Plano's Generosity (Dallas, Van, Valley View: real estate market, leases, luxury)

[Katana49]

Originally Posted by tcualum

Many of the people you are describing are barely scraping by. Moving costs quite a bit of money even if you're just switching apartment complexes. How do you suggest they pay for that?

Oh you know, the old fashioned way... saving for it. You'd be surprised what things most people have and think they can't do without, and they certainly can.

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by NP78

We are discussing an area experiencing tremendous growth with high median disposable incomes. For better or worse, that is a very large market for products and services.


Labor costs vary by location for a variety of reasons and those costs should be reflected in the market. In my world, costs for operations in Midland/Odessa exceed that of DFW (speaking of admittedly skilled jobs, not service jobs). We have to pay higher rates of compensation in that area, but so do our competitors. As a result we charge more in that market (as do our competitors).

Reason enough to keep my money in Richardson.

[PriscillaVanilla]

Plano doesn't need any more townhomes, apartments or any other temporary dwellings. Many of the people who live in Plano cannot even afford their one bedroom apartments. Many of them work minimum wage jobs. They would be better off moving to an area that is more affordable. Actually, most of the people in these apartments move around quite often so that shouldn't be a problem.

[PriscillaVanilla]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

Highland Park has had the highest property values, lowest crime, and best schools for the last 101 years so I'm not so sure when "it" is all going to catch up to them....

True. It's a safe area and the residents there have put down roots in the community. They have a vested interest in keeping it a nice place.

[UnfairPark]

Well, its not about roots or leavs, average house value is $1.5 million so fruits will be protected.

I think other than money, location, schools and police are three big factors for their small bubble staying protected. For crying out loud, their population is less than 10,000. Most suburbs have more kids in high schools than they have in whole town. You can't compare apples and oranges let alone grapes and water melons.

[PriscillaVanilla]

Originally Posted by Katana49

Low wage jobs are what kids living at home are for. They're not paying rent. They're earning enough to put gas in their cars, buy clothes and things they want, and having money to go out on the weekends while they're still in school. Plano's got an abundance of kids for a whole lot of minimum wage jobs... But maybe that's the problem. They no longer want to work a minimum wage job, which forces those positions to be filled by people who do not live in Plano.

I know a lot of adults who live in Plano, who work a retail job or food service. Many of the parents at my child's Plano school work in these types of jobs. They hold down two jobs, in some cases, and they live in apartments in Plano. Some have the whole family living in a one-bedroom apartment. I've never met anyone who is wealthy who lives in Plano - east or west. I've heard for years about "rich people in Plano" but I think that's only a few gated communities here and there.


It's true that some teens don't like to work, as they would rather be involved with their friends or sports.

[UnfairPark]

Its not Schrödinger's cat, you need to socialize with a financially diverse group though ironically most people I know here are millionaires and networth isn't necessarily inflated through incomes of their wives.

[PriscillaVanilla]

We socialize mostly with parents and I'm guessing it's the older people - the senior citizens that have all the wealth that is supposedly in Plano.

[UnfairPark]

You are right about that. Most of my circle is 50+ but i know doctors, IT, finance, executives, businessman etc who are in 30's and 40's and doing very well. Most money is in 75093 and 75024. Most $500k homes are owned by two income families.

Even when kids were in schools and we mostly socialized with other parents,Brinker/Barksdale/Centennial<Renner<Shepton< Plano West cluster had predominantly highly educated and well off families.

[PriscillaVanilla]

Originally Posted by UnfairPark

You are right about that. Most of my circle is 50+ but i know doctors, IT, finance, executives, businessman etc who are in 30's and 40's and doing very well. Most money is in 75093 and 75024. .

We don't live in those zip codes. We do have some elderly people who live on our street, who retired and do well financially. We noticed most of the families seem to be in apartments in our area; the older folks are in houses. Their kids are grown.


I do wish Plano would stop building apartments. Although some are necessary, there are too many now. The traffic is worse due to the population density.