Frisco, McKinney, or Allen?? Relocating. Help, please! (Dallas, Plano: real estate, apartment)

[Camelia38]

Hi! My husband and I have relocated to the Dallas area for our work; we are currently renting an apartment in Las Colinas. We will both work out of the house and cover Dallas, north of Dallas, and East Texas. Since we are new to the area and don't have an office to communte to daily, we are a bit overwhelmed by trying to decide where to buy a home.

We think we have it narrowed down to Frisco, McKinney, and Allen, although we haven't completely crossed Plano off the list. Our budget is 240-300K. We plan to start a family very soon, so good schools are super important to us. We want convenience to freeways, good resale potential, and a family atmosphere BUT one that also offers plenty of restaurants, shopping, and other fun amenities. I would love to consider the Lakewood area of Dallas, too, to be closer to museums and excellent restaurants, but I'm concerned our budget won't buy us nearly as much there as it would in the northern suburbs (thoughts on that?).

What areas do you recommend? If you say a specific suburb, are there areas in particular we should focus our search?

Thank you for your feedback! We need all the help we can get.

[shawnHuntz]

Hi,
We (Me and My wife + 1kid) are new to DFW. And our work location is Irving, Currently we are hunting out for new homes. Our budget is between 350k-400k, so that pretty much rules out new homes in and around coppell . Though would love to stay close to work, but finding it bit difficult in searching new homes with following preferences.
We are looking for good school districts, good neighborhood, a decent yard (not interested in zero lot size), rear or swing garage, 4Bed,3Bath, 2 Car Garage, close to HWY and shopping.

If some members can throw some light, it would be of great help.

Thank you in advance

[thumpcbd]

Originally Posted by Camelia38

We think we have it narrowed down to Frisco, McKinney, and Allen, although we haven't completely crossed Plano off the list. Our budget is 240-300K. We plan to start a family very soon, so good schools are super important to us. We want convenience to freeways, good resale potential, and a family atmosphere BUT one that also offers plenty of restaurants, shopping, and other fun amenities. I would love to consider the Lakewood area of Dallas, too, to be closer to museums and excellent restaurants, but I'm concerned our budget won't buy us nearly as much there as it would in the northern suburbs (thoughts on that?).

You may want to take a closer look at the Lakewood/Lake Highlands/East Dallas area. While you maybe able to buy a monstrous house for that money in the outer suburbs, if you want to visit any restraunts and museums that you mention you will spend a *ton* of time in the car driving into town after a long day driving to work over the metroplex.

Real Estate agents specialize in area and one who is showing you Frisco, McKinney and Allen *will not* know East Dallas at all. If you have an intsrest in this area of town take a closer look with a local agent. And it must be said, rent in your perspective area for 6 months to a year before buying. That will teach you more about it then any RE agent can tell you.

[MckinneyOwnr]

Never saw your original post, so sorry for the late response. We had the exact situation you do about a year ago, and we chose McKinney. Same budget, no commute to make, etc.

We decided against Frisco for several reasons. One, the neighborhoods we looked at in our price range had much higher HOA fees than McKinney did for a comparable house. Two, Frisco housing seemed to have been more hastily constructed than the homes we viewed in McKinney, even if they were built by the same builder. Three, the really good neighborhoods of Frisco with the best location and easiest access to things were out of our price range. Most of the comparable housing (budget-wise to McKinney) in Frisco is north and west of the tollway, and that was further away from things than we wanted.

We ruled out Allen primarily because we were looking for a house with a 3 car garage, and had a lot of difficulty finding one in Allen that wasn't significantly more expensive than McKinney, or a much smaller house.

McKinney has great schools at the elementary level (we are looking to have kids soon as well) and the neighborhood we are in has tons of young kids. Plano (where I grew up) has older families with older children much more than McKinney does.

We live in West McKinney, off of Hardin Rd. Easy access to both 121 and 75, and downtown McKinney. I'd recommend looking in the general area of Eldorado in between Hardin and Lake Forest, up to Virginia Rd. Lots of houses in your budget in that area.

