of a sudden???

Allen high school has tremendous infrastructure, nice buildings, yes - nice stadium we are proud of and overall focus on Arts, Music, Athletics. With that I agree that Academics are getting less attention - but if some one wants to excel academically, no stopping to them. Other schools that claim strong academics are mainly because of Indian/Asian students who are accustomed to bookish knowledge and whose main focus is only on test scores not overall development. Like someone said students with very high scores are not able to do algebra/calculus as per expectations in college. That's not what is needed.

Having said that - there is much scope for improvement in Allen high academically and the new superintendent seems to have vision, goals for the district. A new STEM satellite center is proposed that can raise interest in STEM subjects in the students from K level itself.

[MckinneyOwnr]

Originally Posted by DFWUser1

BigDGeek - you are totally painting a wrong picture here may be putting your experiences few times you are here from Richardson and it's not neutral at all. If you are neutral - the things you mentioned are not specific to Allen, same things all over Collin county and no reason to say pin point against Allen.

With a post like yours, you want to call out BigDGeek for not being neutral?

Her post is her OPINION... and yes, as someone without a horse in the race, I'd say she was pretty accurate. Yours on the other hand, was about the most biased post I've read in a while.

[DFWUser1]

I know - you said McKinney is desirable than Allen - so that speaks for itself and your posts about McKinney and Prosper. BigD says east Allen is like Garland - you say it is neutral and it is accurate. Enough of it.

[lifofifo]

Richardson is the best place on the whole planet. Didn't you miss the memo? As it's completely powered by the tesla tower, there are no power lines there. They also have flying cars in Richardson, so the roads are always empty. No traffic at all at 9am! Imagine that.

[MckinneyOwnr]

Originally Posted by DFWUser1

I know - you said McKinney is desirable than Allen - so that speaks for itself and your posts about McKinney and Prosper.

You might want to check out the thread about how people are camping out overnight to buy homes in McKinney, vs this one where a homeowner can't sell their house in Allen to determine which is the more desirable area.

[bencronin04]

Originally Posted by BigDGeek

Yes, let's talk about Allen again.

East Allen (east of 75) reminds me of Garland. Sorry, but there it is. It seems really...well...choppy. You go from nice area to eh to nice to eh to nice to eh as you drive through it.

To be fair, and I'm a big fan of Richardson...it sounds like you're describing East Richardson.

[DFWUser1]

Comparing totally unrelated individual circumstances and generalizing towns is laughable.
It's like telling 2M house in HP is 3 days on market vs 200k home for 1 day in McKinney, so Mckinney is desirable than HP.
What else can be expected from McKinney owner?