How Safe Is Carrollton?

[mastershake575]

Originally Posted by williammunny

Admittedly the tax data is a bit of a mess to wade through, but from what I am seeing Plano ISD rates are 1.3 while Carrollton is 0.8. If anyone can show otherwise please do.

Yeah that's not right on the Carollton portion. The Carrollton ISD portion varies from 1.25 to to 1.35 depending on what ISD you fall in. There's 3 ISDs in Carrollton city limits depending on what portion you live in (Dallas ISD, Carollton ISD, and Lewisville ISD).

ISD rates are similiar but plano has cheaper city tax rate (.44 for Plano vs .58 for Carollton) and cheaper county tax rate (.17 for Collin County which is Planos main county, Carrollton is either Dallas county which is .24 or Denton County which is .22). If you live in the Dallas county portion of Carrollton you also have to pay the expensive parkland hospital tax which is around .26

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by williammunny

Admittedly the tax data is a bit of a mess to wade through, but from what I am seeing Plano ISD rates are 1.3 while Carrollton is 0.8. If anyone can show otherwise please do.

I don’t know where you saw such a low tax rate for CFBISD - that is not what is listed on DCAD.

Both Carrollton & Plano straddle various county / city / ISD boundaries so it will take some compiling to get the full tax rate picture, but for simplicity’s sake on a $400k home, Plano will be about $1250 cheaper in annual taxes…but you can buy a similar house in Carrollton for less so it’s probably more like a few hundred dollars’ tax difference if you do stick to a 5-10% lower budget in Carrollton….and then you have a lower mortgage too.

For reference - Median home price in CFBISD year to date is $355k vs $438k in Plano ISD.



Carrollton FB ISD (Dallas County) residence: $8629 annual taxes estimated for 2021

Dallas Co portion .63984% with a 20% homestead exemption = $2,044
City of Carrollton .5875% with a 20% homestead exemption = $1,880
Carrollton FB ISD 1.2547% with a $25k homestead exemption = $4,705


Plano ISD (Collin County) residence: $7,374 annual taxes based on 2020 rates

Collin Co portion .172531 with a 5% homestead exemption = $655
Collin College portion .08122 with a 1% homestead exemption = $321
City of Plano .4482% with a 20% homestead exemption = $1,434
Plano ISD 1.32375% with a $25k homestead exemption = $4,964

[williammunny]

Well I think I got to the root of the issue, for whatever reason the property in question lacked info on the school district, so that threw calculations way off as it was not including those on the record card or in Zillow.



Doing some side by side comparisons, I would say Plano and the portion of Carrollton I was looking at are both roughly the same tax wise, within a few hundred dollars of each other in any case, so not enough difference to make a difference.


And frankly with the correct tax numbers there is no way I can afford either so its really a moot point.

[Lorne]

Originally Posted by move4ward

Midway and Marsh looks sketchy between Trinity Mills and PGBT. I would not feel comfortable in that area at night.

Most of Carrollton is on very poor soil for foundations. The dark green area in the geology map is the Austin Chalk. It has less foundation issues. The light green, yellow, and orange areas are not very stable. It takes more care to manage the foundation.

USGS - Pocket Texas Geology: https://txpub.usgs.gov/txgeology/

Just wanted to post and say thank you for this data.

Someone had mentioned this before, regarding soil issue, when I was looking at homes in Frisco.

[jsnww81]

Originally Posted by move4ward

Midway and Marsh looks sketchy between Trinity Mills and PGBT. I would not feel comfortable in that area at night.

Most of Carrollton is on very poor soil for foundations. The dark green area in the geology map is the Austin Chalk. It has less foundation issues. The light green, yellow, and orange areas are not very stable. It takes more care to manage the foundation.

USGS - Pocket Texas Geology: https://txpub.usgs.gov/txgeology/

There is definitely some truth to this. I grew up in north Carrollton in the 1980s and 1990s and we had work done on our foundation twice. Our house was built new in 1984. I think at least one of my friends was having their foundation worked on throughout my entire childhood, haha.

There's a small escarpment that runs northeast-southwest through Carrollton (that's where the big vistas come from as you drive from east to west across town) and we always suspected that was the cause.

Foundation issues aside, Carrollton generally a great area and was a fabulous place to grow up. It became diverse much earlier than Plano or Richardson and so acquired a little bit of a poor reputation in the 1990s when the white population in the school district started falling and realtors stopped taking new arrivals to Dallas there. That's candid talk, sure, but thirty years ago the Metroplex was a LOT whiter and there just wasn't the acceptance of diverse communities that there is today. Housing stock from the 1970s and 1980s was aging and some neighborhoods started to fill up with rental properties. Some of the shopping centers - even up in the newer northern parts of town - had high vacancy rates. The south part of town around Belt Line and Josey was looking really ratty circa 2000.

Flash forward twenty years and all of Carrollton is looking much, much better than it did at the turn of the millennium. A lot of homes have sold and been fixed up, streets have been replaced, parks spruced up, and retail areas are packed full. I don't live in Carrollton (or even in DFW) anymore, but I'm back frequently to see family, and we are so happy to see Carrollton looking so good. I would highly recommend having a look.

[skyline122]

It is so safe that it is considered boring.

[michaeltx9412]

Originally Posted by jsnww81

There is definitely some truth to this. I grew up in north Carrollton in the 1980s and 1990s and we had work done on our foundation twice. Our house was built new in 1984. I think at least one of my friends was having their foundation worked on throughout my entire childhood, haha.

There's a small escarpment that runs northeast-southwest through Carrollton (that's where the big vistas come from as you drive from east to west across town) and we always suspected that was the cause.

Foundation issues aside, Carrollton generally a great area and was a fabulous place to grow up. It became diverse much earlier than Plano or Richardson and so acquired a little bit of a poor reputation in the 1990s when the white population in the school district started falling and realtors stopped taking new arrivals to Dallas there. That's candid talk, sure, but thirty years ago the Metroplex was a LOT whiter and there just wasn't the acceptance of diverse communities that there is today. Housing stock from the 1970s and 1980s was aging and some neighborhoods started to fill up with rental properties. Some of the shopping centers - even up in the newer northern parts of town - had high vacancy rates. The south part of town around Belt Line and Josey was looking really ratty circa 2000.

Flash forward twenty years and all of Carrollton is looking much, much better than it did at the turn of the millennium. A lot of homes have sold and been fixed up, streets have been replaced, parks spruced up, and retail areas are packed full. I don't live in Carrollton (or even in DFW) anymore, but I'm back frequently to see family, and we are so happy to see Carrollton looking so good. I would highly recommend having a look.

Sometimes it kind of saddens me that a "good" growth in general depends on the Anglo population. What used to be a nice neighborhood is likely to become undesirable as the non-whites start moving into the area. That being said, I like how welcoming/accepting of diversity and changes Texas is unlike other states in the South.

But yeah, I agree. Carrollton these days is doing much better with the growth and is getting very diverse. I also like how hilly a lot of neighborhoods in the area are.

[dixjohe]

Everything south of GB looked rundown from what I've seen. Even parts north of the tollway looked shady as well.