Whats up selling home(s) in Allen? Is Allen lost its Charm/Hype compared to Frisco/Plano, etc? (Garland: days on market, apartment)

[DallasG]

You just can't compare a big town like Plano where even school district serves 55,000 kids to a small town like Allen with a total population of 100,000. Plano has a very diverse population from uber rich to barely making rent with government help. Noteworthy thing is that Plano elevates their demographics and comes off ahead of homogeneously affluent towns.

By the way, with housing stock getting old, apartment buildings coming in and schools getting overcrowded, almost no corporate residents to support town's income, Allen is up for a rude awakening within a decade or so.

They aren't a small town like HP, with luxury mansions paying high taxes to provide income with location and schools making Preston Hollow and top privates feel enviable.

[TheOverdog]

If the per capita income is higher in Plano than Allen but the household income is lower, it probably suggests there are more single ( or single parent ) households in Plano.

No. Per capita income is higher in Plano because Plano has more *wealthy* people than Allen and household income is lower because Plano has more poor people than Allen. In short, Plano has a more diverse economic base than Allen does.

Per capita income is a dumb measurement anyway because income is not distributed on a per-capita basis.

By the way, with housing stock getting old, apartment buildings coming in and schools getting overcrowded, almost no corporate residents to support town's income, Allen is up for a rude awakening within a decade or so.

No. Personal property tax, not business tax nor sales tax are the primary drivers of income to cities in Texas.

Having more businesses diversifies the economy and drives people to live in the city (increases demand), but especially in Plano were economic incentives (usually in the form of property tax breaks) are given for every major corporate client, the corporate business tax base from a purely city income perspective is a small drain on the local budget, not a driver.

Local businesses are also drivers, because they pay property tax, sales tax, and everything and don't get subsidies, but I'm pretty sure you are not talking about sandwich shops or repair shops when speaking of Allen's business future.

Since property tax is a driver of the income for a city, building apartments (or houses on very tiny lots) is the best way to increase the tax base, because it extracts more tax from the same area. Sucks but it's true. That's why they will never stop building apartments and why lots will get smaller and smaller.

Not only that, Plano is building all it's businesses on the edges of town (that's dumb) so housing demand is proportionally shared with fellow communities even though Plano residents in general are picking up the corporate property tax tab subsidy. For example, in the Toyota complex, it's closer for residents to live in Frisco, Carrollton, and the like than it is to south or east Plano, and as such, will drive very little demand to those places. Allen also shares proximity to most of Plano's new developments, so they should be fine without putting up any of the capital.

[DallasG]

We shall see.

[DFWUser1]

DallasG - Any reason why you are eager to see downtrend in Allen? I have been noticing, you have nothing but negative posts comments regarding Allen.

Example: You mentioned about DART as a negativity in Allen - Frisco, Mckinney, Coppell, Southlake etc. do not have or cannot get it either. As another poster mentioned, Allen can get it if it wanted to, while other cities cannot. Similarly other issues you mentioned are also same in other towns but wondering why you are pinpointing Allen that to when you don't live here or not a resident.

[Aceraceae]

DallasG only likes Plano and sometimes Frisco.

[DallasG]

I do like Southlake and Coppell. Frisco, Allen and McKinney not so much but that doesn't mean that I put these towns in same group as Mesquite, Farmersville or South Dallas. I just think that these towns have lots of good things but they are highly overrated and people get blindsided by cheaper new construction.

[serger]

There is really no crucial difference between all of those. All of these towns are doing pretty well currently with the huge increases in property tax revenues (and yes, they are driven by personal property tax, the "corporate residents" are getting handouts).

In terms of transportation in rush hours, both DNT and 75 are parking lots, one paid, one free. I would say that the average speed is somewhat lower on DNT. The amount of heavy truck traffic and road debris is way more on 75.


And to get to DART rail, say from W Plano is probably slower than from a large portion of Allen.

[DFWUser1]

You live in HP and like Southlake and Coppell. Fine - those are arguably most expensive towns in entire DFW area. You can live or like whatever you want. But you have been consistently bringing up inappropriate comparisons, misrepresenting facts (in some cases) and singling out Allen which is not the right thing to do.

[DallasG]

Living in an HP condo for few years for children's schooling is not the same as being a part of HP elite. There is no doubt that HP is the best town in DFW if one can comfortably afford a house.

[bencronin04]

Originally Posted by DallasG

I do like Southlake and Coppell. Frisco, Allen and McKinney not so much but that doesn't mean that I put these towns in same group as Mesquite, Farmersville or South Dallas. I just think that these towns have lots of good things but they are highly overrated and people get blindsided by cheaper new construction.

You say cheaper new construction here, and older housing stock in another post....make up your mind.