Most stable suburbs

[CREW747]

And of course the Park cities as number 1....there is no better place to invest your money in a home in the DFW area if you can afford it....

[pinipig523]

Originally Posted by GreyDay

5000 kids? I guess things are bigger in Texas.

I have newfound respect for those mega districts and the logistics involved turning out educated kids.

Geez!! My HS had nearly 3000 kids and I thought we had a lot.

[pinipig523]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

There are a zillion threads on each of these. Search is your friend.

All of the northern suburbs have apartments and I believe all even have Section 8 housing in this new American spirit of "fairness."

Schools are hard to compare:
Plano performs the best academically when you look at college prep results--> average SATs in the top 5-6 public schools in DFW, % of senior class named National Merit Semi-Finalist ranks in the top 3-5 in DFW, high pass rates on AP exams. However, Plano is a HUGE district with three mega high-schools (1100-1500 students graduate from each senior high every year). It is an "eat or be eaten" cut-throat academic enviroment at the top of each class. The kids in the middle to bottom can easily get lost due to the sheer size.

Frisco is the biggest underperformer. It is an incredibly affluent suburb (very few economic disadvantaged/ limited English kids) and they do a good job passing the state exit exams, but they fail compared to affluent (and less affluent) peers on SAT, AP, National Merit, etc. The high schools rank 20-something to 30-something in DFW for average SAT score. A very small percent get National Merit (about .1-.5% of class compared to 2-3% at Plano ISD or Highland Park HS). Their schools are smaller though, about 500 kids per graduating class.

Allen is a decent district, yet it also has a mega-high school with 5000+ students. SAT & National Merit better than Frisco, but worse than Plano & top tier schools. Again, does well on state exit exams. (woo-hoo.......)

McKinney is probably the most diverse district and performs ok considering it's higher rate of economic diversity and overall diversity.

Allen is probably the most consistently affluent/ least diverse of the 4, yet the wealthiest neighborhoods in Collin County are in West Plano. Plano has the most economic diversity. In East Plano a house can cost $120k while one 8 miles away in West Plano can cost $3-5M. McKinney's roots go way back to the 1800's so there is a historic downtown with surrounding Victorian and Craftsman homes and then it's McMansion city as you move west towards Frisco. Frisco is affluent but is more consistent - lots of $300-500k homes and not the wild Plano swings from $120k to $5M.

Frisco has the busiest mall (Stonebriar Center) & surrounding commercial area, especially if you love chain restaurants. Everyone you can think up is in & around the mall.

Allen has a brand new oudoor mall/shopping center (Shops @ Fairview) and an older outlet mall across the highway.

McKinney has the least retail as it's either smaller mom & pop stores or a strip center with Wal-Mart, Target, etc off 121. People in McKinney shop in Frisco or Allen.

Plano has diverse retail, from immigrant owned Indian & Chinese restaurants to expensive date night steak houses at Shops @ Legacy. It has $1 stores and Asian marts and also a beautiful fairly new Neiman Marcus in a higher-end mall, Shops @ Willowbend. Plano is also closest to Dallas. One can leave West Plano and be at Barneys/ Nordstorm/ flagship Neiman's @ NorthPark Mall in Dallas in 15-20 minutes on a Saturday.

A plethora of fairly new highways connect all four - all but 75 are tollroads.

TCreek -

I gotta say, you are a wealth of info.