Does anyone live in/around McKinney, TX?

[melissel]

If you do, can I pick your brain for a moment?

 

I actually managed to get DH looking at homes in Texas tonight! (Long story short, I'm dying to move somewhere cheaper, he is adamant that we won't. We've managed to open a dialogue though :D) McKinney looks like a lovely city. I know it was in Money's top 5 greatest places to live. Is it as great as it looks?

 

Also, when we were looking on Realtor.com, DH remarked that there seem to be a lot of homes for sale, and so many of them seemed to be empty in the photos. Since he'd be selling real estate in the area, he wondered why that is. Is the market tanking in the region?

 

And the vast majority of the homes we looked at would have HOA fees. Can anyone give me a ballpark on what those might run? Neither of us have ever lived where there was an HOA involved, so we have no idea. Does it vary widely?

 

I'd love to hear any other thoughts you might have about the area. The downtown area looks so nice, and that's a big draw for DH. I love the idea of the aquatic areas and splash park.

 

TIA for any help you can offer!

[fhjmom]

I am not in McKinney, it is north of Dallas, but I am in the D/FW metroplex. In general the housing market here is better than many places in the country, but it is still not great and there have been many forclosures and short sales. It is definitely a buyer's market but most people seem to want to steal a house even though the market isn't as bad as elsewhere. It's like the media hype about how bad the housing market was came to be a self-fulfilling prophecy here.

 

HOA's are pretty much the norm for any neighborhood built in, I would say, the last 20 years. They fees vary widely depending on the amenities offered in the community, as do the deed restrictions. Some HOA's have high fees and covenants that are very restrictive so I would recommend checking out their requirements thoroughly before falling in love with a house.

 

There are many nice communities around the metroplex that are just as great as McKinney. If you like North Texas, I would recommend taking a look at other surrounding communities as well.

[flyingmommy]

We lived in Allen (right down the road from McKinney) for a year. Most of McKinney that I saw was kind of a pit. :( Maybe I just didn't see the nice parts. I do remember some newer shopping areas. Strip centers, really, but they were new construction. Mostly I just remember run down buildings, terrible roads, raggedy strip centers and lots of convenience store type places.

 

Allen is very clean and attractive. They actively work on keeping even the older parts of the city from looking run down. We didn't own a home when we lived there, so I can't give you any input about HOAs.

 

J

[starwarsmomma]

McKinney a pit? LOL

 

Every town has a little bit of that, but McKInney is nice. Very nice.

 

Good schools, etc...

 

You do need to visit. Shopping for houses in texas isn't a good idea, because you really need to scope out the area.

 

As far as HOA's go, it could be anywhere from $300 a year to $1000 a year, depending on theneighborhood. Some HOA's are VERY strict, and some never bother you.

 

If you do get an HOA, Be prepared to get permission for everything-- from the color of paint on your home, to being told what color Christmas lights to hang, to the possibility of not being allowed to park a car in your driveway... Like I said, some HOA's are strict, some never bother you.

 

If it's up to me, I'd avoid an HOA, but I'm a rebel and don't like being told what to do. LOL

[jg_puppy]

We lived in Allen (right down the road from McKinney) for a year. Most of McKinney that I saw was kind of a pit. :( Maybe I just didn't see the nice parts. I do remember some newer shopping areas. Strip centers, really, but they were new construction. Mostly I just remember run down buildings, terrible roads, raggedy strip centers and lots of convenience store type places.

 

Allen is very clean and attractive. They actively work on keeping even the older parts of the city from looking run down. We didn't own a home when we lived there, so I can't give you any input about HOAs.

 

J

 

Allen is very nice. :) Frisco is nice as well.

 

McKinney has an older section that is very run down, but also a very nice newer section. The also have a very nice historical area. Basically they have a little of everything.

 

I have heard the HOA fees range from $400 to $700 a year. That is from a small sampling of people so I don't know if the average is more or less than that range. Most of the areas with higher HOA fees have a nice park, pool, and walking trail right in your community instead of having to go to a city pool or park which is what part of the HOA fees are going toward.

 

McKinney was one of the fasted growing cities for a long time. Several builders over built the area when the recession hit. Things slowed down for a little. Some house prices did drop a little, but not very much. It is starting to pick up right now. I know several people that sold their house within just a few days.

