Areas to avoid in the northern suburbs (Plano, McKinney: neighborhoods, income)

[Leonard123]

Originally Posted by mastershake575

I don't get that feeling. Alot of nice established neighborhoods with custom houses and well maintained parks (canyon creek, Praire creek, heights park, Sherill Park, Breckenridge, the reservation). Depressing is a strange adjective considering most of the people buying into these neighborhoods are outgoing well educated familes that take great care of there house/lots (old and depressing sounds like something you would say for like downtown garland)

If anything these new developments are depressing (cookie cutter houses that all look the same, no trees, and small lots). Your basically living in the house version of an apartment

Even the 30 year old houses across the street from Cityline (Fairways of sherrill park) all go for $500k+

I agree on some of the newer developments, particularly Frisco and Prosper. I've always thought the Willow Bend area in Plano was one of the nicest neighborhoods in the metro area. I also thought the treed areas south of Denton around Highland Village and Corinth were very nice but am not too familiar with that area. Garland is awful all over.

$500K+ is not all that extraordinary for houses 3000 square feet and up. When you see a 1500-2000 square foot house in that price range, it's a different story.

[mastershake575]

Originally Posted by Leonard123

When you see a 1500-2000 square foot house in that price range, it's a different story.

Houses that small with that price range are predominantly in areas with extremely high teardown activity.

You mocked "old and depressing" for Richardson then claimed smaller houses with high prices are different stories when in reality those houses are legitimately viewed as "old and depressing" by there fellow neighbors

[Ralph_Kirk]

Originally Posted by Leonard123

$500K+ is not all that extraordinary for houses 3000 square feet and up. When you see a 1500-2000 square foot house in that price range, it's a different story.

You're moving the goalpost. We're not talking about your personal opinions of a house, we're talking about price ranges in the neighborhood.

[Leonard123]

Originally Posted by mastershake575

Houses that small with that price range are predominantly in areas with extremely high teardown activity.

You mocked "old and depressing" for Richardson then claimed smaller houses with high prices are different stories when in reality those houses are legitimately viewed as "old and depressing" by there fellow neighbors

I don't see any teardown activity in Frisco, but I do see builder-grade 1800 square foot houses going for over half a million there. Also 1900 square feet in east Plano on small lots starting in the mid 700s.

Those are new construction, so it may not be a fair comparison, but it's quite shocking nonetheless.

[mastershake575]

Originally Posted by Ralph_Kirk

You're moving the goalpost. We're not talking about your personal opinions of a house, we're talking about price ranges in the neighborhood.

Yeah he keeps flip flopping. At first it was "richardson is old and depressing" which is about as far away from the truth as you can get (the old areas of Richardson are yuppie central which is the complete opposite of old and depressing).

It then turned into "oh the area by city line has some decent areas I guess" which is a huge understatement (the surrounding areas such as praire creek estates, palisades, Fairways of Sherill Park, Crowley North, and Breckinridge park are all well kept green belt areas that see 80% of sales over $500k).

The narrative then switched to "uh yeah well it's not that great since the houses are larger" (if the area attract upper middle class income then literally WHY does it matter how small or big the houses is ?). At the end of the day your still getting simliar income brackets regardless of house size

[TheOverdog]

Yeah he keeps flip flopping.

The general idea that Richardson gets nicer as you go north is true though. DFW runs in waves. North Dallas is nicer than south Richardson, north Richardson is then nicer than south Plano.

[mastershake575]

Originally Posted by TheOverdog

The general idea that Richardson gets nicer as you go north is true though. DFW runs in waves. North Dallas is nicer than south Richardson, north Richardson is then nicer than south Plano.

It's actually not true. Southern Richardson neighborhoods (heights/heights park,duck creek, berkner park,) are all nicer than there direct Northern neighbors (greenwood hills, northrich, yale). The lowest rated elementary school feeder is actually in North East Richardson (Mendenhall elementary).

The whole "farther north you go the better" is based on the houses being newer but that doesn't necessarly mean it's better. The person I quoted didn't even like the newer parts, he said there too cheap for the square footage (which makes no sense, if you attract upper middle class residents then it doesn't matter how big or small the houses are).

[TheOverdog]

The whole "farther north you go the better" is based on the houses being newer but that doesn't necessarly mean it's better.

I wasn't comparing like to like. If you are comparing like to like, Berker vs Yale is a toss of a coin. I'd also say that Mendenhall Elementary is a perfectly fine school, so saying it's the lowest rated is kind of meaningless. Mendenhall feeds to Plano East, which is among the best high schools in Texas given its demographics. If you think Mendenhall is a poor school, then you are saying just like the OP that you don't want to be around hispanics or poor people, you are just saying it an indirect way.

[mastershake575]

Originally Posted by TheOverdog

I wasn't comparing like to like. If you are comparing like to like, Berker vs Yale is a toss of a coin. I'd also say that Mendenhall Elementary is a perfectly fine school, so saying it's the lowest rated is kind of meaningless. Mendenhall feeds to Plano East, which is among the best high schools in Texas given its demographics. If you think Mendenhall is a poor school, then you are saying just like the OP that you don't want to be around hispanics or poor people, you are just saying it an indirect way.

I never said it was a poor school. There is no poor or ghetto areas in Richardson proper (especially now with the recent gentrification of Northrich, terrace, and greenwood hills).

I was merely pointing out that the whole it gets better the farther north you go isn't necessarily true (I would rate majority of the middle area as the worst, the southern portion as better, and then the northern portion especially on the west side as the top tier).

[jsnww81]

Originally Posted by mastershake575

I never said it was a poor school. There is no poor or ghetto areas in Richardson proper (especially now with the recent gentrification of Northrich, terrace, and greenwood hills).

I was merely pointing out that the whole it gets better the farther north you go isn't necessarily true (I would rate majority of the middle area as the worst, the southern portion as better, and then the northern portion especially on the west side as the top tier).

Agree completely. Some of the housing stock in "south" Richardson is very, very nice and never really dipped in terms of affluence. Thinking of Northwood Hills, the area around Dover Elementary, and quite a lot of the Heights. Those areas get a bad rap because the local schools have apartments feeding them, so they're a bit more uneven than the schools in the Pearce feeder pattern.

Schools like Bowie, Mohawk, and Canyon/Prairie Creek enjoy huge amounts of neighborhood support and unless you want a religious education for your kids, it's a given you'll enroll them in public school if you buy in those zones. Some of the southern elementary schools (Heights and Dover) are really trying to replicate that mindset, but a lot of parents in those areas still need convincing. Then you have Dobie/RISD Academy and Spring Valley that hardly draw any single-family home students at all - they're all enrolled private, or transferring into other campuses through various means.

Most of the housing stock in Greenwood Hills and Northrich was actually built quite small - as you said, it's gentrifying impressively now, but 15-20 years ago there were a lot of rental properties there and some of them were sliding toward looking unkempt. If those areas weren't in the Pearce feeder zone, I doubt they'd be seeing all the realtor interest they're getting... and they'd be looking even rougher today.