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Looking around at houses here in DFW area, I noticed a huge difference in prices between North Dallas Suburbs vs South/ South East Dallas Suburbs. I really want to discuss in this thread exactly why this is the case. I personally am not very famaliar with South or SE areas, but am quite famalier with North Dallas area since I live here. North Dallas seems like pretty nice are for the most apart. I am only driven past S/SE areas, so I really can't tell how those area compared to North Dallas.
I have been doing some searches on MLS listing on and am finding super cheap housing down South and East areas. For example doing, search for 10 year or Newer, 3000 sq ft houses under 150K shows about 50 listings. Some of the houses are going for $40 per sqft! Doing the same search in N Dallas reveals ONE house up in McKinney.
Here are Q4 2008 price per sq ft taken from Far North Dallas's post (this post had great info! Thanks FND! ):
North Dallas Suburbs:
97 Plano
96 Frisco
89 Allen
84 McKinney
One other thing I did notice from Far North Dallas's post that S/SE are seeing price FALL, so they are actually becoming cheaper. While N Dallas was up for Flat. The real question is exactly is causing this price difference. Here are things I was considering.
-Location from Downtown. Desoto/Lancaster is so much closer than Plano/Allen but still cheaper. Not too much development here while some say North Dallas may go up to Red River some time in the future!
-Retail / Shopping. How much retail/shopping/malls are there in S/SE areas. North Dallas has tons of retails shops and malls around.
-Quality of Housing - You can get low $40 per sqft, but how is the quality compared to the more expensive houses in the North? Are they about the same or are they houses down South just cheap/low end homes?
-Are these S/SE areas similar to Garland? I work in Garland am familiar with the area. Wondering if these are more like Garland that the Northern burbs.
-Overall - Is S/SE are nice places to live? Like N Dallas or bit more problems?
I am sure there are tons of other factors to think about. If anyone any point them out it would be great!
Last edited by unseengundam; 01-31-2009 at 04:45 PM..
To put it simply, those neighborhoods are not that nice. Go for a drive down there, you'll see.
That's simply not true. Mesquite, Desoto and Lancaster have some great neighborhoods. They also have some not so great neighborhoods. I can speak to Mesquite because that's were I live. Mesquite is alot like Garland. Instead of having a Firewheel area we have Sunnyvale for the top end folks. Most these surburban cities are fairly old so there are quite a few older neighborhoods. Some are well kept and some are not. I live in area were 95% of the homes were built in 1993 to the present. I have never seen any flashing police lights in the 13 years I have lived here. I'm not aware of any break ins or car thefts in my neighborhood. Now there area's of Mesquite that are not that great but that's what you get in a older burb. For the most parts these area's of made up of gray collar workers. Teachers, fireman, policeman, small business owners etc. The northen burbs are fairly brand new and have a heavy concentration of white collar workers. I can remember when no one wanted to live in McKinney because it was like living in a small town. The tremendous growth of Plano that started in the late 80's is the reason why towns like Frisco and Allen grew to quickly. You would be hard pressed to find someone who grew up in Frisco, Allen, McKinney and to some extent Plano. I talk to folks who parents grew up in Mesquite all the time. Many major employers started to set up shop in Plano in the late 80's early 90's and the folks followed. Nothing wrong with living up north but it is not the only game in town. Oh yes my house was built by Highland Homes in 1996. They built the same exact floorplan in Plano and Allen when I built.
The land is cheap down south so the housing is cheap. Land is more expensive up north because that's where the people want to be, but that's also where the companies are. Yes, there are many companies in downtown, but there are more companies up north like at Legacy Park in Plano and Starwood in Frisco, and tons up 75 in Richardson and that's where people rather live.
Plus, do your research on school districts. People go where the schools are rated higher. In order to have higher rated schools, they should have some nice tech centers for the kids, and for that, the school district must be able to afford it all, which is where price comes in again.
As was said above, drive the areas, and you'll see an immediate and obvious difference.
Looking around at houses here in DFW area, I noticed a huge difference in prices between North Dallas Suburbs vs South/ South East Dallas Suburbs. I really want to discuss in this thread exactly why this is the case. I personally am not very famaliar with South or SE areas, but am quite famalier with North Dallas area since I live here. North Dallas seems like pretty nice are for the most apart. I am only driven past S/SE areas, so I really can't tell how those area compared to North Dallas.
I have been doing some searches on MLS listing on and am finding super cheap housing down South and East areas. For example doing, search for 10 year or Newer, 3000 sq ft houses under 150K shows about 50 listings. Some of the houses are going for $40 per sqft! Doing the same search in N Dallas reveals ONE house up in McKinney.
Here are Q4 2008 price per sq ft taken from Far North Dallas's post (this post had great info! Thanks FND! ):
North Dallas Suburbs:
97 Plano
96 Frisco
89 Allen
84 McKinney
One other thing I did notice from Far North Dallas's post that S/SE are seeing price FALL, so they are actually becoming cheaper. While N Dallas was up for Flat. The real question is exactly is causing this price difference. Here are things I was considering.
I am sure there are tons of other factors to think about. If anyone any point them out it would be great!
I have lived in the southern suburbs for many years and the housing prices have always been lower overall when compared to other parts of DFW. A major reason for the recent fall in prices was that the area had quite a few foreclosures. The situation is actually better than it was in 2007. Another factor is that the economy has slowed housing starts and people who would normally be in a position to buy a home are staying put.
Perception tends to play a role as well.