 

I personally like Allen as well because it is a little smaller, but McKinney and Frisco are both very nice as well. If you have any other questions let me know. I have lived in this general area for a long time.

 

Jan

[AngieW in Texas]

We lived just outside the city limits of McKinney for 11 years. The last two years we were in Lowry Crossing, the rest of the time we were in an unincorporated area.

 

Lowry Crossing is nice and we didn't have any HOA fees, although they were quite serious about mowing there. We got a notice that our grass was too high just 4 days after we moved in. We liked the area.

http://www.lowrycrossingtexas.org/cgi-bin/home/update.pl

 

Before we moved to Lowry Crossing, we were in an unincorporated area just south of FM546 and east of the McKinney Municipal Airport. We liked it, but trying to collect money from all the neighbors to get our road resurfaced annually was a pain. There were some neighbors who just didn't want to contribute. The rest of us had to chip in more to get it done. We tried going more than one year between loads of rock once and it was very bad on all the cars.

[Ferdie]

D Magazine has a ranking of the top ten suburbs in Dallas. You have to scroll down 1/2 way to see the rankings:

 

http://www.dmagazine.com/Home/D_Magazine/2010/July/Rating_the_Best_Suburbs_in_Dallas.aspx

 

ETA - our HOA fees are $350 per year and mostly pay for the open space, (gardener/arborist) in our neighborhood. We also spend $50 each month during the summer for a community center family membership which has a water park, indoor pool, game room, gyms and work out area. It is a life saver in the summer when it is hot, hot, hot.

Edited July 26, 2010 by Ferdie

[AngieW in Texas]

I worked for the HOA in Highland Village (ranked #2 on the list) about twenty years ago. They had an extremely militant HOA back then. It was sad to see people having to request permission to put sandboxes in their own fenced backyards (all fences were wooden) and to have to request permission before planting any flowers. If you did anything outside of your house (even if it was in the backyard where it wasn't visible to anybody unless they came into your fence) without getting prior permission from the HOA, they could stick you with a hefty fine and require you to undo it. And they did. Frequently.

 

This was 20 years ago, so I would hope that some semblance of sense has come over those people since then.

[GoVanGogh]

D Magazine has a ranking of the top ten suburbs in Dallas. You have to scroll down 1/2 way to see the rankings:

 

http://www.dmagazine.com/Home/D_Maga...in_Dallas.aspx

I've personally come to the conclusion that "Good schools" and "Good suburbs" are a total myth to keep property values high.

We live in one of the "Top 10" suburbs according to that list.

We just had a 19-year-old boy die from a heroin overdose in the house next door to us. I have since been doing research and found that our suburb has had multiple drug busts at the high school not 2 miles from my house - each bust netting ~80 or so children. This has never been in the news.

I just talked with a neighbor the other day that has a son in public school. She was not aware that we had a heroin death on our block until I asked her if her son knew the boy. She then had a 'sit down' talk with her son and found out about the drug busts. She asked him, "Why in the world have you not told me this?" His response? "Because the school told us not to tell our parents." :glare:

Even our neighbors with boys in drug rehab did not know how bad the drug problem was in this community until we had a boy die on our block.

The detective I spoke with said that the 'nicer' DFW suburbs have the perfect elements for making this a big area for teen drug abuse --- teens with lots of spending money, parents that aren't watching their children and easy access to drugs given that we are right off the I-35 N/S drug corridor.

I'm certainly not saying this area (or any of the DFW metroplex area) isn't good -- just that I wouldn't buy into this area w/the belief that it is a "good suburb" with "good schools." We moved here 15 years ago when it was a sleepy little farm community. It has grown a lot since then and is experiencing a lot of growing pains.

[....]

Hi...also in north DFW area...

 

Frisco is really nice too...Allen...mid-cities area...Keller, etc. The north Ft Worth area is really growing too! - Grapevine is nice, Trophy Club, Southlake (we can't afford that area - LOL!), Irving...

 

I also refuse to buy somewhere with an HOA. I don't want to buy property and have someone tell me I can't have a chair outside. :glare: I don't want to pay 50 bucks a month for someone to tell me what to do. Having an HOA is like having a mob organization shake you down for money every month "for your protection". Sopranos, anyone? I'm sure they have a purpose, but I just want to be left alone.

 

Do you already have a job lined up? I think the job market here is actually pretty good compared to the rest of the country.

 

And homeschooling is awesome here. What a nice place to homeschool!