Dallas-Collin (Plano, McKinney, Frisco: homes, buyers, property taxes)

[TheOverdog]

DFW is already a booming metro with job growth, inflation, and development in its core and suburbs.

Then what's the difference? Are those jobs better? Have we gotten to the stage where we can realistically turn away 6 figure jobs? I really don't think so. It's funny how many people crow about ever rising housing prices but nobody seems to remember the malaise of 2008, when Collin County had a huge number of foreclosures and job losses with the downfall of the telecom corridor, or that big empty plot of land next to 75 at Walnut Hill. It'd be funny if it weren't so weird.

[UnfairPark]

Originally Posted by BigDGeek

That isn't true.


Some people also don't want an extra 200,000 people shoehorned into an already highly competitive housing market in a metropolitan area with clogged roads where infrastructure is not keeping up with demand. Count me among them.

You are right. Taxes go up with Home prices but they also go up when residential tax is the only income. People who don’t want businesses, buyers and renters to shoulder expenses, end up with high property taxes and crumbling infrastructure while they can’t even sell their homes.

[HP48G]

Originally Posted by UnfairPark

Dart’s Trinity Mills Station is literally minutes away from DNT in West PlanoTheir is a freight train line minutes away from DNT as well. It can work, 121, 190 are there so airports aren’t far either. Plano also gives easy access to whatever Dallas and Frisco have to offer.

LOL what?

Sorry but that's pure nonsense. DART is a non factor for the DNT corridor. Trinity mills is next to 35e

I guess the plan is to tell the workers to commute via DART to Trinity Mills station, then take a car to the Bush Turnpike to reach the DNT to finally reach their Amazon office LOL.

[Soonhun]

Originally Posted by TheOverdog

Then what's the difference? Are those jobs better? Have we gotten to the stage where we can realistically turn away 6 figure jobs? I really don't think so. It's funny how many people crow about ever rising housing prices but nobody seems to remember the malaise of 2008, when Collin County had a huge number of foreclosures and job losses with the downfall of the telecom corridor, or that big empty plot of land next to 75 at Walnut Hill. It'd be funny if it weren't so weird.

The issue is that DFW is already having troubles with affordability with the current job growth. Amazon dropping a giant headquarter well just make the problem worse and the money probably won't end up being very evenly spread out. I don't remember the recession impacting Collin County that horrible and unemployment data I can find says it only reached about 8% in Collin County. What happens during the next bubble if Amazon relocated to Dallas or Collin County? Home prices will have become even higher than otherwise and, with increased traffic, more people would probably opt to leave. I don't care if the headquarters is dropped in the middle of Dallas or No Where, Collin County- I don't think the road or transit infrastructure is ready to cope with an additional fifty thousand jobs in a single location like that.

[TurtleCreek80]

I can't wait for Amazon to announce their decision so this forum can stop arguing this topic.

[aggie972]

I like some of the stuff Dallas Observer runs, but I have a few counterpoints to this article:

1.) Collin County has upped its game way beyond Applebee's. Yeah, there still are more chain restaurants on the side of the highway in suburbia, but there's also plenty of good local options to choose from these days. Suburbanites, especially younger ones, are making their preference for non-chain restaurants heard.

2.) Dallas proper has a pretty suburban feel itself despite being "the city". Dallas vs Collin County isn't exactly Chicago vs the Chicago suburbs. The author complained about "fake urban areas developed by shopping mall developers". Well...I'll take the Shops at Legacy over an actual indoor shopping mall like the galleria with an awful parking situation and packs of teenagers hanging out everywhere.

3.) It's true that Uptown has no equivalent in the suburbs...but is that such a bad thing? As one of the only true urban neighborhoods in Dallas, Uptown has gotten extremely expensive and extremely pretentious. Should liberal Jim Schutze be touting a very expensive neighborhood where places like Kung Fu have been sued for discriminating against black customers as his "case in point" for why Dallas is better than Collin County? And more importantly, should parents with school children prioritize Uptown amenities over decent schools for their kids?

Personally, I think his points about suburban sprawl and Collin County not having a county hospital are legitimate. But I think it's a stretch to act like Dallas is some paradise and Collin County is a dump.

[TheOverdog]

I don't think the road or transit infrastructure is ready to cope with an additional fifty thousand jobs in a single location like that.

The entire bus traffic of Plano (which has by far the most public transit in Collin County) was 220,000 trips, and trains was about 350,000 trips. So I think the stats show the Plano traffic is so light that like 1 person in 1000 rides the bus. How much lighter does traffic need to be that no one feels they need to take public transit? And 50,000 people are not going to work there on day 1.

[dhakaia]

The article gave me some chuckles though... and I can even see some of that being a Plano resident. Collin County's 'glitz & glammer' developments are too new to feel organic for most people. Definitions of diversity and culture are usually in the eyes of the beholder, but more importantly in this case... Amazon's. But like the author said, in this game of trying to land HQ2... Dallas, Collin and Tarrant Counties know full well to NOT work like feuding siblings. None of them singularly has what it takes to win this.

[Laminate7]

This is not a "second HQ" that is just a Amazon PR stunt to get concessions. I see this similar to what Goldman Sacs did several years ago in Salt Lake City: Amazon needs a cheap place to put secondary workers (2nd/3rd lvl engineers, back office services, admin support, accounting, etc). High values workers remain in Seattle to make the big boyz decisions.

[justsomeguy]

Originally Posted by BigDGeek

That isn't true.


Some people also don't want an extra 200,000 people shoehorned into an already highly competitive housing market in a metropolitan area with clogged roads where infrastructure is not keeping up with demand. Count me among them.


P.S. Plano capping property taxes...that's a good one.

Your points are valid, but here's a thought....DFW has a ton of Corporate HQs but a few of them are struggling, particularly the retail sector, mostly because of Amazon (e.g. Gamestop, JC Penney, Neiman Marcus, Tuesday Morning, etc.). If those companies go under, then would it be good to have Amazon here to replace those lost retail HQ jobs? I mean it may not be apples-to-apples jobs wise, but was just thinking if those places go under maybe it would be good to have Amazon here to pick up the economic slack?