Money Magazine's Best Places 2006 (How N. Texas faired) (Dallas, Fort Worth: apartments, low crime)

[GoPadge]

Kudos to JJP for referencing the Money Magazine article over in the Denver to Dallas? thread.

I was reviewing the results and thought I'd share the wealth on how North Texas faired.

Top 100
11 Plano, TX
15 Richardson, TX
19 Carrollton, TX
58 Denton, TX
62 North Richland Hills, TX


Skinniest cities(BMI)
14 Denton, TX 25.4
15 Flower Mound, TX 25.4
16 Fort Worth, TX 25.4

(tied for 5th based on BMI)

Fastest job growth
2 Allen, TX 55.0%
4 Frisco, TX 53.0%
8 McKinney, TX 40.1%

Highest salaries(Median)
5 Flower Mound, TX $104,921
22 Allen, TX $92,404
24 Frisco, TX $91,556

For some reason Plano didn't make the salaries list. Details on Plano list the median salary at $102,477 which would place it 8th on the list moving Allen and Frisco down one place. (But then details on Allen and Frisco list the median salaries at $97,274 and $97,338 so there's some issues with their numbers.)


Other areas

No North Texas city placed in the top 25 for youngest, I did notice that several of the cities had large military bases or colleges in more moderate sized cities. Similar results were found in the list of top towns for singles, but Boston also did well in this category. Hottest and coldest held no surprises, the desert south west swept hottest and the upper mid-west swept coldest. The list of shortest commutes were all cities with population of 50,000 to 70,000 with the exception of Rochester, MN (11th) with a population of 95,000.

[940]

Interesting info...thanks for posting this!

I'm not surprised by Flower Mound's high ranking. It's really a terrific area that's growing too but it seems to get lost in all the excitement about Frisco and McKinney on these boards. The schools are great and as Momof2DFW has said in an earlier post, the only part of the Lewisville ISD that people might want to steer clear of would be The Colony next door to Frisco and Carrollton.

[socketz]

I seemed to recall that Plano didn't make a few of those lists because the population exceeded some number like 75k. It may of gotten folded into the 'another size of city' category. At least I know this happened when they did the most educated. Plano did not make the list and my mother in law was gloating because San Diego was up there. Then I discovered they were looking at cities over 1 mill, and Plano ended up in one of the smaller city categories. One thing that's funny, is if you removed everyone from Plano that went to A&M or UT, there would only be a handful of college grads left. it is utterly amazing how many people in Plano went to the same two schools.

[momof2dfw]

I just want to know how in the world did Carrollton end up on that list??? Seeing that and knowing Carrollton as well as I do (grew up there and parents still live there) there is NO WAY I would live there or even recommend it to anyone wanting a halfway decent place to live. I'd rather live in some of the "ghetto" areas of Dallas before I would there. Seeing this gives me VERY little faith in these kinds of reports.

[socketz]

I knew you would comment on that. I'm not sure either how Carrolton made it. Or Denton and no Frisco ?

If I recall, the schools rating carried alot of weight in their stats, along with cost of living and low crime.

[Spree]

>> One thing that's funny, is if you removed everyone from Plano that went to A&M or UT, there would only be a handful of college grads left. it is utterly amazing how many people in Plano went to the same two schools. <<

I see lots of people wearing UT caps/tshirts here in Tampa. There's a couple of boys at the kids school that I will see wearing UT baseball caps. UT seems to be popular here in Tampa.

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by socketz

I knew you would comment on that. I'm not sure either how Carrolton made it. Or Denton and no Frisco ?

If I recall, the schools rating carried alot of weight in their stats, along with cost of living and low crime.

Really.

No, it does surprise me. I know that as soon as my parents can sell their house there will not be a reason for me to get off of the highway when passing thru Carrollton. If all one sees of Carrollton is what lines the highways they are totally missing out. I did see today that they are reporting that the crime rate in Carrollton has gone down. Hmmmm. I think I know why. THEY DON'T RESPOND TO ANYTHING! DUH! I mean seriously, when my parents and the neighbors call because some kids down the street are out shooting a real bow & arrow into peoples yards and at cars going down the alley and the pd tells them they can not do anything and will not come out. What does that tell ya?

The neighborhood code dept is worthless. Drive down any alley, just pick one. My parents have called so many times over things in their area that they finally gave up as nothing was being done. They, the code dept say there is nothing they can do about it. One house has a LARGE storage bldg taking up the entire backyard w/ a window a/c unit to house extended family members, they took the overhead garage door off and built in most of the garage to house even more extended family and their washing machines sit on the driveway. Another house, when the family leaves for the summer and winter holidays for weeks at a time to go to Mexico they put out small plastic kiddie pools full of dog food and water for their large dogs that take up the entire backyard (which is small to start with). Another house runs an "auto repair" shop over the weekends fixing up rice burners parked in the yard and testing them out in the alley and down the street. Most of the apartments are now Sec 8 or accept govt subsidies.

As for amenities in Carrollton, they bite. There are only 4 major grocery stores left in Carrollton not counting superwalmart. Most have closed up. Mervyn's closed up. The two movie theaters that were there are gone. Restaurants, ehhh, considering the population they are seriously lacking. Even my parents church is startig to dwindle pretty bad. If you want to live in an area that has more small rundown ethnic markets/stores/restaurants than anywhere else, then this is the place. Driving down the entire stretch of Josey Lane is pretty eye opening for this hometown girl. I feel no connection to the place at all even though I grew up there . I've adopted my new "hometown" as all of the hometown people here treat me like I'm one of them.

[UNT_Eagle]

I am from Carrollton as well and am sad to hear of its decline. Momof2 I visited C' Town over Christmas time since my dad still lives there over in the Woodgate Subdivision. I also drove down Josey Ln. and Peter's Colony area, which was where I was born/raised and couldn't believe all the closed stores around. I can remember when that Skaggs/Jewel Osco/Albertson's was hoppin' back in the day and the Texaco, Mobil and 7 Eleven on the corner were always busy!