The communities in this area have never been considered the "it" suburb to move to as Irving or Richardson were during the 1970s and 1980s, as Plano was during the 1990s, and Frisco is now. By looking at the posts on city-data you will also see that the northern suburbs are most popular with transplants who tend to eliminate the southern suburbs from consideration sight unseen.
The myth that "everything (including the suburbs) south of the Trinity (or south of I-30) is bad" is sometimes used to negatively portray and generalize such the entire area.
Another misconception is that these communities are economically depressed and poor when in actuality, they are mostly middle-class (in the case of Cedar Hill and DeSoto, middle to upper-middle class).
The perception that annoys and angers me the most is that these communities are all "ghettos" or becoming such, which is due in part to the large African-American populations found here. I have encountered this on a number of occasions, which is sad. Comments like this tend to be made by people who have never lived in the area or by those who have moved away. No consideration is usually given to the fact that most of the people moving here have income and educational levels that are at or higher than those who decided to leave. Another one, which ties into the aforementioned perception is that these cities are somehow unsafe. In all my time living here, I have never heard gunshots in the distance, been robbed, or witnessed gang activity on the streets and would not live somewhere that is experiencing such violence.
Schools in the area are often perceived as "sub par" without any consideration to the programs offered, teacher experience, and graduation rates to name a few. Often, the labels determined by standardized test scores are used as the only factor in determining whether a campus is "good" or "bad." Sometimes, even that does not matter. As a student of the pre-TAKS, TAAS-test era and throughout my secondary years in DeSoto schools, I attended campuses that were rated either "recognized" or "exemplary" while the district maintained a "recognized" rating. I got a great education there, but our district was never seen in the positive light that many of the northern suburban districts were, even when we outperformed them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by unseengundam
-Location from Downtown. Desoto/Lancaster is so much closer than Plano/Allen but still cheaper. Not too much development here while some say North Dallas may go up to Red River some time in the future!
There has been a lot of development in the area over the past decade or so, with more being planned. It just hasn't been as publicized the way developments in other regions have been. Duncanville is planning to revitalize the area around Main Street. DeSoto is currently transforming its town center into a mixed-use "new urban" development and is now considering a Heliport for one of its newly constructed industrial parks. Cedar Hill has continued to attract retail shops and other new businesses. In Lancaster, the Dallas Logistics Hub project has brought a number of commercial businesses to the city and construction is underway around one of the busiest shopping centers – on land that sat vacant for almost twenty years.
Population-wise, Cedar Hill and Lancaster have grown by nearly 40% in the period from 2000 to 2008, with DeSoto registering a nearly 30% increase. Amongst inner-ring suburbs, these communities are some of the fastest growing. I don't think they would be growing that fast if they were truly undesirable places to live.
Quote:
Originally Posted by unseengundam
-Retail / Shopping. How much retail/shopping/malls are there in S/SE areas. North Dallas has tons of retails shops and malls around.
Uptown Village at Cedar Hill, the first mall in the southern suburbs, opened in March 2008. Even though there is not as much retail here as is present in the northern suburbs, companies have finally started to notice the area's potential and viability. We don't have to travel that far for amenities.
Quote:
Originally Posted by unseengundam
-Quality of Housing - You can get low $40 per sqft, but how is the quality compared to the more expensive houses in the North? Are they about the same or are they houses down South just cheap/low end homes?
In the two suburbs I am most familiar with, Lancaster and DeSoto, the quality and size of the homes is no different than in other areas. You can find multi-million dollar homes in western DeSoto, gorgeous lakeside properties in Cedar Hill, beautiful established neighborhoods in Duncanville as well as neatly-kept suburban homes and homes sitting on acreage in Lancaster. I suggest you visit Google StreetView, pick a city, and randomly choose four or five areas in that city to get a better idea of housing quality.
Quote:
Originally Posted by unseengundam
-Are these S/SE areas similar to Garland? I work in Garland am familiar with the area. Wondering if these are more like Garland that the Northern burbs.
They are similar in that both areas share a significant border with the city of Dallas and have economically/ethnically diverse populations. With the exception of Duncanville, a big difference is that Garland is nearly built-out, while cities like Cedar Hill and Lancaster are only 30%-40% built out and have significant parcels of undeveloped land within their respective boundaries. Garland, with its 200,000+ residents, is also larger than the four southern suburbs of southwest Dallas County combined.
Quote:
Originally Posted by unseengundam
-Overall - Is S/SE are nice places to live? Like N Dallas or bit more problems?
Yes, but that is my personal opinion. I have lived in the area for most of my life, was raised in a safe environment, and received a good education. These communities aren't the perfect match for everyone, but no place is.
The bottom line is that the lives of southern suburbanites isn't that much different from other communities in the Dallas area.
I wish for once that a discussion about the southern suburbs would not drift into the use of blanket negative generalizations such as saying that such a large area "is not nice." As I said previously, the homes and lives of people in this area are no different than those in the other Dallas-area suburbs. I assume that the people choosing to make such comments live in a perfect utopia, except for the fact that no place like that exists!
I willing to bet you that the same people who say those type things never, ever venture past downtown. Desoto and Lakeridge has some homes that would give West Plano a run for it's money.
As I said previously, the homes and lives of people in this area are no different than those in the other Dallas-area suburbs.
who are you trying to kid....
check out the per capita income and education levels from city date's own info...
it is certainly possible to live in any city mentioned in these posts and be free from crime or graduate with honors and go to college...but statistically there is hugh difference between Duncanville and Plano or Garland and Frisco...and in real -life senarios that translates into real differences in people's lives...
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Doing the same search in N Dallas reveals ONE house up in McKinney. 