[CREW747]

If you are considering Mc Kinney and Frisco,look at Prosper as well. We relocated to the Dfw area for a job transfer from Greenwich,ct. We did an extensive amount of research before deciding on Prosper.We built a brand new house and have been very pleased with the town and the school district.Look at some of my previous posts for more information on Prosper...

Prosper subdivisions in your price range I would recommend...

Willow Ridge
Cedar Ridge
Lakes of la Cima
Greenspoint

[shawnHuntz]

Originally Posted by Camelia38

Hi! My husband and I have relocated to the Dallas area for our work; we are currently renting an apartment in Las Colinas. We will both work out of the house and cover Dallas, north of Dallas, and East Texas. Since we are new to the area and don't have an office to communte to daily, we are a bit overwhelmed by trying to decide where to buy a home.

We think we have it narrowed down to Frisco, McKinney, and Allen, although we haven't completely crossed Plano off the list. Our budget is 240-300K. We plan to start a family very soon, so good schools are super important to us. We want convenience to freeways, good resale potential, and a family atmosphere BUT one that also offers plenty of restaurants, shopping, and other fun amenities. I would love to consider the Lakewood area of Dallas, too, to be closer to museums and excellent restaurants, but I'm concerned our budget won't buy us nearly as much there as it would in the northern suburbs (thoughts on that?).

What areas do you recommend? If you say a specific suburb, are there areas in particular we should focus our search?

Thank you for your feedback! We need all the help we can get.

Hi, Were you guys able to decide on the area (between frisco/allen/mckinney) and the community ? I heard from other website about crime rate (thefts, vandalism, etc) in frisco is quiet alarming, is it true ?

[Pooua]

Originally Posted by shawnHuntz

Hi, Were you guys able to decide on the area (between frisco/allen/mckinney) and the community ? I heard from other website about crime rate (thefts, vandalism, etc) in frisco is quiet alarming, is it true ?

Huh? I lived in Frisco for 5 years, and never saw any sign of an unusual crime rate.

Frisco is a high-end community. It was carefully planned as a landing pad for wealthy Dallasites. It and Plano constitute the highest per-capita income on the Planet. Now, when I lived there, it hadn't had time to build up much of a crime reputation. Frisco was mostly horse pasture and deer corn fields and a human population of about 7k 10 years or so ago, but now it is a city of about 80k (IIRC). I am unaware of that much crime out there. But, I moved away 3 years ago.

[bricor]

Originally Posted by Pooua

Huh? I lived in Frisco for 5 years, and never saw any sign of an unusual crime rate.

Frisco is a high-end community. It was carefully planned as a landing pad for wealthy Dallasites. It and Plano constitute the highest per-capita income on the Planet. Now, when I lived there, it hadn't had time to build up much of a crime reputation. Frisco was mostly horse pasture and deer corn fields and a human population of about 7k 10 years or so ago, but now it is a city of about 80k (IIRC). I am unaware of that much crime out there. But, I moved away 3 years ago.

Frisco isn't a high end community. It's a typical cookie cutter suburb.
(I'm just being honest and yes, I live in the area)

[Fawnee]

Originally Posted by bricor

Frisco isn't a high end community. It's a typical cookie cutter suburb.
(I'm just being honest and yes, I live in the area)

So true, so true.

The population is now well over 100K and crime has followed. There is plenty of vandalism, burglary and property crime there now, not to mention the occasional murder.

Independents seem to survive better in Plano than in Frisco. Frisco is great if you like fast food & chain restaurants.

[Lakewooder]

Lakewood will be much better for resale - East Dallas has been appreciating at double-digit rates in the last two quarterly MLS reports. You are not going to find any new homes in your range if that's what you are looking for -- however, new homes on the edge the Metroplex are not good investments as you are always competing with the newest homes a few miles farther out. If you stay for a decade or more that could change - however then you are also rolling the dice that the area you choose will be the one to beat the odds. We have a thread about that: //www.city-data.com/forum/dalla...in-values.html

You sort of have to decide if you want new and big with the freeway/tollway lifestyle or smaller and older with the village feeling where you have everything within a few minutes.